Contract Service Desk Lead

Spectrum IT Recruitment; Portsmouth; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Part time

Job summary

Spectrum IT Recruitment are partnering with a large national UK client to hire a Contract Service Desk Lead for an initial 3–6 month term. The role is onsite in Portsmouth, four days per week, with occasional travel to London head office and an umbrella-company engagement.

The successful candidate will lead a small Service Desk team, manage day-to-day IT support delivery, and drive best practices to meet performance targets.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a Service Desk team and delivering service improvements.
• Strong ITIL-driven service management background and metrics.
• Proficient in SQL data extraction and analysis.

Responsibilities

• Act as main escalation point for Level 1/2 Service Desk issues and guidance.
• Lead and manage a small service desk team: workloads, attendance, performance.
• Deliver training to upskill team and stakeholders on systems and processes.
• Coordinate engineer visits and manage asset lifecycle.

Skills

Service Desk leadership

Stakeholder management

SQL data analysis

ITIL knowledge

Education

ITIL certification

Tools

Windows 11

Active Directory

DHCP

Networking hardware

Job description

Spectrum IT are working with a large national UK client to recruit a Contract Service Desk Lead to join them on an initial 3-6 month contract. This is an onsite role working 4 days per week in the Portsmouth, Hampshire office. (Occasional London head office travel.) The role will be engagement via an Umbrella company only.

Our client are seeking a highly skilled and proactive Service Desk Team Lead to manage service delivery and support business wide IT Support. This role centres on leading and managing a small team of Service Desk Analysts, overseeing day-to-day operations, ensuring high levels of teamwork and professionalism, driving results, and maintaining a strong work ethic to meet and exceed agreed performance targets. Ultimately this role is a balance between hands on technical support and being part of the team and team leadership, driving a culture of best practice and motivating the service desk team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Act as the main escalation point for the Level 1 and Level 2 Service Desk team, providing guidance and resolution support for complex technical and operational issues.
• Lead and support a small team of Service Desk Analysts, including managing workloads, performance, sickness, holiday, and other absence to maintain service continuity.
• Foster a positive team culture, ensuring high work ethics, collaboration, and consistent achievement of targets.
• Build and maintain strong professional relationships with area managers and internal stakeholders
• Lead and deliver training sessions to upskill team members and stakeholders on systems, tools, and processes.
• Execute SQL queries and tasks to generate, validate, and analyse sales data.
• Manage system builds and deployments (Windows 11) for upgrades and replacements.
• Oversee asset management processes, ensuring accurate tracking and lifecycle management of IT equipment.
• Conduct regular ticket quality reviews to maintain high service standards and compliance.
• Coordinate and schedule engineer visits for hardware, networking, and infrastructure needs.
• Provide hands-on technical support for network infrastructure including routers, switches, Active Directory, DHCP, and related services.

Skills & Experience:

• Proven experience in a Service Desk leadership role or similar IT support management position.
• Experience managing a small team, including absence management, performance reviews, and driving target achievement.
• Strong understanding of IT service management principles, ideally with ITIL knowledge or certification.
• Proficiency in SQL for data extraction and analysis.
• Hands-on technical experience with Windows OS builds (including Windows 11), networking hardware, and Microsoft infrastructure services (AD, DHCP).
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience engaging senior non-technical audiences.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience in asset management systems and service desk tools.

Candidates for this role must be within a commutable distance of Portsmouth due to the 4 days on site weekly requirement.