Service Desk Manager

Southern Water; Worthing; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Water is seeking a Service Desk Manager to lead the day-to-day operation of the Service Desk in Durrington, Worthing, with hybrid working (minimum 2 days in the office). You will oversee 2 Team Leaders and 10 Analysts, ensuring high-quality incident handling and effective queue management for over 4000 users.

You will drive service improvement, partner with IT teams and stakeholders, and ensure compliance with security and data protection.

Qualifications

• ITIL Foundation qualified, ITIL 4/5 preferred.
• Experience with automation/automating systems.
• Strong leadership and coaching abilities.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day operation of the Service Desk and incident handling.
• Manage queue, ticket progression, and workload distribution.
• Ensure tickets are logged, prioritized, updated and resolved to standards.
• Monitor service performance and address backlogs and incidents.
• Coordinate rota coverage and shift patterns with Team Leaders.
• Provide timely, professional first-line support.
• Contribute to incident lifecycle, QA and CSAT improvements.
• Ensure readiness for new or changed services and training.

Skills

Leadership

Customer service

ITIL

Incident Management

Queue management

Communication

On-call readiness

Education

ITIL Foundation

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

Job Title: Service Desk Manager

Location: Durrington, Worthing – Hybrid working (minimum 2 days a week in the office)

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37

Salary: From £55k based on skills and experience

Closing Date 2026-09-07

About The Role

The Service Desk Manager is responsible for leading the day-to-day operation of the Service Desk, ensuring high-quality incident and request handling, effective queue and performance management, and resilient first line I.T support for over 4000 internal and external users.

The role provides leadership to 2 Team Leaders and 10 Analysts, driving capability, wellbeing and accountability, while improving customer experience through quality assurance, feedback and continual service improvement.

What You Will Be Responsible For

Working across Digital and the wider business, the postholder uses service insight and demand data to inform planning, represents the Service Desk in governance and change activity, ensures operational readiness for new or changed services, and maintains compliance with security, risk and data protection requirements.

You will also be enrolled on the 'on call' rota.

• Manage the day-to-day operation of the Service Desk, ensuring effective handling of incidents, service requests, queries and escalations
• Oversee queue management, ticket progression, aged ticket follow-up, workload distribution and service continuity
• Ensure tickets are logged, categorised, prioritised, updated, escalated and resolved in line with agreed standards
• Monitor service performance throughout the day, taking action where demand, backlogs, absence or major incidents affect service levels
• Work with Team Leaders to ensure appropriate rota coverage, shift patterns, handovers and resource allocation.
• Ensure the Service Desk provides timely, professional and effective first-line support.
• Own the Service Desk contribution to the incident lifecycle, including logging quality, updates, escalation paths and closure quality.
• Ensure operational readiness for new or changed services, including support models, knowledge, resolver routes, SLAs, escalation paths and Service Desk training.
• Audit a regular sample of calls, emails, portal interactions, chats and ticket updates where applicable.
• Review professionalism, communication quality, ticket accuracy, troubleshooting approach, knowledge use, escalation quality and closure standards.
• Use QA and CSAT outputs to improve knowledge articles, scripts, templates, standard responses, onboarding and apprentice support.

What You’ll Bring To The Role

• Strong leadership, coaching and people‑management skills
• Excellent customer service mindset, with a focus on user experience
• Good understanding of core ITSM practices, especially Incident Management, Request Fulfilment, Knowledge Management and Service Level Management
• Strong operational management skills, including queue management, prioritisation, escalation and workload planning
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage Analysts, IT teams, suppliers and senior stakeholders
• Ability to manage performance, support wellbeing and build team capability
• Good understanding of Service Desk tooling
• Awareness of information security, access control and data protection responsibilities
• Continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to simplify processes and improve service quality

Essential

• ITIL Foundation qualification, ideally ITIL 4 or 5
• Experience in automation/automating systems

Desirable

• ServiceNowtraining or certification desirable.
• Customer service qualification desirable.
• Information security or cyber awareness training desirable.

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. With £7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed.

You will be joining at a time of significant change, working alongside a highly skilled leadership team with a clear vision for the future. We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation

Our Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Additional Information

In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years.

Appointment to this role is subject to the successful completion of all pre‑employment checks, including security vetting.

Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process, Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment.

Some positions may also require higher levels of security vetting, which may involve providing additional documentation.