Specialist Operations Management at South African Airways (SAA)

Job Purpose    

• The Operations Management Specialist role is responsible for ownership and execution of critical incident management, problem management, change management, and control processes across the SAA group, ensuring alignment with ITIL V4 principles and organizational policies. This role is pivotal in maintaining service stability, minimizing risk, and driving continuous improvement in IT infrastructure operations.

Principal Accountabilities    

• Ensure the efficient and effective management of change and problem management processes to improve cost control, system performance, and end user satisfaction
• Implement robust processes for change and problem management that consistently deliver customer value and minimize service disruptions
• Drive a customer-centric approach in all change, problem and incident management activities, ensuring that user needs and feedback inform process improvements
• Ensure that governance, risk management, and compliance policies are embedded in all change and problem management processes, supporting organizational resilience and regulatory adherence
• Provide regular, timely reporting on change and problem management activities, outcomes, and trends to key stakeholders for informed decision-making
• Lead and drive continuous improvement initiatives within change and problem management, leveraging lessons learned and industry best practices to optimize service delivery
• Monitor service performance and ensure that all changes and problem resolutions meet established SLAs and quality standards
• Collaborate closely with team members to prioritize change requests and problem investigations, ensuring effective allocation of resources and timely resolution
• Oversee and control changes to the airline’s desktop environment and supporting services, ensuring that all modifications are strategically aligned and operationally sound
• Implements change initiatives with the vision and strategic direction of the Airline
• Oversee and enforce the Change Management process to ensure controlled and risk-assessed implementation of changes
• Chair Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings and maintain accurate change records, be the central coordinator pf CAB. Execute the referee and player between GRC and change management
• Lead the response and coordination for major incidents impacting business-critical systems
• Establish escalation protocols and ensure timely communication to stakeholders
• Conduct post-incident reviews and implement lessons learned
• Central coordinator of critical incidents
• Identify and analyse recurring issues to determine root causes
• Maintain a Known Error Database and drive permanent fixes to reduce incident volume
• Collaborate with technical teams to implement preventive measures
• Central coordinator of problem management and resolution
• Coordinate with GRC, Information security and other streams for activities to Develop, maintain, and test DR plans in alignment with business continuity objectives
• Coordinate and assist GRC as well as information security DR exercises and ensure readiness for critical system recovery
• Provide risk assessments and mitigation strategies for operational resilience
• Produce regular reports on change success rates, incident trends, and problem resolution metrics
• Ensure adherence to governance, risk and compliance as well as best practise
• Recommend process improvements and automation opportunities
• Assist ICT resources to control and coordinate necessary vendors reports like Security/SOC, B/C and others

Qualifications & Experience    

• Grade 12 or equivalent at NQF level 4
• A Bachelor degree in IT or Computer Science at NQF level 7
• V4 Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
• ITIL® Intermediate: Service Transition Certificate
• ITIL® Intermediate: Service Operations
• Excellent understanding of IT infrastructure and operations
• 3 – 5  years IT Operations and Service Transition experience
• Good fundamental knowledge of problem and change management functions and processes

Knowledge and Skills    

• Knowledge of problem and change management functions and processes
• Application of ITIL principles
• Knowledge of all IT Services
• Knowledge of Airline’s business procedures and processes
• Contract negotiations and management
• Service delivery
• Knowledge of ITSM principles
• ITIL Service, problem, incident, configuration management
• License management, policy and governance
• Decision making under pressure
• Analytical skills
• Good communication skills
• Project management

Attributes    

• Engages in crucial conversations
• Facilitates change and innovation
• Implements and aligns to vision
• Delivers value
• Values team diversity
• Role models’ behaviours and values
• Assertiveness
• Team player
• Self-motivation
• Customer-centric

Deadline:16th March,2026