Service Desk Lead

ITPS; Chester-le-Street; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave

Your birthday off work

Salary Sacrifice pension 7%

Hybrid/flexible working

Job summary

ITPS is seeking a Service Desk Lead to head our multi-channel support team in a UK enterprise environment. You will prioritise work, own incidents end-to-end, and ensure clear communication during resolutions, including major incidents.

The role requires strong ITSM tooling experience (ServiceNow), ITIL certification, and the ability to coach analysts, coordinate with site engineers and third parties, and support VIPs in a 24x7 operation.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a Service Desk or multi-channel technical support team.
• Strong knowledge of incident, request, access and major incident practices.
• Experience supporting VIPs or regulated environments.
• Experience of 24x7 on-call or emergency support.
• ITIL certification and knowledge-centred service programmes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Service Desk team, set priorities and allocate work.
• Log, categorise, prioritise and track incidents, requests and access in ServiceNow.
• Maintain end-to-end ticket ownership and communicate resolutions.
• Monitor queues, aging, breaches and first-contact resolution to protect user experience.
• Coordinate major incident response and stakeholder communications.
• Develop knowledge, SOPs, FAQs and shift-left opportunities.
• Coach analysts through quality reviews and training.
• Coordinate site engineers and SMEs for onsite escalations.
• Ensure readiness for out-of-hours and 24x7 operations.
• Manage resources to cover absences.
• Travel to client sites as required.
• Direct investigations and coordinate engineers during service restoration.
• Coordinate technical teams and suppliers while maintaining ownership.
• Communicate updates clearly to customers and stakeholders.

Skills

Service Desk leadership

MSP/enterprise support

ITIL certification

Strong communication

Incident management

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

Core Responsibilities

• Lead the dedicated customer Service Desk team, setting priorities and allocating work.
• Ensure all incidents, requests and access requests are logged, categorised, prioritised, progressed and communicated accurately in ServiceNow.
• Maintain end-to-end ticket ownership and user communication through resolution, including disciplined handoffs to the customer teams, third parties and other resolver groups.
• Monitor queues, ageing, breaches, reopen rates, contact demand and first-contact resolution, intervening before performance or user experience deteriorates.
• Lead major incident coordination for the service, establishing control, stakeholder communications, chronology, actions and shift handovers.
• Actively develop knowledge, standard operating procedures, FAQs and “shift left” opportunities, improving consistency and resolution at the most efficient level.
• Coach analysts through quality reviews, call and ticket observation, feedback, training and customer specific accreditation.
• Coordinate Site Engineers and the shared technical SME bench, ensuring onsite activity and escalations remain visible and auditable.
• Maintain readiness for out-of-hours, occurrences of severe weather, surge and emergency support through the wider onshore 24x7 operation.
• Resource management to ensure the service is properly resourced to cater for absences.
• Some travel to client sites will be required.
• Experience leading a Service Desk or multi-channel technical support team in an MSP or enterprise environment.
• Strong working knowledge of incident, request, access, knowledge and major incident practices.
• Confident use of ITSM tooling, preferably ServiceNow, including queues, workflow, reporting and data quality.
• Proven ability to coach analysts, improve quality and create an accountable customer service culture.
• Ability to coordinate technical teams and suppliers while maintaining clear user ownership.
• Strong written and verbal communication, including customer and major incident updates.
• Demonstrable experience acting as a senior technical escalation point within a Service Desk, EUC or managed services environment.
• Broad technical understanding of Microsoft 365, Windows endpoints, endpoint management, identity, client applications and workplace connectivity.
• Ability to direct technical investigations, assess evidence, challenge assumptions and coordinate engineers and 3rd party specialists during service restoration.
• Experience supporting VIPs, regulated customers or operationally critical environments.
• Experience of 24x7, on-call or emergency support models.
• ITIL certification and experience of knowledge centred service or “shift left” programmes.

Leadership Behaviours

• Acts with clear ownership and follows issues through to an agreed outcome.
• Communicates directly, calmly and credibly with customers, colleagues and suppliers.
• Uses evidence and service data to prioritise activity and recommend improvements.
• Builds a collaborative, inclusive culture in which knowledge is shared and problems are solved together.
• Balances pace with control, maintaining accurate records and auditable decisions.

Who are ITPS?

We’re experts in solving complex business problems through intelligent and secure IT implementation that protects and transforms organisations, helping them to grow. We embrace innovation and drive change, bringing new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking as a trusted IT partner.

With 26 years of experience, we partner with companies across the public and private sector to deliver data centre, cyber security, cloud, data and analytics, network services and managed services solutions. Our highly accredited and experienced engineering teams combined with our strategic relationships with partners such as Microsoft and Cisco, mean that our customers trust us to simplify the complexity of IT and deliver benefits that make them more agile, competitive and resilient. Our vision is a world in which technology makes lives easier, society fairer and our planet greener.

Employee Benefits

• A clearly defined training and progression plan
• 27 days annual leave
• Your birthday off work
• Annual pay reviews
• Enhanced maternity leave benefit (4 months full pay)
• Enhanced paternity leave benefit (2 weeks full pay)
• Salary Sacrifice pension scheme match funded by the company up to 7%
• Virtual GP and Physiotherapy Service

Following probation, you can access these benefits too:

• Hybrid/flexible working (3 days office/2 days home)