Digital Service Desk Team Leader

Summary: The Digital Service Desk Team Leader is responsible for managing and supervising Service Desk Analysts, ensuring effective incident management, and maintaining high standards of customer service. This role involves overseeing team performance, facilitating service improvements, and acting as a senior escalation point for complex issues. The position requires strong leadership skills and the ability to coordinate with various teams to ensure smooth service delivery. The role is based on-site in either Norwich or Chelmsford and is classified as inside IR35.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide line management and supervision for band 4 and 5 Service Desk Analysts, including appraisals, development plans, and performance management.
• Managing the full lifecycle of incidents and requests, ensuring quality triage, escalation, and resolution.
• Acting as the first point of senior escalation for Band 4-5 Service Desk staff and users.
• Overseeing team ticket queues, ensuring SLA compliance and workload distribution.
• Providing technical support and escalation during high-demand periods and Major Incidents (MIs)/Digital Business Continuity Incidents (DCBIs).
• Managing team rotas, providing coaching, and contributing to staff performance and development.
• Ensuring quality and currency of team-authored knowledge base articles and specialism ownership.
• Coordinating with SACM and project teams to ensure smooth service transitions and configuration updates.
• Leading service improvement initiatives and identifying recurring issues for problem management.
• Monitoring compliance with IG, security, and audit requirements across Service Desk operations.
• Deputising for the Service Desk Manager and other managers as required, and producing operational performance reports.
• Contributing to Trust-wide digital service initiatives, including governance and continuous improvement.
• Oversee incident lifecycle: Ensure timely triage, classification, and escalation of incidents and service requests.
• Monitor dashboards: Proactively monitor ITSM/ESM wallboards and reports, addressing delays or SLA risks.
• Senior escalation: Act as the escalation point for complex, urgent, or high-profile issues from Band 4-5 staff.
• Facilitate resolution: Coordinate with infrastructure, applications, and SACM teams to expedite resolution.
• Oversee queues: Responsibility for monitoring team queues for SLA compliance, overdue tickets, and quality of documentation.
• Drive performance: Ensure workload distribution is effective and team performance metrics are met.
• Quality assurance: Review tickets for accuracy, resolution quality, and adherence to process.
• Provide reporting: Produce routine and ad hoc performance reports for the Service Desk Manager.
• Promote service excellence: Ensure high standards of communication and professionalism in all interactions.
• Manage expectations: Communicate delays or risks to users and stakeholders in a timely and constructive manner.
• Resolve complaints: Investigate and respond to user complaints or dissatisfaction, escalating only when necessary. Provide reports of customer complaints and their resolutions to the Service Desk Manager, to facilitate process changes and team learning.
• Line management: Line manage Band 4 and Band 5 Service Desk Analysts, including performance review and development planning.
• Manage rotas: Plan and maintain resourcing rotas to ensure adequate coverage of core service hours.
• Support development: Coach, mentor, and support team members in their professional growth.
• Deputise as needed: Act as deputy for the Service Desk Manager and other Digital managers as required.
• Support service delivery: Provide senior technical support as needed, especially during high-demand periods.
• Manage escalations: Review and ensure timely escalation of unresolved or incorrectly triaged incidents.
• Collaborate with ITIL functions: Work with Service Desk, ITIL, and SACM Managers to ensure service quality.

Key Skills:

• Strong leadership and management skills.
• Experience in incident management and service desk operations.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills.
• Ability to manage and mentor team members effectively.
• Technical knowledge relevant to service desk support.
• Experience with ITIL processes and frameworks.
• Proficiency in monitoring and reporting performance metrics.
• Ability to handle escalations and complex issues.
• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Experience in managing service transitions and improvements.

Salary (Rate): £20.44 per hour

City: Chelmsford

Country: UK

Working Arrangements: on-site

IR35 Status: inside IR35

Seniority Level: Mid-Level

Industry: IT