Senior Service Desk Manager

The Admiral Service Desk is critical to our organisation's IT (Informational Technology) Operational setup. It serves as the primary point of contact for our internal users (circa 10,000) who require assistance with IT-related incidents, inquiries, or service requests.

We seek a highly skilled and experienced Senior Service Desk Manager to join our team and manage the Service Desk function and team.

The ideal person will have a strong background in a technical IT Service Desk and IT Service Management (ITSM) in an Enterprise Organisation, focusing on ITIL standard methodologies.

The Senior Service Desk Manager will be critical in ensuring excellent customer service, increasing first call resolution (FCR), embracing customer self-service, and improving overall service desk performance through effective real-time metrics tracking and collaboration with service management and other IT teams.

Main Duties:

• Review, lead, manage, develop, and motivate the Admiral team of Service Desk Managers and their teams to provide efficient and cost-effective support to meet the requirements of the business community.
• Embrace, review, and work towards the Service Desk offering self-help service tools, knowledge, automation, AI, and Chatbot as a first option for customer support.
• Prioritise day-to-day team resources to ensure effective service delivery to the business.
• Monitor team and individual performance against pre-agreed indicators and, where necessary, put in remediation support.
• Use and mature ITSM industry best practices across the Service Desk platform and with interconnecting teams.
• Ensure that all service desk communications are handled promptly and effectively according to Admiral internal SLAs (Service Level Agreements), standards, and procedures, focusing on customer service.
• Apply IT service management (ITSM) principles and ITIL standard methodologies to ensure service desk operations align with industry standards and optimize service delivery.  
• Provide a practical interface between users, other IT teams, and third-party service providers for tickets that cannot be directly resolved, ensuring that priority setting via OLAs (Operating Level Agreements), SLAs, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are developed and managed.
• Working with the rest of IT and the business to develop and adapt to changing client and market expectations through establishing an Operational understanding of service supply chains.
• Work with Projects, Transition, and Agile teams to ensure the successful go-live of modern technologies.
• Ensure all new releases are supportable and supported appropriately in a live environment.
• Monitor and analyse service desk metrics and data, identifying trends and areas for improvement and recommending corrective actions or opportunities to optimize performance as needed.
• Actively monitor customer feedback, identify areas for improvement, and implement measures to enhance the quality of service provided by the service desk.
• Ensure that effective escalation procedures for issues and complaints are resolved responsibly and professionally within an agreed OLA (Operating Level Agreement) and that lessons are learned to stop further escalations.
• Work closely with business Super Users to understand and help reduce issues, problems, and general workload.
• Support the setup and ongoing management of a complete IT Service Catalogue and Service Request Catalogue, using full automation wherever possible.
• Support the setup of Knowledge Management and Chat Bot AI functionality with full integration into Live Agent chat.
• Support and manage the setup of IT clinic days and on-site bookable support bench Service Desks
• Reduce Incident tickets by working closely with Incident and Problem Management teams
• Draft and maintain policies, standards, and procedures for the service desk function and other users of the Service Desk.
• Act as a liaison between the service desk and other departments, fostering strong working relationships and promoting effective knowledge-sharing.

Skills and Experience:

• At least five years' experience managing a regulated organization's large-scale technical service desk function.
• Experience in outsourcing.
• Practical first-hand knowledge of the ServiceNow or similar.
• Experience with IT service management (ITSM) frameworks.
• Excellent people management and leadership skills, with a track record of effectively managing and developing teams from a technical and customer service perspective.
• Exceptional customer service skills and a customer-centric attitude.
• Strong technical, analytical, and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams and partners.
• Hands-on experience in implementing and driving service quality improvements across an organisation.

Our Commitment to You

At Admiral, we are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace. Admiral is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other legally protected status.

All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment.

Salary, Benefits, and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we’re consistently voted one of the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to work for in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

All colleagues will receive 33 days holiday (including banks holidays) when they join us, and this will increase with length of service, up to a maximum of 38 days (including banks holidays). You also have the option to buy or sell up to five days of annual leave in addition to your allocation.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here.

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