IT Service Desk Team Leader

Withers; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Private medical insurance

Season ticket loan

Gym membership discounts

Cycle to work

Job summary

Withers is seeking an IT Service Desk Team Leader to oversee the UK and EU Service Desk, delivering high-quality, multi-channel support. The role requires holding the team to clear priorities, coaching analysts and managing escalations to uphold service levels.

The successful candidate will combine frontline support with leadership, driving continuous improvement and stakeholder communication across offices in the UK and Europe.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a busy IT service desk in a structured environment.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL processes: incident, service request, major incident and problems.
• Proven ability to monitor queues, SLAs, dashboards and workloads.
• Solid understanding of Windows/macOS environments and enterprise apps.

Responsibilities

• Lead UK and EU Service Desk day-to-day operations with clear priorities.
• Coach analysts, improve ticket quality and ensure timely user updates.
• Act as escalation point for critical incidents and maintain service levels.
• Coordinate major incidents and communicate impacts to stakeholders.

Skills

IT leadership

Communication

Incident management

Troubleshooting

Customer focus

Team coaching

Education

ITIL Foundation certification

Tools

Halo ITSM

Microsoft 365

Entra ID

Active Directory

Teams Phone

Job description

About Withers

A law firm focused on people, performance, and collaboration.

For the past 130 years, we have supported some of the world’s most remarkable people and organizations at defining moments in their lives. 40% of our business comes from Europe, 40% from the US and 20% from Asia and we are one profit sharing partnership globally.

We are united in our commitment to integrity, quality and collaboration. We have a culture of high performance and deliver excellent service consistently across the firm. We provide tailored solutions built on trust and partner with our clients to achieve their goals.

Many of our clients are shaping the future and creating solutions to tackle some of the world’s most difficult problems. It makes for a fascinating and challenging practice.

Our role is to get to know each individual client, find out where they want to be, and help them to get there – whether they are building a business, buying a home or protecting and defending their interests.

To meet their unique needs we are exceptionally collaborative, working together across teams and time zones. And we are agile – focusing on strategy rather than rigid ideas and traditional hierarchy.

Join us to be part of a team that is always looking to the future. Where initiative, big ideas and bold moves are always encouraged. Where you can truly be yourself.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for an IT Service Desk Team Leader to provide day-to-day operational leadership for our UK and EU Service Desk. This is a varied, hands‑on role for someone who can keep the team organised, focused and delivering a high‑quality service across phone, remote and deskside support channels.

Working closely with the EU IT Service Desk Manager, the Team Leader will play a key role in coordinating daily priorities, monitoring ticket queues and call availability, supporting escalations, coaching analysts and making sure users receive clear, timely and professional support. The role would suit someone who is technically confident, calm under pressure and able to combine frontline support with team leadership and a continuous focus on service improvement.

Areas of Focus and Responsibilities

Operational leadership

• Lead the day‑to‑day operation of the UK and EU Service Desk, ensuring the team has clear priorities, appropriate workload allocation and effective shift coverage.
• Monitor ticket queues, call availability, aged tickets, breached items, unassigned work and high‑priority issues, taking timely action where service levels or user experience are at risk.
• Act as an escalation point for operational and technical issues, assessing urgency, impact and business risk before agreeing the right next steps.
• Provide operational cover and resilience for the EU IT Service Desk Manager, keeping them informed of significant risks, incidents and actions.

Team leadership and service quality

• Lead, support and mentor Service Desk Analysts and Senior Service Desk Analysts, helping them take ownership, troubleshoot effectively and provide a consistent standard of service.
• Review ticket quality, user updates, ownership, categorisation and resolution detail, challenging poor‑quality records and reinforcing agreed ways of working.
• Promote a user‑focused approach based on empathy, clear communication, professionalism and strong follow‑through.
• Support analysts with complex, sensitive or senior‑user interactions, ensuring issues are handled calmly and appropriately.

ITSM, incidents and service improvement

• Oversee effective use of the firm’s IT service management platform, currently Halo ITSM, making sure incidents, requests and tasks are recorded, prioritised, progressed and linked correctly.
• Coordinate the Service Desk response during Major Incidents, including call handling, ticket linkage, stakeholder updates and follow‑up actions.
• Use service data, dashboards, user feedback and operational evidence to identify trends, risks, recurring issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Support the development and maintenance of clear Service Desk procedures, knowledge articles, handovers and working instructions.

Projects, change and hands‑on support

• Help ensure the Service Desk is ready for new services, technology rollouts, office changes and user‑facing projects by checking support models, documentation, training and escalation routes.
• Provide practical operational feedback during testing, implementation, hypercare and transition into business‑as‑usual support.
• Remain technically involved by supporting users through telephone, remote and deskside channels when required, particularly during peak demand, staff shortages or major incidents.
• Reinforce secure and compliant ways of working, including user verification, access management, data handling and timely escalation of potential security incidents.

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

Technical skills and experience

• Experience in a Service Desk Team Leader, Supervisor, or similar operational leadership role within a busy, structured support environment is essential.
• Good practical knowledge of ITIL-based service management, including Incident, Service Request, Major Incident, Problem and Knowledge Management.
• Experience monitoring queues, service levels, telephony performance, ticket quality, workloads and operational dashboards.
• Strong technical understanding of Windows 11, Microsoft 365, Teams and Teams Phone, Entra ID and Active Directory, Intune, remote support, virtual desktop technologies, mobile device management, networking, printers and meeting‑room technology.
• Experience with an enterprise ITSM platform, ideally Halo ITSM or a comparable system.
• Experience supporting document management platforms such as iManage and applications used within a legal or professional‑services environment would be advantageous.
• ITIL Foundation certification or equivalent practical experience is desirable.

Leadership and personal qualities

• Clear, calm and confident leadership style, with the ability to give direction, make decisions and keep people focused under pressure.
• Strong communication skills, with the confidence to work with users, colleagues, managers, technical specialists and senior stakeholders.
• A practical, organised and analytical approach, with good attention to detail and the ability to spot risks before they become service issues.
• A supportive and approachable manner, with the ability to coach others, delegate effectively and follow up on agreed actions.
• A positive, collaborative and improvement‑focused mindset, with the ability to promote consistent ways of working across teams, offices and regions.

The essentials

• Core hours will be Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 5:30pm. Flexibility is a must as the service desk team work a shift rota between the hours of 8:00am to 6:30pm and there will be occasions where this role needs to provide shift coverage for absences, and also out of hours support and occasional overtime during projects and rollouts.
• Hybrid working policy with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office
• 12 week probation period
• 12 week notice period
• Flexible benefit package including pension, private medical insurance, denplan, season ticket loan, discounted gym memberships, lifestyle discount scheme, the ability to buy and sell holidays, flu jabs, doctors consultation service, cycle to work scheme, on site café and more

Information for Recruitment Agencies

Withers endeavours to recruit and fill vacancies directly. However, when we do need to engage with agencies, Withers operates a preferred supplier list and will not be accepting unsolicited applications from non-PSL agencies for this role.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is the policy of Withers to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion. Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic and national origin), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.