Christie's Director of Application Support and Service Operations

About Christie's

Founded in London in 1766 by James Christie, Christie’s is a leading international auction house whose heritage spans fine art, decorative arts, jewellery and exceptional collectibles. Through auctions, private sales and digital platforms, it connects collectors with remarkable objects and the expertise that brings their histories to life. As an employer, Christie’s offers career paths across specialist departments, client services, marketing, technology and operations within a global, culturally rich environment. Its work calls for intellectual curiosity, discretion and meticulous attention to detail, appealing to professionals who value scholarship, commercial acumen and the exacting standards of the international art and luxury markets.

Christie’s seeks a Director of Application Support and Service Operations to lead global application support, service operations, vendor governance and CTG financial operations. The role combines day-to-day application support leadership with broader ITSM oversight, budgeting, invoice operations and continual improvement. Full-time position; hybrid working.

Role & Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee global Application Support operations across a complex portfolio of business-critical applications, coordinating internal application and product teams, infrastructure, security, service-management functions and external providers.
• Track incidents, requests, problems, changes, releases, risks, escalations and operational dependencies; maintain visibility of application health, support coverage, critical dependencies and operational risk; ensure support arrangements meet the needs of global sales, releases, peak periods and other critical events.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for critical application issues, provide delegated operational coverage, and participate in or lead Major Incident bridges with technical owners, vendors and business stakeholders.
• Ensure incident records document business impact, technical findings, decisions, actions, resolutions and closure evidence; translate major-incident lessons into problems, known errors, knowledge, monitoring, controls or automation.
• Identify recurring incidents, high-impact trends and service weaknesses; ensure problems have accountable owners, target dates, root-cause analysis, workarounds and corrective actions; challenge incomplete analysis or stalled remediation, track repeat-incident reduction, and maintain a prioritized improvement backlog with measurable outcomes and closure evidence.
• Promote automation, monitoring, knowledge and workflow improvements that reduce avoidable support demand.
• Ensure releases and material changes have support ownership, runbooks, monitoring, escalation routes, knowledge, training, communications and rollback plans; include Application Support in planning, testing, deployment, stabilization and transition-to-support.
• Maintain accurate knowledge, procedures, troubleshooting guides, support models and escalation matrices; embed knowledge creation and review in service practices, address documentation gaps, and ensure onboarding and knowledge transfer for internal and vendor resources.
• Ensure service processes are documented, understood, consistently followed, measurable and appropriately controlled; review performance and address gaps in ownership, workflow, data quality, compliance, adoption and user experience.
• Coordinate process reviews, improvement plans, operational-level agreements, RACI models and escalation paths; establish clear operating boundaries across Application Support, infrastructure, product teams, Service Desk, security and vendors.
• Manage operational relationships with managed-service providers and strategic technology vendors; ensure delivery aligns with contracts, Statements of Work, SLAs, KPIs, XLAs, OLAs and Christie’s policies.
• Maintain vendor scorecards, action logs, risks and service-improvement plans; support governance meetings; challenge missed actions, weak reporting, repeat failures, poor resource continuity and insufficient improvement; ensure commitments have measurable outcomes, owners, target dates and closure evidence.
• Identify opportunities for automation, cost optimization, demand reduction and improved service quality.
• Coordinate the annual Christie’s Technology Group (CTG) budget process with CTG leadership, including preparation, consolidation, submission, review and approved in-year adjustments; gather budget-owner inputs and track planned expenditure, commitments, accruals, purchase orders, actual spend and forecasts.
• Work with Finance, Procurement, Accounts Payable, CTG leaders and vendors on financial planning, coding, allocation, forecasting and reporting.
• Lead the team responsible for monthly CTG invoice processing, setting priorities, controls, service expectations and escalation routes; ensure invoices are reviewed, validated, coded, approved and submitted within required cycles and in line with financial policies and delegated authorities.
• Act as the senior operational escalation point for invoice discrepancies, purchase-order issues, disputed charges and vendor payment concerns.
• Distinguish operational activity from service quality, customer experience, risk and business outcomes; validate data for decisions, contractual discussions and executive reporting; identify deteriorating trends and require corrective action; support XLAs and feedback mechanisms to measure stakeholder and user experience.
• Support the VP, Global Head of ITSM & Application Support across Major Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, Service Request and Service Level Management, ServiceNow governance, vendor governance, annual CTG budgeting, monthly invoice processing, operational controls and cross-team improvement.
• Act as a trusted operational delegate, providing leadership continuity, driving accountability and translating strategy into measurable outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Systems, Finance, Operations or equivalent professional experience.
• Strong practical knowledge of enterprise service-management and operational practices.
• Significant experience in Application Support, service operations or managed-service leadership.
• Experience overseeing a complex portfolio of business-critical applications and globally distributed services.
• Experience managing multiple providers against contracts, SLAs, KPIs, XLAs and improvement plans.
• Strong understanding of Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, Request, Release, Service Level, Asset and Configuration Management.
• Demonstrated success handling operational escalations and high-impact incidents.
• Experience coordinating annual budgets, monthly forecasts, variance reporting, accruals, commitments and invoice operations.
• Experience leading or managing a transactional or shared-services team with clear controls, service levels and performance expectations.
• Strong knowledge of ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise platform.
• Ability to interpret operational and financial trends and translate findings into corrective action.
• Excellent stakeholder management across operational, technical, commercial, finance and business audiences.
• Experience governing process documents, runbooks, RACIs, support models, financial controls and audit evidence.
• Sound judgement, resilience, attention to detail and a strong sense of ownership.
• ITIL 4 Foundation, Managing Professional, Strategic Leader or equivalent certification would be beneficial.
• ServiceNow certification or substantial platform and governance experience.
• Additional certification in project management, Agile, risk, process improvement, finance, cloud, asset or vendor management is desirable.

Skills

Experience

Significant experience in Application Support, service operations or managed-service leadership; experience overseeing complex business-critical application portfolios and globally distributed services, managing multiple providers, handling operational escalations and high-impact incidents, coordinating budgets and invoice operations, and leading transactional or shared-services teams.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Systems, Finance, Operations or equivalent professional experience.

Workplace

Benefits

25 days’ annual leave plus one birthday leave day; Christie’s Christmas office closure between 25 December and 2 January in addition to annual leave; an additional week of annual leave in the year of each five-year anniversary; one volunteering day; donation matching up to £500 per annum; Flexible Fitness Fund of £400 per year for health and wellness activities (taxable); access to gallery exhibitions and guided tours; discretionary annual bonus, dependent on business and employee performance, payable in March; pension contributions double-matched up to 5% of the employee’s basic salary, with a maximum 10% contribution from Christie’s; private health insurance with no employee contribution and subsidised cover for family members; dental insurance, which may be extended at personal cost; income protection insurance after 12 months; life insurance from the first day; Employee Assistance Programme including counselling; annual eyecare vouchers; Cycle to Work scheme; Christie’s Extras discounts; Seniorcare by Lottie; 16 weeks’ full pay on maternity leave; an eight-week, four-day working week at full pay on return from maternity leave; 10 sessions or days of dependent childcare or eldercare per year; and the Stork Club parent community.

Culture

Christie’s workplace culture centres on specialist expertise, intellectual curiosity and a shared appreciation for art and exceptional objects, with discretion and attentive client service shaping its professional environment. Its international auction business brings together specialists and colleagues across disciplines, combining a distinguished heritage with an evolving approach to digital engagement and the global art market.

About Cerulean

Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.