Interim Director of Service Transition and Readiness

Establish the acceptance basis

Agree what operations must demonstrate before accepting the change. Review staffing, procedures, monitoring, supplier dependencies and data quality. Identify assumptions deferred between project and business teams. Create a readiness view distinguishing a tolerable temporary limitation from a defect threatening service continuity or control.

Coordinate rehearsals using realistic scenarios, including demand peaks, unusual cases and failure of a critical dependency. Confirm that escalation routes work outside normal project meetings. Support evidence-based launch decisions, with residual risks and contingency actions documented. Assess whether support teams can identify and resolve the failures most likely to arise during the first operating period.

Accountable implementation

Lead transition planning, manage approved readiness work and resolve cross-functional dependencies within delegated authority. Establish stabilisation criteria and a disciplined route for prioritising defects after launch. Protect operational teams from uncontrolled late changes while ensuring urgent issues receive appropriate attention.

The role will not independently accept risks reserved to a service owner or governing body. Contractual acceptance and material spending changes remain with authorised owners. The director is responsible for making those decisions timely and well informed, including presenting a credible alternative when readiness is inadequate.

A readiness judgement to discuss at selection

Candidates need a record of service transitions involving technology and business process change. They should explain a launch they delayed or materially altered, the evidence behind that judgement and the operational result. Strong candidates balance delivery pressure with service responsibility and can manage disagreement without obscuring risk.

Handover must leave stable ownership, funded support, an actionable residual backlog and information that enables managers to recognise deterioration. Success is demonstrated when ordinary operations handle the service without sustained project-team intervention and when expected benefits are supported by actual service performance rather than launch completion alone.