Service Delivery Manager

Cognizant; Wayzata (MN); On-site; USD 119,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance

Paid holidays + PTO

401(k) plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Service Desk Lead for North America, based onsite in Wayzata, MN. You will lead day-to-day delivery across North America, manage performance against SLAs, drive incident triage, escalation, and proactive service health monitoring.

The role requires 16–20 years of experience in enterprise service delivery, strong stakeholder management, and the ability to coordinate across distributed teams including India, LATAM, and Budapest.

Qualifications

• 16–20 years of relevant professional experience aligned with the role responsibilities and technology scope.
• Strong communication, documentation, analytical problem-solving, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience with enterprise service delivery, governance, risk, and change controls.
• Ability to work across geographically distributed teams, customers, and delivery partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day Service Desk delivery across North America.
• Manage performance using SLA, XLA, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, and backlog measures.
• Ensure effective incident intake, triage, prioritization, assignment, escalation, communication, and closure.
• Coordinate monitoring and service-health awareness to improve proactive support.
• Own major escalation coordination among the Service Desk, resolver groups, vendors, and customers.
• Drive knowledge management, first-contact resolution, shift readiness, coaching, and quality improvement.
• Analyze demand, repeat contacts, aged tickets, user feedback, and trends to identify improvements.
• Conduct service reviews and communicate risks, actions, and performance outcomes.

Skills

Client-facing communication

Stakeholder management

Service Desk KPIs

Governance & risk controls

Global coordination

AI & automation

Operations leadership

Escalation management

Job description

Responsibilities

Lead day-to-day Service Desk delivery across North America.

Service Desk Lead - North America

Location : Wayzata MN ( 100% Onsite )

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day Service Desk delivery across North America.
• Manage performance using SLA, XLA, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, and backlog measures.
• Ensure effective incident intake, triage, prioritization, assignment, escalation, communication, and closure.
• Coordinate monitoring and service-health awareness to improve proactive support.
• Own major escalation coordination among the Service Desk, resolver groups, vendors, and customers.
• Drive knowledge management, first-contact resolution, shift readiness, coaching, and quality improvement.
• Analyze demand, repeat contacts, aged tickets, user feedback, and trends to identify improvements.
• Conduct service reviews and communicate risks, actions, and performance outcomes.

Required Knowledge And Experience

• 16 to 20 years of relevant professional experience aligned with the role responsibilities and technology scope.
• Demonstrated experience in the primary and secondary skill areas listed above.
• Strong understanding of enterprise service delivery, governance, risk, and change controls.
• Ability to work across geographically distributed teams, customers, and delivery partners.
• Strong communication, documentation, analytical problem-solving, and stakeholder-management skills.

Key Stakeholder Interfaces

• Customer and business stakeholders.
• Infrastructure, engineering, architecture, security, and operations teams.
• Service management, project management, commercial, and finance functions.
• Technology vendors and delivery partners.

Success Measures

• Delivery against agreed service, project, quality, and governance commitments.
• Timely management of risks, issues, dependencies, and escalations.
• Stakeholder confidence, clear communication, and accurate reporting.
• Continuous improvement, standardization, and operational discipline.

Key Skills required :-

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with strong client-facing capabilities.
• Ability to manage high-touch global client stakeholders and maintain strong client relationships.
• Strong understanding of Service Desk KPIs, SLAs, performance metrics, and governance, with the ability to prepare, manage, and present performance decks.
• Coordinate and oversee overall Global Service Desk operations, working closely with regional Service Desk leads across India, LATAM, and Budapest.
• Serve as the primary Cognizant point of contact for client concerns, operational issues, and escalations related to Service Desk services.
• Strong understanding of Service Desk transformation initiatives, including AI, automation, self-service, call/contact deflection, and optimization strategies.
• Drive initiatives aimed at reducing overall Service Desk contact volumes by 50% or more, supporting the client's long-term vision toward a highly automated or "Zero Desk" operating model.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with global client stakeholders, regional delivery teams, and offshore teams across different time zones.
• Strong understanding of Service Desk operations and the ability to effectively manage day-to-day operational challenges, escalations, and service delivery nuances.
• Demonstrated ability to provide end-to-end Service Desk governance, coordination, and continuous improvement across multiple regions.

The Salary for this position will be 119000 to 140,000 yearly depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

Benefits

Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.