Service Desk Operations Manager

Sword Group; Aberdeen City; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Excellent benefits

Generous annual leave

Pension scheme

Private health care

Employee assistance programme

Discounted cash plan

Job summary

Sword Group in Aberdeen is seeking a Service Desk Operations Manager to lead and mature the Managed Services Service Desk across enterprise environments. You will drive governance, service maturity, and continual improvement, transforming the desk into a proactive, data-driven capability aligned with ITIL practices.

The role offers flexible working and a comprehensive benefits package within a growing MSP. Ideal for senior leaders with strong incident, escalation, and service improvement

Qualifications

• Significant experience in a Managed Services Provider (MSP) environment.
• Proven experience leading Enterprise Service Desk, EUC operations.
• Experience managing operational support teams and building high-performing service functions.
• Strong understanding of ITIL-aligned Service Management practices.
• Experience across Incident Management, Major Incident Management, Service Request Fulfilment, Escalation Management, SLA and KPI Management.
• Experience using ServiceNow or other enterprise ITSM platforms.
• Proven track record of delivering service improvements, shift-left strategies, automation, and maturity initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Service Desk Operations function, driving governance, service maturity and continual improvement.
• Transform the Service Desk from reactive to proactive Managed Services through process improvement and automation.
• Develop data-driven insights, knowledge management, and shift-left initiatives.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to shape a scalable, high-performing operating model.

Skills

MSP experience

Lead Service Desk

Team leadership

ITIL practices

Incident & Escalation

Service improvement

ServiceNow (ITSM)

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

Role Overview

The Service Desk Operations Manager will lead, mature, and continuously improve the Managed Services Service Desk Operations capability across multiple enterprise customer environments. This is a senior operational leadership role responsible for delivering a high-performing, ITIL-aligned Service Desk capability, providing the central Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for end users across Incident Management, Service Request Fulfilment, workplace support, and user experience.

What You Will Do

The Service Desk Operations Manager will lead the Service Desk Operations function, driving operational excellence, governance, service maturity, and continual improvement. A key objective of the role is to transform the Service Desk from a reactive support function into a proactive Managed Services capability through process improvement, automation, knowledge management, shift-left initiatives, and data-driven operational insight.

Why It Might Be a Fit

This is a key leadership opportunity within a growing Managed Services organisation that is focused on modernising and maturing its support services capability. You'll have the opportunity to shape the future Service Desk Operations operating model, improve customer experience across multiple enterprise environments, introduce proactive support and service improvement initiatives, drive automation and operational efficiencies, and build a scalable, high-performing Managed Services capability aligned to industry best practice.

Requirements

• Significant experience working within a Managed Services Provider (MSP) environment
• Proven experience leading Enterprise Service Desk, Desktop Support, or End User Computing (EUC) operations
• Experience managing operational support teams and building high-performing service functions
• Strong understanding of ITIL-aligned Service Management practices
• Demonstrable experience across Incident Management, Major Incident Management, Service Request Fulfilment, Escalation Management, SLA and KPI Management, Queue Management
• Experience using ServiceNow or other enterprise ITSM platforms
• Proven track record of delivering Service improvement initiatives, Shift-left strategies, Automation programmes, Operational maturity improvements

Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• Personalised Career Development
• Flexible working
• Fantastic Benefits Package
• Generous annual leave allowance
• Enhanced family friendly benefits
• Pension scheme
• Access to private health, well-being, and insurance schemes
• Employee assistance programme
• Discounted cash plan