IT Service Desk Lead Elevate Support

Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford; Oxford; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary based on experience

Travel allowance

Bonus

Enhanced holiday allowance (25 days +

Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Private Medical Insurance (you & dep.)

Employee discounts

Electric car scheme

Nursery Salary Sacrifice

Cycle to Work Scheme

Family Planning

Neurodiversity support

Coaching & Therapy services

Job summary

The Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford is seeking a proactive IT Service Desk Manager to lead and continually improve the IT Service Desk, delivering a responsive, professional, high‑quality support experience for a fast‑moving research environment.

Working with the Head of IT Services, you will drive ITIL‑based practices, manage incidents and changes, develop people, and build robust processes, data quality, automation and knowledge management across the Institute.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading and developing an IT Service Desk within a complex organisation.
• Proven track record of improving Service Desk performance, maturity and customer experience.
• Strong ITIL and ITSM knowledge, ideally ITIL v4 certified.
• Experience across Incident, Request, Knowledge, Problem and Change Management.
• Strong understanding of SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, and service reporting.
• Experience with ITSM platforms such as Jira Service Management or equivalent.
• Strong leadership, coaching, analytical, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Decision-making in complex, high-pressure situations.
• Advanced ITIL qualifications or Service Desk transformation experience (advantage).

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the IT Service Desk team, promoting ownership, accountability, professionalism and excellent customer service
• Own day-to-day Service Desk performance, including ticket prioritisation, workload management, escalation, communication and resolution
• Maintain strong standards across SLA/OLA performance, first-contact resolution, ticket quality and effective hand-offs between teams
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex or sensitive issues and identify recurring demand, bottlenecks and service improvement opportunities
• Apply practical ITIL and Service Management principles, ensuring processes are proportionate, effective and consistently followed
• Improve ITSM data quality, workflows, automation, self-service and knowledge management
• Support Incident, Major Incident, Problem and Change Management activities, including communications and operational readiness
• Define and review Service Desk KPIs, using performance data and customer feedback to drive continual improvement
• Build strong relationships across EIT and ensure the Service Desk continues to meet evolving scientific, technical and operational needs

Skills

Leadership & people mgmt

ITIL / ITSM expertise

Incident & Change mgmt

SLA / KPI mgmt

Stakeholder mgmt

Analytical / communication

ITIL v4 cert

Decision making under pressure

Service Desk transformation

Tools

Jira Service Management

Job description

The Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford is seeking a proactive IT Service Desk Manager to lead and continually improve the IT Service Desk, delivering a responsive, professional, high‑quality support experience for a fast‑moving research environment.

Working with the Head of IT Services, you will drive ITIL‑based practices, manage incidents and changes, develop people, and build robust processes, data quality, automation and knowledge management across the Institute.