Service Desk Lead

Places for People; Cuerden Green; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 58,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension with matched contributions up 

Bonus scheme 2%

35 days holiday (incl. bank holidays)

Healthcare cashback plan

Wellbeing support and EAP

Discretionary Wellbeing and Rewards

Training & career progression

Recognition programmes

Inclusion and colleague engagement

Free Places Gyms membership

Life Assurance

Job summary

Places for People is seeking an experienced Service Desk Lead to manage the daily operations, guide a team of IT Service Desk Engineers and ensure a customer‑focused service. You will monitor queue health, allocate workloads and oversee incidents to meet agreed SLAs, while driving improvements through data and collaboration with incident and problem teams.

You will also lead knowledge management, coaching, and performance reviews, contributing to recruitment and onboarding.

Qualifications

• Leadership or supervisory experience in technical support or IT service desk.
• Strong understanding of IT service management including incident, request and problem management.
• Experience managing support demand while meeting service levels and performance targets.
• Ability to lead, coach and develop technical support colleagues.
• Experience using ITSM tools to oversee incidents, workloads and service performance.
• Experience liaising with multiple business functions and leading reviews.

Responsibilities

• Lead day‑to‑day operation and performance of the Service Desk.
• Allocate workloads, monitor backlog and coordinate escalations to meet SLAs.
• Analyse performance against KPIs and drive process improvements.
• Provide escalation support for complex issues with 2nd/3rd line teams.
• Maintain knowledge management and promote learning.
• Contribute to recruitment, onboarding and performance reviews.
• Contribute to IT policies and best practices for consistent service delivery.

Skills

Leadership

ITSM

Incident management

Service delivery

Stakeholder management

Team coaching

Workload management

Education

ITIL Foundation (advantageous)

Tools

ITSM tools

Job description

As the UK's leading Social Enterprise, we move lives forward every day by building, managing and supporting thriving Communities. From new homes, social housing and student accommodation to leisure, education and Community initiatives, our work makes a positive difference to millions of People across the UK. And that takes People who care about doing the right thing. People who are ambitious, ready to grow and motivated to make a difference through the work they do.

We're looking for Colleagues who bring energy, curiosity and ownership. People who enjoy being challenged, support those around them and want to keep raising the bar. Because when we perform at our best, we create more opportunities to invest in our Customers, our Communities and each other.

Experience matters, but it's only part of the story. If you share our values and want to build a career where your work has real impact, we'd love to hear from you.

At Places for People, we are committed

More about your role

As Service Desk Lead, you will lead the day-to-day operation and performance of the Service Desk, guiding and supporting a team of IT Service Desk Engineers to deliver an efficient, customer-focused service. You will maintain queue health, allocate workloads, manage the backlog, monitor service quality and coordinate escalations. You will also oversee incidents and requests, ensuring they are correctly prioritised, triaged to agreed standards and resolved within service level targets.

You will analyse Service Desk performance against key performance indicators, identify trends and risks, and use these insights to drive measurable improvements in processes, quality and efficiency. As the operational escalation point for complex technical issues, you will support the team in resolving difficult problems and work with our Incident Lead, Problem Lead, and second- and third-line teams to achieve timely resolutions.

You will contribute to effective knowledge management by keeping service documentation and knowledge articles accurate and up to date, sharing changes with Service Desk Engineers and promoting continuous learning across the team. You will provide day-to-day leadership by allocating workloads, setting clear expectations, completing quality assurance checks and supporting colleagues through regular coaching and feedback. You will also contribute to recruitment and onboarding and support colleague development through structured performance reviews.

You will contribute to IT policies, procedures and best practices to ensure consistent service delivery and a positive user experience. This role is based on site5 days a week in Preston.

Essential criteria

• Leadership or supervisory experience in technical support or an IT service desk environment.
• Strongunderstanding of IT service management, including incident, request and problem management.
• Experience managing support demand while meeting agreed service levels and performance targets.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach and develop technical support colleagues.
• Experience using IT service management tools to oversee incidents, workloads and service performance.
• Experience supporting a range of business functions and stakeholders, including leading service review meetings.

More about you

You are an experienced IT support leader who can balance competing priorities and is committed to helping colleagues resolve technical issues through a straightforward, user-focused service.

You recognise how effective incident and problem management underpin reliable service delivery, and you use performance data to make practical improvements that reduce disruption.

You work effectively across IT teams, keep documentation accurate and foster an environment where colleagues can grow and provide excellent support.

An ITIL Foundation qualification is advantageous but not required, although a strong working knowledge of ITIL processes is preferred.

What you'll get

We know rewarding work deserves rewarding benefits. That's why, alongside a competitive salary, you'll have access to a package designed to support you at work and beyond.

You'll receive:

• Pension with matched contributions up to 7%
• Bonus scheme forcolleagues at 2%
• 35 days holiday (including bank holidays)with the option to buy or sell days
• Healthcare cashback plan foreveryday medical costs, with private GP and health support services available
• Comprehensive wellbeing support including counselling, flu jabs, our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and access to our Wellbeing Hub, supporting your mental, physical and financial wellbeing
• Access toOur Place Rewards, offering discounts and savings on groceries, travel, shopping, home products and other lifestyle purchases
• Ongoing training,professional qualifications, internal development programmes and career progression opportunities
• Recognition programmes including Star Awards and Colleague Awards, celebrating achievements and recognising great work
• Strong focus oninclusion, wellbeing and colleague engagement
• Free membership to Places Gyms
• Life Assurance to provide financialsecurity for your loved ones, alongside access to will writing services to help you plan for the future with confidence

What's next?

As part of ourcommitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and accessible recruitment process for all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview experience, please let us know. We're happy to work with you to ensure you have the opportunity to perform at your best.

If you are a Places for People customer and you're looking for support with your application, please contact our skills and employment team on [e-mail].

We understand the importance of a supportive and inclusive work culture so please talk to us at interview about flexibility you may need. We can't promise to give you exactly what you want, but we promise not to judge you for asking. For this role we are open to discussing the possibility of reduced hours, flexible start and finish times or compressed hours.

Safeguarding

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect.

We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre-employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment.

By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities