Service Design Specialist

For Linklaters Office in Warsaw, we are currently recruiting for the Service Design Specialist role.

The ITIL Service Design Specialist is responsible for designing, assuring, and continuously improving IT services to ensure they are fit for purpose, legally compliant, supportable, and aligned to firmwide business outcomes. The role operates within the IT Service Governance team and works closely with an external Managed Service Provider (MSP) to ensure services are clearly defined, contractually aligned, and operationally deliverable before transition into live service.

You will be responsible for:

Service Design & Governance

• Design and maintain end‑to‑end IT services across the service lifecycle, from concept through transition and operation

• Define and document service models covering both internal teams and the Managed Service Provider, including: Service boundaries and ownership, RACI models between the firm and MSP, Support models, escalation paths, and hand‑offs, SLAs, OLAs, and underpinning contracts

• Ensure services are designed to meet availability, capacity, resilience, security, and continuity requirements

MSP Engagement

• Act as the governance interface between the firm and the Managed Service Provider during service design.

• Ensure services are designed in line with MSP contractual obligations and operating capabilities

• Challenge MSP solutions where required to ensure long‑term sustainability, value, and compliance

Assurance & Risk Management

• Provide service design assurance for new and changed services prior to approval and transition

• Identify and mitigate service risks arising from outsourcing, shared responsibility, or supplier dependency

Stakeholder & Supplier Management

• Engage with business stakeholders, IT operations and support teams, MSP and third party suppliers.

Apply if you:

• Have 2-3 years of experience in Service Design within a governed or outsourced environment

• Have working knowledge of ITIL 4

• Have experience working with Managed Service Providers or outsourced IT services

• Are able to balance business outcomes, contractual constraints, and operational practicality

• Have strong documentation, assurance, and stakeholder management skills

Location

• Warsaw (hybrid model – min. 2 days per week at the office)

Type of contract:

• Contract of employment

Benefits

Joining Team Linklaters will see you qualify for a range of benefits designed to reward the vital contribution you'll be making to our success. These include:

• Private medical care

• Free in-house fitness centre

• Life insurance

• Worldwide travel insurance for business and non-business travel

• Benefit Multisport club card or subsidised travel card

• Wide range of training opportunities

About Linklaters
Linklaters is a people business. Being best in class in the eyes of our clients means that our people must be exceptional.
We look not only for brilliant minds, but for people who will thrive in our environment: people who love working collaboratively and demonstrate the innovative, efficient, agile, entrepreneurial, and responsible mind-set we aim to bring to every interaction.
Ours is an environment of outperformance. We achieve this not with targets and incentives, but by fostering a positive, supportive, fair, and open atmosphere.
We respect and value difference but insist on inclusivity. We celebrate all aspects of diversity and challenge any form of bias, because we want everyone to feel that they belong. This is vital to our ability to work as one team, with a common mind-set.
We recognise that one size does not fit all. Our goal is to embed flexibility across our firm by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.

What sets us apart

At Linklaters

• We offer a truly global work experience and the opportunity to be involved in strategic projects that drive innovation and shape the future of our business

• We belong to a firm that embodies its corporate social, environment and governance responsibility commitments

• We celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion so our people can bring themselves to work

• We advocate speak-up culture to empower our people in sharing their voices and an open-door policy to ensure they are listened to

• We invest in custom-fit career paths for our people in line with their talents and aspirations

• We provide agile working solutions to meet the changing needs of our people and our business

• We are committed to people first relationships based on mutual trust, respect and appreciation

• We support the health and wellbeing of our people, providing a safe space to talk about emotions and mental health with access to expert advice as needed

• We invest in developing leaders of the future who demonstrate emotional intelligence and a passion to discover, coach and develop the talents of others

Technical Skills:

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Service Design

This list of duties and responsibilities above is not exhaustive.  It is intended to describe the general content of, and requirements for, the performance of this job. As such, the role may also include the undertaking of additional tasks as required.