Service Desk Functional Manager

Role: Service Desk Functional Manager

Location: Rockville, MD (Hybrid 2 days/week)

Duration: 6+ month with possible extension

Position Summary
The Service Desk Functional Manager is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of a high-volume enterprise service desk supporting a diverse user community across multiple business-critical applications and services. This role oversees customer support operations, including phone and email intake, ticket triage, issue resolution, escalation management, customer communications, queue management, and operational performance monitoring. The Service Desk Functional Manager ensures the service desk consistently delivers exceptional customer service while meeting contractual service levels, performance metrics, and operational objectives. The position supports an environment processing more than 120,000 annual tickets and contacts, maintains extended business-hour operations, supports designated weekend coverage during peak periods, and manages operational readiness for recurring surge events. This individual serves as the primary operational leader for service desk staff, ensuring efficient service delivery, knowledge management, workforce coordination, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Key Responsibilities
Lead daily service desk operations, including phone, email, and ticket-based support channels.
Manage Tier I and Tier II support teams responsible for incident, request, and case management activities.
Oversee ticket intake, prioritization, assignment, escalation, tracking, and resolution processes.
Monitor service desk queues, workloads, staffing levels, and operational performance metrics.
Ensure compliance with service level agreements (SLAs), operational procedures, and quality standards.
Develop, maintain, and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs), escalation paths, and support processes.
Drive improvements in first-contact resolution, customer satisfaction, ticket aging reduction, and repeat-contact prevention.
Coordinate with application support teams, technical teams, and business stakeholders to resolve complex issues.
Lead workforce planning and surge readiness activities to support periods of increased demand.
Oversee knowledge management activities, including knowledge article creation, maintenance, and utilization.
Produce operational reports, dashboards, and performance analyses to support management decision-making.
Identify process improvement opportunities and implement service delivery enhancements.

Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, or a related field. Equivalent experience may be considered.
Minimum 5 8 years of experience managing enterprise service desk, help desk, or contact center operations.
Demonstrated experience leading Tier I and Tier II support teams in a high-volume customer support environment.
Experience managing environments processing 120,000+ annual tickets, cases, or customer contacts.
Strong knowledge of incident management, service request management, escalation procedures, and customer support best practices.
Experience managing service desk operations utilizing ticketing platforms, call center technologies, and workforce management tools.
Proven experience with queue management, SLA monitoring, ticket aging management, and operational reporting.
Strong leadership, communication, coaching, and team development skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced operational environment.

Preferred Qualifications
Experience supporting healthcare, health insurance, government, or highly regulated industries.
Experience supporting large-scale enrolment, customer service, or seasonal surge operations.
Familiarity with customer support environments serving external customers, business partners, and stakeholders.
Experience working with enterprise application support organizations.
Knowledge of IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks and service delivery best practices.

Technical Skills
ServiceNow Incident, Request, Case, and Knowledge Management
Assignment Groups and Queue Management
SLA Monitoring and Compliance Reporting
Knowledge Base Administration (KBAs)
Operational Metrics and Dashboard Reporting
NICE CXone Contact Center Platform
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Call Routing and Queue Monitoring
Workforce Management and Scheduling
Reporting and Analytics Platforms (including Tableau or similar tools)

Certifications
One or more of the following certifications are preferred:
ITIL 4 Foundation
HDI Support Center Manager (HDI-SCM)
HDI Support Center Team Lead (HDI-SCTL)
ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA)
ServiceNow Certified Implementation Specialist (preferred)
Equivalent Service Management or Contact Center Certification

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
Service Desk and Help Desk Operations Management
Contact Center Operations
Customer Service Excellence
Workforce Planning and Surge Management
Incident and Escalation Management
Process Improvement and Continuous Service Improvement
Performance Metrics and Operational Reporting
Stakeholder Relationship Management
Team Leadership and Staff Development
Problem Solving and Decision Making

The ideal candidate is a hands-on operational leader with a strong background in enterprise service desk and contact center management, capable of delivering high-quality customer support services in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment