Manager, Help Desk

FirstLight; City of Albany (NY); Remote; USD 85,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

A telecommunications provider in Albany, NY is seeking an experienced Help Desk Manager to lead their IT support team. This role involves supervising technicians, managing workflows, and ensuring customer satisfaction. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of experience in IT support and familiarities with help desk tools. This is a remote position with some travel required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of IT support experience with leadership role.
• Strong understanding of help desk tools.
• Excellent communication skills for non-technical users.

Responsibilities

• Supervise and mentor Help Desk Technicians.
• Manage scheduling and workload distribution.
• Ensure compliance with defined SLAs.

Skills

IT support experience

Leadership skills

Help desk tools knowledge

Interpersonal skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology or related field

Tools

ServiceNow

Jira Service Management

Zendesk

Job description

Overview

Summary: We are seeking an experienced and proactive Help Desk Manager to lead our IT support Team. This individual will oversee a small but highly capable team of Help Desk Technicians and report directly to the Director of IT Operations. The Help Desk Manager will be responsible for ensuring efficient, high-quality technical support across the organization while maintaining strong communication with IT leadership. This is a remote position with occasional travel to company offices.

Responsibilities

• Supervise, mentor, and evaluate a team of Help Desk Technicians, providing guidance and professional development opportunities.
• Manage scheduling, workload distribution, and escalation procedures to ensure timely issue resolution.
• Promote a collaborative and customer-focused culture within the IT support team.
• Conduct regular one-on-one check-ins and team meetings to review performance, priorities, and service quality.
• Oversee day-to-day help desk activities, ensuring compliance with defined SLAs and best practices.
• Monitor ticket queues and metrics to track performance, identify bottlenecks, and drive continuous improvement.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex or high-impact technical issues.
• Maintain documentation, FAQs, and knowledge bases for both end users and internal IT staff.
• Ensure prompt, professional, and clear communication with end users.
• Gather feedback and track customer satisfaction metrics to improve support operations.
• Collaborate with other IT teams to coordinate service delivery and project support.
• Work closely with the Director of IT Operations to align help desk goals with broader IT strategies and business objectives.
• Develop and maintain help desk policies, workflows, and process documentation.
• Provide regular reports on performance metrics, incident trends, and team productivity.
• Recommend technology upgrades or process changes that enhance service quality and efficiency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• 5+ years of IT support experience, including 2+ years in a leadership role managing technical staff.
• Strong understanding of help desk tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Zendesk).
• Broad technical knowledge across Windows, Office 365, Active Directory, and common network environments.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to translate technical issues for non-technical users.

About FirstLight

FirstLight, headquartered in Albany, New York, provides fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the Northeast connecting more than 13,000 locations in service with more than 125,000 locations serviceable by our more than 25,000-route mile network. FirstLight offers a robust suite of advanced telecommunications products featuring a comprehensive portfolio of high bandwidth connectivity solutions including Ethernet, wavelength, and dark fiber services as well as dedicated Internet access solutions, data center, cloud and voice services. FirstLight’s clientele includes national cellular providers and wireline carriers and many leading enterprises, spanning high tech manufacturing and research, hospitals and healthcare, banking and financial, secondary education, colleges and universities, and local and state governments.

FirstLight is committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity and inclusion. We recognize that our differences are assets that strengthen us as a team, and FirstLight is committed to fostering an environment where everyone feels welcomed, valued, respected and recognized. FirstLight Fiber is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with state and federal laws, FirstLight’s equal opportunity policy is that all applicants and employees are treated equally by the company with respect to employment opportunities, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status or veteran disability.