Service Desk Lead

Role Summary

The Service Desk Lead is responsible for managing day-to-day service desk operations and ensuring consistent delivery of high-quality end-user support across phone, chat, email, self-service, and walk-in channels. The role drives SLA compliance, customer experience, operational discipline, team productivity, escalation handling, knowledge management, and continuous service improvement.

 

Key Responsibilities

Service Desk Operations

• Manage daily Service Desk operations across voice, chat, and self-service support channels, supporting 24/7 operations.
• Ensure incidents and service requests are logged, categorized, prioritized, assigned, and resolved within agreed SLA targets.
• Monitor ticket queues, workload distribution, aging tickets, breached tickets, and backlog trends.
• Drive first-call resolution, reduce repeat contacts, and improve overall user experience.
• Ensure adherence to ITIL processes, standard operating procedures, and client-specific support guidelines.

Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and coach Service Desk analysts and engineers to improve technical capability and service behavior.
• Conduct daily huddles, one-on-one discussions, quality feedback sessions, and performance reviews.
• Manage shift schedules, leave planning, roster coverage, and resource allocation.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, knowledge transfer, and readiness tracking for new team members.
• Build a culture of accountability, urgency, collaboration, and customer-first service delivery.

Incident and Major Incident Management

• Act as the first point of operational escalation for high-priority or aged tickets.
• Coordinate with resolver groups during priority incidents and support bridge call operations as required.
• Ensure timely stakeholder communication as needed during major incidents, service interruptions, and escalations.
• Participate in incident reviews, RCA discussions, and action tracking for recurring issues.

Reporting and Governance

• Prepare daily, weekly, and monthly operational reports covering SLA, volume, aging, backlog, quality, and CSAT trends.
• Participate in service reviews, governance meetings, and operational performance discussions.
• Highlight risks, dependencies, staffing constraints, process gaps, and service improvement actions.
• Track operational actions to closure and provide timely status updates to leadership and stakeholders.

Knowledge and Continuous Improvement

• Ensure knowledge articles, SOPs, runbooks, and troubleshooting guides are created, reviewed, and kept current.
• Drive shift-left opportunities by improving knowledge usage, self-service adoption, and automation readiness.
• Identify process optimization opportunities to improve productivity, reduce AHT, and enhance resolution quality.
• Support implementation of virtual agents, chatbots, AI assist, and automation initiatives where applicable.
• Work with cross-functional teams for project coordination.

 

Required Skills and Experience

Category	Requirements
Technical Skills	Strong knowledge of Windows OS, Microsoft 365, Active Directory, VPN, Citrix/VDI, Exchange Online, Teams, endpoint support, and basic network troubleshooting.
ITSM Tools	Hands-on experience with ServiceNow Ticketing Tool.
Process Knowledge	Working knowledge of Incident, Request, Problem, Change, Escalation, and Knowledge Management processes.
Leadership Skills	Team management, coaching, escalation handling, decision-making under pressure, stakeholder communication, and service ownership.
Experience	6–10 years of IT support experience, including 3–4 years in a Service Desk Lead role supporting enterprise users.

 

Preferred Certifications

• ITIL Foundation / ITIL 4
• Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900)

 

Leadership Expectations

The Service Desk Lead is expected to demonstrate ownership, urgency, empathy, and operational rigor. The role should proactively identify service risks, coach the team toward better outcomes, improve service maturity, and ensure service delivery remains aligned with client expectations and business priorities.