IT Service Governance & Process Excellence Lead

Purpose and Mission

Bekaert is seeking an experienced IT professional to lead IT Service Management and Process Excellence, ensuring high-quality service delivery and driving continuous improvement across IT operations. This role focuses on vendor governance, service level management, and process optimization, with a strong emphasis on managing global IT service providers (e.g., TCS, Infosys, Wipro) for quality and cost efficiency. How this role fits into Bekaert ADS:

• Reports to: Global Lead IT Strategy, Governance & Transformation
• Partners with: IT Service Owners, IT Product & Platform Teams, IT Leadership Teams
• Key stakeholder groups: Business Units, Corporate Functions, IT Leadership Teams

Key Activities and Responsibilities

• IT Service Management Process Excellence & Continuous Improvement: Maintain and improve IT governance frameworks (ITIL, COBIT). Optimize key processes—Incident, Problem, Change, Service Level, Knowledge Management—using Lean-Agile principles and data-driven insights. Own IT-for-IT tools (ticketing, dashboards) to embed best practices and enable visibility.
• IT Service Quality Assurance & Governance: Monitor SLA performance, report service quality, and drive compliance with GDPR, EU AI Act, and internal policies. Ensure audit readiness, manage evidence, and lead risk remediation. Deliver compliance reports and improvement recommendations to leadership.
• Vendor Management: Govern IT service providers at contract level, maintain consolidated performance scorecards, and enforce systemic improvements across services. Support strategic negotiations and unified communication for cross-service enhancements.

Skills

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Certifications:

• ITIL Foundation (Capability or Lifecycle preferred); higher-level ITIL certifications desirable.
• CGEIT, COBIT, CISSP
• Lean/Agile certifications (preferred); PMP or equivalent project management certification (optional but desirable).
• Compliance Certifications: Certifications such as CISA, or similar are highly desirable.

Core Competencies:

• Strong ITIL knowledge with proven governance experience.
• Skilled in ITIL-based service management, SLA governance, and ITSM tools, approaches, and processes.
• Ability to lead organizational change and quality initiatives.

• Regulatory Knowledge: Deep understanding of relevant regulations (GDPR, EU AI Act, etc.) and their impact on IT service management.

Technical Breadth:

• Broad understanding of infrastructure, cybersecurity, applications, platforms, and cloud to govern service delivery effectively.
• Ability to track service performance, interpret KPIs, and challenge internal IT product owners, service owners, and vendors using data-driven insights.

SOFT SKILLS

• Influence without Authority: Ability to steer decisions and drive change across global teams without direct reporting lines; strong facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Change Leadership: Passion for shaping processes and driving transformation in complex environments; resilient and adaptable under ambiguity.
• Lean-Agile Ways of Working: Advocate for iterative delivery, continuous improvement, and collaborative practices; experience applying Lean principles and Agile frameworks in IT service environments.
• Measure & Grow Mindset: Focus on measurable outcomes with quantifiable KPIs; ability to define, track, and report improvements in service quality and efficiency.
• Team Player: Skilled at bringing people together, fostering collaboration in multi-cultural, global teams.
• Vendor Relationship Management: Strong negotiation and conflict resolution skills; ability to build trust and accountability with external partners while maintaining service excellence.

Experience

• Minimum 5+ years in IT Service Management, with proven record in service quality improvement and process optimization.
• Preferred: At least 3–5 years as Delivery Manager or Key Account Manager in major IT service providers (e.g., TCS, Infosys, Cognizant), managing service performance.
• Experience managing global IT services with complexity across multiple domains like manufacturing, commercial, HR, finance, and internal processes. Familiarity with working with multi-cultural teams in a global setup, able to collaborate effectively across regions and time zones.
• Oversight of more than 20 different IT services in different IT domains, ensuring cost efficiency, value delivery, and performance optimization across the entire service portfolio.
• Demonstrated success in driving measurable improvements in service performance and user experience.
• Audit Experience: Proven experience managing IT audits (internal/external), including evidence collection, process walkthroughs, and remediation of findings.

Qualifications and Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology or related field. MBA is a plus.