Sr. Manager, Service Desk

Harris County; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Harris County Universal Services in Houston seeks a Sr. Manager, Service Desk to lead the 24/7 enterprise support operation and drive ITIL-aligned incident, problem, and change management across multiple teams.

This onsite role requires strong leadership, ServiceNow expertise, and a track record of building resilient service delivery for public-sector IT services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or closely related field.
• Minimum of five (5) years managing a large-scale enterprise Service Desk/IT support organization.
• Experience with ITIL Change Management processes.
• Experience with ServiceNow or equivalent ITSM platform including implementations and configurations.
• Experience establishing and managing SLAs, KPIs, and dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the County's 24/7 enterprise Service Desk and technical support operation.
• Establish and maintain Service Desk standards, SLAs, and KPIs.
• Lead Incident Management and Major Incident Management activities.
• Coordinate Change Management per ITIL practices.
• Serve as escalation point for complex issues across IT teams.
• Oversee ServiceNow/ITSM platform implementation, configurations, and reporting.
• Collaborate with departments and vendors to improve ITSM processes.
• Develop knowledge articles, escalation matrices, and support models.
• Lead and develop Service Desk staff through coaching and planning.
• Coordinate support during emergencies and county events.

Skills

ITIL

Incident Mgmt

Change Mgmt

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/IS/Engineering

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

About Harris County and Universal Services:

Harris County Universal Services is transforming the way the County does business and seeking a Sr. Manager, Service Desk to join our team.

Universal Services is the enterprise IT solutions center for the departments and offices of Harris County, providing Information Technology, Public Safety and Justice Technologies, 311 Constituent Engagement Services, Fleet Services, and Records and Information Governance Services.

Harris County is the third largest and most diverse county in the nation, with a population of more than 4.7 million. Harris County Commissioners Court, the County’s governing body, directs a budget of more than $4 billion providing essential services including flood control, infrastructure, healthcare, housing, and justice administration.

This is a great time to join Universal Services as we enhance critical services to Harris County residents and internal customers.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage the County's 24/7 enterprise Service Desk and technical support operation, including staffing, workload management, service delivery, escalation, troubleshooting, performance management, and operational strategy.

• Establish and maintain Service Desk standards, procedures, service-level agreements (SLAs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and customer-service expectations.

• Lead Incident Management and Major Incident Management, ensuring appropriate prioritization, escalation, communication, coordination, resolution, and post-incident review.

• Ensure incidents and service requests are appropriately categorized, assigned, monitored, escalated, and resolved within established service levels.

• Lead the enterprise Change Management process in accordance with ITIL practices, including change review, risk assessment, approval, scheduling, communication, compliance, and Change Advisory Board activities.

• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex or high-impact technical and customer-service issues and coordinate resolution across infrastructure, application, cybersecurity, networking, desktop, and other technology teams.

• Provide leadership and functional oversight for ServiceNow or the County's designated ITSM platform, including platform implementation, workflow development, configuration, enhancements, integrations, reporting, dashboards, and continuous improvement.

• Partner with technical and business teams to improve Incident, Request, Problem, Change, Knowledge, and Asset Management processes within the ITSM platform.

• Use operational data, dashboards, trends, and customer feedback to identify recurring issues, service gaps, and opportunities for automation and process improvement.

• Develop and maintain Service Desk procedures, knowledge articles, escalation matrices, support models, and operational documentation.

• Lead and develop Service Desk managers, supervisors, analysts, and technical support personnel, including performance management, coaching, training, workforce planning, and succession planning.

• Coordinate Service Desk support during emergency activations and significant County events and ensure appropriate technology support is available for critical operations.

• Collaborate with County departments, leadership, technology teams, vendors, and external partners to ensure effective delivery of enterprise IT services.

• Participate in technology planning, budgeting, vendor management, contract management, and IT service-management initiatives as required.

• Perform other duties as assigned in support of enterprise IT operations and service continuity.

• Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Provides senior management oversight of Service Desk and technical support operations, including direct and indirect staff.

• Responsibilities include staffing and workforce planning, performance evaluations, goal setting, coaching and development, work assignment, scheduling, hiring and promotion recommendations, disciplinary actions, and ensuring appropriate coverage for 24/7 operations.

Harris County is an Equal Opportunity Employer

This position is subject to a criminal history check. Only relevant convictions will be considered and, even when considered, may not automatically disqualify the candidate.

If you need special services or accommodations, please call [phone] or email [e-mail].

Education:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Information Systems, Engineering, or a closely related field.

Experience:

• Minimum five (5) years of progressively responsible experience managing or leading a large-scale enterprise Service Desk, Help Desk, or IT support organization.
• Demonstrated experience with Incident Management and Major Incident Management in a complex enterprise environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing ITIL Change Management processes.
• Demonstrated experience with ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise ITSM platform, including implementation, administration, configuration, enhancement, or platform/process ownership.
• Experience establishing and managing Service Desk SLAs, KPIs, operational metrics, dashboards, escalation processes, and continuous-improvement initiatives.
• Demonstrated management experience leading technical personnel in an enterprise environment.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Extensive knowledge of enterprise Service Desk/Help Desk operations and end-user support.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL principles and IT Service Management practices.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Incident Management, Major Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Service Request Management, and Knowledge Management.
• Strong working knowledge of ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise ITSM platform.
• Understanding of ITSM platform architecture, workflows, queues, assignment groups, SLAs, automation, dashboards, reporting, integrations, and service catalogs.
• Ability to lead or participate in ITSM platform implementations, upgrades, enhancements, and process transformations.
• Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure, endpoint technologies, applications, networking, identity/access management, and cybersecurity support dependencies.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to use operational data and performance metrics to improve service delivery.
• Strong leadership, organizational, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate during major incidents and executive-level escalations.
• Ability to establish productive working relationships with technical teams, executive leadership, County departments, vendors, external agencies, law enforcement, and first responders.

Tools and Systems:

• Experience with enterprise IT Service Management platforms, preferably ServiceNow, including Incident, Change, Problem, Request, Knowledge, Service Catalog, reporting, dashboards, workflow, and related ITSM capabilities.
• Experience with Microsoft enterprise technologies and other tools supporting Service Desk, endpoint management, identity management, monitoring, remote support, collaboration, and reporting.

Applicants for this position will be subject to a criminal background check that includes being fingerprinted. This applies to any position with network access to Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) or access to an area where CJIS is received, maintained or stored either manually or electronically (i.e. custodian, maintenance).

Automatic Disqualification:

• Convictions, probation, or deferred adjudication for any Felony, and any Class A Misdemeanor
• Convictions, probation, or deferred adjudication for a Class B Misdemeanor, if within the previous 10 years
• Open arrest for any criminal offense (Felony or Misdemeanor)
• Family Violence conviction

NOTE:

Qualifying education, experience, knowledge and skills must be documented on your job application. You may attach a resume to the application as supporting documentation but ONLY information stated on the application will be used for consideration. "See Resume" will not be accepted for qualifications.

• Experience supporting 24/7 or other mission-critical technology operations is preferred.
• Experience supporting government, public safety, emergency management, law enforcement, or other complex public-sector environments is preferred.
• ITIL Foundation or higher certification.
• ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA), Certified Implementation Specialist (CIS), or comparable ITSM/platform certification is preferred.
• Relevant technical, project-management, cybersecurity, or service-management certifications are also desirable.

Location:

• 1310 Prairie St., Houston, TX 77002

Work Arrangement:

• Onsite 5 days/week

Employment may be contingent on passing a drug screen and meeting other standards.

Due to a high volume of applications positions may close prior to the advertised closing date or at the discretion of the Hiring Department.