Service Manager, Tech Service Management Operations

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:  

The business expects reliable, best ‑ in ‑ class Infrastructure and Application support services, strong service management, and effective project delivery.  
The  Service Manager, Tech Service Management Operations  plays a critical role in ensuring the stable and seamless operation of IT services across the assigned adidas markets.  

This role  is responsible for  the  day ‑ to ‑ day operational stability of IT services , as well as service quality and continuous improvement across Infrastructure, End User Services, and local Applications. The position supports the  Japan markets , with a strong focus on service excellence, stakeholder engagement, and cross ‑ functional collaboration.  

The role also leads  Major Incident and Security Incident management for Japan , working closely with global teams, domain product owners, business partners, and vendors to ensure  timely  resolution, risk mitigation, and continuous service improvement.  

Key Areas of Responsibility  

1 . Application Service Management  

• Provide service management governance for local applications in the Japan market.  

• Partner with Local Application Service Owners to recommend and drive continual improvement initiatives.  

• Ensure operational stability, service quality, and lifecycle governance for local applications.  

2 . Major Incident & Security Incident Management   

• Lead and coordinate the resolution of Major Incidents and Security Incidents impacting the Japan market.  

• Perform security ‑ related operational activities as required to mitigate risks and eliminate security threats to local applications.  

• Collaborate closely with IT Security teams, global stakeholders, and vendors during incidents and post ‑ incident reviews.  

3 . Infrastructure Service Management  

• Work closely with Global HQ End User Services teams to deliver world ‑ class Infrastructure services.  

• Primary focus areas include Service Desk (123) and Field Services (Onsite Support), while also supporting other Infrastructure services as required.  

• Ensure consistent service quality, performance monitoring, and adherence to agreed service levels across markets.  

Key Responsibilities  
 

Service Management  

• Drive  continual service improvement initiatives  in collaboration with Domain Service Owners, strategic vendors, and platform operations teams.  

• Contribute to improvement activities such as  automation, MTTR reduction, incident prevention, and Shift ‑ Left initiatives .  

• Investigate issues across systems, services, and processes to identify root causes.  

• Support the implementation of agreed corrective and preventative actions.  

• Monitor service delivery performance and ensure SLA compliance; proactively engage stakeholders when service degradation risks are identified.  

If required:  Supplier Management   

• You could be expected to engage with local vendors to ensure that contractual agreements are compliant, measured and adhered to as well as proposing and tracking vendor performance.  

If required:   People Management / Resource Management:   

• Supports resource planning and have responsibility in recruiting process.   

• Recommend and support in allocating the different work to the respective employees considering experience, complexity, workload and organizational efficiency  

• Continuously monitors and evaluates team workload and organizational efficiency with the support of Tech systems, data and analysis and team feedback and makes appropriate changes to meet business needs.  

• Provides team members/direct reports with clear instruction and targets that are aligned with driving business value and Tech objectives.   

Key Relationships:   

• Global Infrastructure (Tech Core) Service Owners for service improvements and vendor performance metrics  

• External Service Providers – service delivery, performance reviews, and quality improvement initiatives.   

• IT Security Teams – security incident response and remediation.  

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:   

• Four-year college or university degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.  

• Fluent spoken and written Japanese and business level English.   

• Minimum 10 years of IT experience.   

• At least 5 years of experience in Infrastructure IT services.   

• Minimum 3 years of experience in either Infrastructure Operations or Application Operations.   

• ServiceNow application or similar tool experiences  

• Strong ability to work effectively in multicultural and cross ‑ regional environments.