This is a contract to hire opportunity!

The Service Desk Manager leads Dispatch and Service Desk operations, delivering exceptional, customer-centric support across multiple MSP clients. This role oversees frontline support teams (supervisors, leads, technicians, and dispatchers) to ensure high-quality service aligned with SLAs, KPIs, and customer satisfaction goals.

The manager drives operational excellence by optimizing workflows, staffing models, triage processes, and escalation management using ITIL/ITSM best practices, automation, and continuous improvement. This role partners closely with Service Delivery, Customer Success, Engineering, and vendor teams to resolve escalations, manage major incidents, and maintain a high-performing support organization.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop supervisors, leads, technicians, and dispatchers across multiple shifts.
• Build a high-performance, customer-first culture focused on accountability and service quality.
• Manage performance reviews, coaching, career development, and workforce coverage planning.
• Oversee remote, hybrid, and on-site teams to ensure operational consistency.

Service Desk Operations & ITSM

• Own and improve Service Desk SOPs, workflows, triage, escalation paths, and knowledge content.
• Drive SLA adherence, First Contact Resolution (FCR), backlog reduction, and ticket quality.
• Implement QA, ticket auditing, and root-cause analysis programs.
• Leverage automation and AI tools to improve efficiency and time to resolution.
• Ensure adherence to ITIL-based processes (Incident, Request, Problem, Change, Knowledge).

Customer Experience & Escalations

• Act as a primary escalation point for high-impact or critical customer issues.
• Lead Major Incident response, communication, and post-incident reviews.
• Partner cross-functionally to identify customer risks and service improvement opportunities.

Reporting & Analytics

• Track and report KPIs including SLA performance, CSAT, FCR, backlog, and operational trends.
• Use data insights to drive staffing, training, process, and tooling improvements.
• Participate in operational reviews and QBRs.

Tools, Vendors & Knowledge Management

• Manage ITSM tools (e.g., ConnectWise, ManageEngine) and third-party vendors.
• Evaluate and adopt new tools, automation, and AI solutions.
• Ensure accurate, up-to-date knowledge articles, runbooks, and SOPs.
• Promote knowledge-centered support (KCS) practices.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Sales, Customer Success, Engineering, PMO, and Service Delivery teams.
• Support new customer onboarding with operational readiness and documentation.
• Contribute insights to service offerings and support maturity roadmaps.

Qualifications

• 5+ years managing Service Desk, NOC, or IT support operations.
• 3+ years managing SLAs, escalations, and high-volume support queues.
• 4+ years hands-on experience in end-user support (M365, identity, endpoint security, remote tools).
• Strong experience with ITSM platforms (ConnectWise preferred).
• Proven ability to lead distributed teams and vendor partners.
• Strong customer-facing communication and escalation management skills.
• MSP experience strongly preferred.

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Business, or related field.
• Preferred: ITIL Foundation, HDI (Manager/Team Lead), SDI, CompTIA (A+/N+/S+), M365.