Service Manager, Middle East

Job description

The Middle East Service Manager is a key strategic and operational leadership role, accountable for the successful delivery of contracted services, customer satisfaction, commercial performance, and strategic account growth within the Middle East market; ensuring the organisation consistently delivers value while strengthening long-term customer partnerships. Reporting to the Global Service Delivery Director, the role has significant levels of responsibility and accountability for operational delivery within the Middle East market. The incumbent will work with the Middle East Market Head and regional management team to define and drive change and deliver a service strategy which supports the market and regional objectives and deliver key customer interactions and outcome across multiple disciplines. The incumbent must possess a history of strong leadership, deep practical engineering knowledge and a proven track record for timely delivery, management, cost control and customer satisfaction. Able to lead, recruit, train, coach and mentor staff to achieve company goals while facilitating their professional and personal growth; developing a high performing team by encouraging and motivating and ensuring open and honest communications. The individual is someone who will bring knowledge and creativity to the position as well as have the discipline to drive results, identifying and developing all culture, process efficiencies and continuous performance improvements, whilst following and embedding established fundamental processes. Duties: Commercial & Strategy Proactive understanding of the market and business drivers and provide strategic inputs (both qualitative and quantitative) to the Middle East Market team. Develop and execute account service strategies that support customer growth, operational excellence, and long-term partnership objectives. Identify opportunities for service expansion, optimisation, and cross-functional collaboration to maximise contract value and customer outcomes. Support revenue retention and growth through strong service performance, renewals management, and identification of upsell opportunities. Provide commercial oversight of service delivery, ensuring costs, resource utilisation, and profitability targets are achieved. Strategically lead and develop an operational management team to enhance performance by setting clear accountable performance measures Analyse service performance trends and business data to inform strategic decisions, investment priorities, and continuous improvement initiatives. Collaborate with sales, programmes, and leadership teams to contribute to account planning, business development, and customer retention strategies. Drive transformational initiatives and service innovation opportunities that enhance operational efficiency and strengthen competitive advantage. Customer Relationship Management Act as the service primary point of contact for key customer stakeholders, building trusted relationships and serving as a strategic advisor. Create a Customer Engagement Plan and lead regular customer governance meetings, executive reviews, and service performance discussions to ensure alignment with business objectives. Drive customer satisfaction initiatives through proactive communication, issue resolution, and continual service improvement plans. Understand customer business strategies, challenges, and priorities to ensure services evolve in line with organisational needs. Manage escalations effectively, coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver timely resolutions and minimise business impact. Promote a customer-centric culture by ensuring service teams remain focused on delivering exceptional customer experiences. Service Contract Management Own and Collaborate with Aftermarket Sales to govern the end-to-end service contract lifecycle, ensuring contractual obligations, service levels, and deliverables are consistently achieved. Monitor performance against SLAs, KPIs, and contractual commitments, driving corrective actions where required to maintain compliance. Conduct regular service reviews to assess contractual performance, identify risks, and implement continuous service improvements. Contribute to contract renewals, amendments, and scope changes in collaboration with customers, sales teams, and internal stakeholders. Ensure service delivery aligns with contractual governance frameworks, regulatory and legal requirements, and organisational policies. Identify and mitigate service delivery risks that may impact contractual performance, customer satisfaction, or commercial outcomes. General Responsibilities Understand the Middle East market country specific legal requirements of working in the Middle East Region Responsible for Profit Centre/Cost Centre Budgets. Create processes which achieve the business goals and objectives with regards to their customer service. Provide leadership on complex projects, bids and tenders, involving multiple technical and administrative disciplines Identify and provide feedback through 1:1s, effective use of personal development plans and provision of coaching & development opportunities. Define, negotiate and agree the effective utilisation of resource in line with service specifications, working with, or being responsible for strategic resource planning in conjunction with business objectives and service level agreements. Active member of the Middle East management team Work effectively with all peers and stakeholders from Sales and Finance, Marketing, Programs, Operations, Technology, HR, to negotiate and influence customer improvements and engagement opportunities at the COE. Continually develop improvements and embed a culture of CI and SES through Six Sigma and Kaizan, to drive successful change projects Drive quality and consistency. Knowledge and Skills: Proven Management and/or relationship management experience at a senior, strategic level role. Established track record of exceeding targets, KPI’s SLA’s, in a quality led, legislative compliant environment Able to interpret and develop service strategy and make commercial recommendations. Demonstrate ability to motivate and communicate with others at all levels Able to influence key stakeholders / decision makers. Able to use these relationships to deliver service improvements Excellent communication and negotiation skills. Able to adapt and succeed in a changing environment Evidence of well-developed leadership skills Arabic speaking is preferred Competencies and Abilities: The ability and motivation to persistently pursue and achieve effective results which drive the business forward. The understanding and recognition of the organizations commercial environment and positioning themselves, their role and their actions in order to support the organizations commercial success. The ability to build an effective network of relationships both internally and externally, understanding their customers’ needs. Willing and able to identify and support change and continuous improvement in own and wider business environment. Planning and Decision Making: Able to work across functions and within a customer facing environment Excellent organisational, administrative and interpersonal skills. Able to work with minimal supervision to agreed timescales and be able to prioritise their own workload as well as other team members Impact and Scope: Provide Leadership to the Middle East service organization Able to work across functions and within a customer facing environment Key Internal and External Relationships: Internal: Daily contact with Middle East Service Management team. Regular contact with Middle East Market Head and cross functional management team. Global Service Director and Service Leadership team External: Liaise with customers, suppliers and contractors Work balance: Leadership and management activities: 60% Commercial and Customer activities 30% Middle East Leadership Team activities: 10% Travel: Up to 40% Language: English, Arabic (Preferred) Join us and we’ll help build your career, with excellent training and opportunities for career growth across the business, both locally and globally. You’ll experience an inclusive environment, with strong leadership and a focus on safety and wellbeing. You’ll also have the flexibility to choose from a wide range of benefits to suit your lifestyle, offering you and your family support from a health and wellbeing, financial and lifestyle perspective. Join us and work for a world-leader, with the benefits and training to reward your dedication and skills. Be part of a team where we are making the world a safer place. We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity. At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Detection, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website. Every minute of every day, Smiths Detection’s threat detection and security screening technology helps to protect people and infrastructure, making the world a safer place. Smiths Detection, part of Smiths Group is a global leader in the development, manufacture and management of security and detection solutions designed to make the world a safer place. Our technology provides threat detection and screening solutions for customers in our key markets: aviation, ports and borders, defence, and urban security. Our expertise spans 21 global offices, seven manufacturing sites and five R&D centres, with a global network of 3,000 dedicated colleagues contributing towards over 40 years at the frontline of advances in safety and security. This results in careers built on variety and the opportunity to work on a range of state-of-the-art solutions, where you can develop your knowledge and experience every day.