Team Lead Enterprise Service Management - #1000418

The future looks like you

With over 1,300 stores in 17 European countries and more than 25,000 employees, C&A is one of Europe’s leading fashion retailers. Every day, C&A welcomes millions of visitors to its stores in Europe and to its online shop. We are building on more than 180 years of experience in the fashion industry and continuously modernize the company to become an omnichannel fashion retailer.

At C&A we are driven by our values and we believe that affordable and high-quality fashion is not contradictory to caring for people & the planet, we are always forward thinking and acting to develop our business and innovate the industry. This is your chance to join the C&A team as Teamlead Enterprise Service Management!

The Team Lead Enterprise Service Management is responsible for the delivery, continuous development, and stable operation of C&A's enterprise-wide service management platform, built on the “AI-First, Knowledge-Centric, Future-Ready” vision of C&A's ITSM transformation. The role ensures a unified, AI-powered, and multilingual service experience across all 17 European markets, delivering measurable business value and improving service quality for all internal end users.

The role owns the platform end to end along ITIL 4 practices, places AI and knowledge management at the architectural core, and ensures seamless integration with C&A's Microsoft 365, Saviynt/IAM, SAP, and Atlassian landscape. The Team Lead acts as the central liaison between Tech Domains, the Product organization, business stakeholders, and the works council, ensuring alignment on strategy, compliance, and the responsible adoption of AI.

Your responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Management:

Lead, mentor, and develop the Enterprise Service Management and Service Operations team, fostering high morale and professional growth.
Steer external implementation and operations partners, ensuring effective resource allocation and workload management.
Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

• 
  Platform & Service Ownership:

Hold end-to-end accountability for the ITSM/ESM platform across ITIL 4 processes (incident, problem, change, request, service catalog, SLA, CMDB).
Own the platform roadmap with a clear focus on AI as an architectural principle and on knowledge management as a central pillar.
Ensure source transparency, auditability, and continuous improvement of the AI and knowledge layers.

• 
  AI at the Core (AI-First):

Establish AI as an architectural principle of the platform rather than a bolted-on feature, in line with the “AI-First, Knowledge-Centric, Future-Ready” vision of the ITSM RFP[BJ1.1].
Provide AI co-pilot assistance for agents: intelligent similar-ticket suggestions, automatic summaries, suggested responses, and contextual knowledge proposals, with the final decision always remaining with the human.
Enable conversational interfaces in text and speech, including a multilingual virtual agent and voicebot across all required national languages (13+ languages covering C&A's 17 countries), plus automated ticket translation for end users.
Introduce AI-supported automation for clearly defined, deterministic standard procedures, while complex, sensitive, or ambiguous cases are always handed to human agents; define automation use cases jointly with the affected teams and in consideration of all co-determination rights.
Govern AI end to end: ensure every AI action is traceable and auditable, responses carry source references, hallucinations are mitigated, and the AI Tool Usage Framework is enforced, with EU data residency for all AI processing (GDPR, NIS2, EU AI Act).

• 
  Integration & Identity:

Ensure clean integration with Microsoft 365, Saviynt/IGA, SAP, and Atlassian, including Entra ID SSO and SCIM provisioning.
Coordinate with the IAM function so that joiner, mover, and leaver processes and access reviews interact smoothly with the platform.

• 
  Compliance & Security:

Ensure the platform meets GDPR, NIS2, ISO 27001, and EU AI Act requirements, with EU data residency for AI processing.
Uphold the AI Tool Usage Framework and the Default-Off Connector Policy with tri-party sign-off, in alignment with the DPO and information security.
Support internal and external audits with complete and transparent audit trails.

• 
  Performance & Value Management:

Steer service quality and business value through clear KPIs (e.g., MTTR, first contact resolution, CSAT, knowledge coverage, source transparency).
Provide regular reporting to market and central leadership on performance, risks, and opportunities.

• 
  Vendor & Budget Management:

Manage vendor and service provider relationships, ensuring service-level agreements (SLAs) are met.
Own license, contract, and budget responsibility in operation, ensuring TCO transparency over a 3 to 5 year horizon.

• 
  Stakeholder Management:

Serve as the primary contact for CTO-level and procurement stakeholders, providing regular updates on performance, challenges, and opportunities.
Collaborate with business units (e.g., Finance, Operations, HR) and the works council to understand needs and deliver effective, compliant solutions

What you bring

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field. A Master's degree or relevant certifications (e.g., ITIL 4, PMP) are a plus.
• Proven experience (5+ years) leading service management or IT operations teams, preferably in an international, regulated environment.
• Solid ITIL 4 knowledge and hands-on experience with modern ITSM/ESM platforms.
• Demonstrable expertise in AI-supported service management (agentic AI, virtual agent and voicebot, conversational and multilingual support) and in the related AI governance, EU data residency, and data protection requirements (GDPR, NIS2, EU AI Act).
• Strong knowledge management background: building and curating cross-system, multilingual knowledge bases with source transparency and quality scoring (e.g., KCS).
• Experience integrating heterogeneous system landscapes (Microsoft 365, IAM/IGA, SAP).
• Strong vendor management, negotiation, and budget oversight skills.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving abilities; experience working with co-determination bodies is an advantage.
• Business-fluent German and English (English as the internal working language).

Key Competencies:

• Leadership & People Management
• AI-First Service Management (agentic AI, virtual agent & voicebot, conversational AI)
• Knowledge-Centric Operations (curation, AI retrieval, source transparency, multilingual)
• ITIL 4 / Operational Excellence
• Compliance, Security & Data Protection (GDPR, NIS2, EU AI Act)
• Integration & Identity (Microsoft 365, Saviynt, SAP, Entra ID)
• Vendor, Contract & Budget Management
• Strong Communication & Stakeholder Engagement

This role is crucial for delivering a modern, employee-friendly, and future-proof service experience across C&A's European organization, maintaining business continuity, and driving measurable value through responsible AI and strong knowledge management. The ideal candidate combines a passion for technology with a customer-first mindset and the ability to balance strategic transformation with stable day-to-day operations

What we offer

This is an opportunity for you to join us on a truly exciting transformation journey, where you’ll be able to leave footprints that last and contribute significantly to our vision. As well as knowing that you played a key part in the evolution of one of Europe’s most recognizable retail brands, you will also enjoy:

• Countless learning and development opportunities via our C&A academy
• Access to a Partner Discount Scheme
• An employee discount of 20% in C&A stores
• 30 days' vacation
• Corporate pension scheme
• Mental health and wellness program
• An exciting job in an international and inspirational working environment
• A positive working atmosphere and a talented team with an open feedback culture

C&A fosters equal opportunity for people of all backgrounds and identities. We are led by a gender-balanced board that is committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization where everyone can become their best self.
We do not discriminate based on age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, religion or belief, parental and family status, or any other protected characteristic. We welcome applications from women, men and non-binary candidates of all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. We encourage people belonging to underrepresented groups to apply.
Even if you don't check every box, but see yourself contributing, please apply and help us build an inclusive community.