Service Desk Team Lead

MRJ Recruitment Limited; Manchester; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Office in Manchester city centre

Leadership development opportunities

Job summary

MRJ Recruitment Limited is seeking an IT Service Desk Team Leader to run day-to-day operations and lead a geographically distributed support team in the UK. The role combines hands-on technical support with people leadership and continuous service improvement.

You will coach analysts, manage queues and SLAs, and work with broader technology teams to reduce recurring issues and improve customer experience. Manchester office is central to this role.

Qualifications

• Experience leading an IT Service Desk or technical support team.
• Strong background in IT support operations and service delivery.
• Solid knowledge of Microsoft 365, Windows, identity and access management, collaboration tools, and end-user tech.
• Experience with ITSM platforms and managing ticket queues, SLAs, and escalations.
• Good understanding of ITIL principles and IT service management processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop your team: coach, mentor and motivate Service Desk Analysts and Technicians, creating a high-performing culture.
• Own service performance: manage daily operations, ticket queues, escalations, SLAs and workloads.
• Improve the customer experience: set high standards for communication and resolution.
• Drive continuous improvement: identify recurring issues and implement pragmatic changes.
• Embrace automation: explore self-service and smarter issue resolution.
• Develop team capability: share knowledge and improve first-contact resolution.
• Work collaboratively: build relationships with colleagues and technology teams across the UK and Europe.
• Use data to drive decisions: analyse performance and trends for improvements.
• Stay hands-on: support with technical issues, escalations and major incidents.

Skills

Team Leadership

IT Service Desk

ITIL

Stakeholder Management

Microsoft 365

Windows OS

ITSM

Incident Management

SLA Management

Tools

Freshservice

Microsoft Intune

Entra ID

Autopilot

Job description

We have a great opportunity available for an IT Service Desk Team Leader with one of the best loved eCommerce companies in the UK

This is more than someone who just wants to simply manage tickets and monitor service levels. This is an opportunity to lead a team, improve service performance, introduce smarter ways of working and help build a more proactive, efficient and customer-focused IT support function.

If you're someone who enjoys developing people, solving problems and challenging the way things have always been done, this could be an excellent next step.

The ambition is simple: deliver a better IT experience through great people, smarter processes and modern technology.

You’ll take ownership of the day-to-day performance of the IT Service Desk, leading a team of analysts responsible for delivering high-quality support across a geographically distributed business.

You’ll combine hands-on technical support with people leadership, operational management and continuous service improvement.

And working closely with the wider technology teams, you’ll help introduce automation, improve first-contact resolution and reduce recurring issues.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and develop your team: Coach, mentor and motivate Service Desk Analysts and Technicians, creating a positive, accountable and high-performing team culture.
• Own service performance: Manage daily operations, ticket queues, escalations, service levels and workloads to ensure colleagues receive consistently excellent support.
• Improve the customer experience: Set high standards for communication, responsiveness and problem resolution.
• Drive continuous improvement: Identify recurring issues, challenge inefficient processes and introduce practical improvements.
• Embrace automation: Explore self-service, automation and smarter ways of resolving common IT issues.
• Develop team capability: Improve knowledge sharing, technical skills and first-contact resolution across the Service Desk.
• Work collaboratively: Build strong relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and technology teams across the UK and Europe.
• Use data to make decisions: Analyse service performance, customer feedback and operational trends to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Stay hands-on: Support the team with technical issues, complex escalations and major incidents when required.

The person we are looking for

We’re keen to speak with experienced IT Service Desk Team Leaders ready for a challenge and excited to embrace new technologies and ways of working.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Experience leading, supervising or mentoring an IT Service Desk or technical support team.
• A strong background in IT support operations, incident management and service delivery.
• Good technical knowledge of Microsoft 365, Windows, identity and access management, collaboration tools and end-user technologies.
• Experience working with ITSM platforms and managing ticket queues, SLAs and escalations.
• A solid understanding of ITIL principles and IT service management processes.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• A proactive, customer-focused approach with a genuine passion for developing people.
• The ability to identify operational improvements and turn ideas into practical results.
• Experience with Freshservice, Microsoft Intune, Entra ID, Autopilot or supporting international environments would be advantageous.

*Please note, this role required a min 4 days in the office in Manchester city centre*