Service Desk Team Leader

Job description

The Service Desk Team Leader is a hands-on, player-coach role responsible for leading the day-to-day operation of our managed services support desk, ensuring customer incidents and service requests are triaged, prioritised and resolved within SLA across Level 1 and Level 2 support. The role owns the health of the support queue, the performance and development of the service desk engineers, and the quality of the end-to-end customer experience. This is not a purely managerial role. You must have a strong Microsoft technical background and be genuinely hands-on, actively working tickets, taking escalations and clearing the queue alongside the team whenever the desk is short-staffed or workload is high. Balancing this technical delivery with genuine people leadership, you will set the daily operating rhythm, coach and mentor the team, and continuously improve our processes in line with ITIL best practice. The role requires the self-discipline to take ownership of queue performance and customer satisfaction, and the leadership to lift, develop and retain a high-performing support team. We believe strongly in ongoing professional development through both mentoring and technical certification, and you would be encouraged and supported to improve your skillset and progress your career within Virtuelle Group. This would be an ideal opportunity for an experienced service desk professional looking to step up into leadership, or an established team leader seeking greater ownership and career progression in a fast growth, unique and professional organisation. MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: The job responsibilities of this Service Desk Team Leader role include, but are not limited to: • Lead, coach and develop a team of Level 1 and Level 2 service desk engineers, setting clear expectations and driving a high-performance, customer-first culture. • Roll up your sleeves and work tickets hands-on, actively resolving incidents and service requests alongside the team whenever the desk is short-staffed, workload spikes or SLAs are at risk. • Own the daily service desk operating rhythm, including queue management, ticket triage, prioritisation and dispatch to the right resource. • Ensure incidents and service requests are resolved within agreed SLAs, response targets and customer satisfaction (CSAT) measures. • Act as the first point of escalation for complex, aged or at-risk tickets, providing hands-on technical guidance and driving them to resolution. • Monitor, analyse and report on service desk KPIs such as SLA attainment, first-contact resolution, backlog, reopen rates and CSAT. • Manage team rostering, capacity planning and after-hours or on-call coverage to maintain consistent service levels. • Conduct regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, coaching and knowledge-transfer sessions to develop the team’s technical and customer service skills. • Drive continuous improvement of service desk processes, runbooks and the knowledge base, aligned to ITIL incident, request, problem and change practices. • Maintain high standards of ticket hygiene, documentation and accurate time recording across the team. • Support the onboarding of new customers and the transition of new services into supported operations. • Handle customer complaints and difficult conversations professionally, protecting both the client relationship and the wellbeing of the team. • Contribute to the recruitment, induction and mentoring of new service desk staff. • Provide out of hours emergency support and leadership cover when required. • Attain and maintain relevant qualifications and technical certifications. Key Relationships/engagements • Establish and maintain strong relationships with customers, acting as an escalation point and the voice of service quality. • Work closely with the Service Delivery Manager and account management team to support service reviews and reporting. • Partner with the Level 3 engineering, project and cyber security teams to ensure smooth escalations and clean handovers. • Engage with third-party vendors and partners for support, problem resolution and service improvement. • Collaborate with internal teams to improve tooling, automation and customer self-service capability. Qualifications and Experience: • Proven hands-on experience in a service desk or technical support role within a Managed Services Provider (MSP) environment, including team leadership, senior or escalation responsibility, and a genuine willingness to remain technical and work tickets when required. • Strong hands-on Microsoft technical background is essential, with demonstrated capability across Microsoft 365, Windows, Azure and Entra, Intune and common business applications, and the ability to troubleshoot and resolve escalations directly. • ITIL Foundation certification is required, with a solid working understanding of ITIL service management practices across incident, request, problem and change management. • Familiarity with ITSM or PSA tools (for example ConnectWise, Autotask or ServiceNow) and remote monitoring and management (RMM) platforms. • Demonstrated ability to manage SLAs, ticket queues and team performance metrics in a fast-paced support environment. • Experience with rostering, capacity planning and coordinating after-hours or on-call support. • Excellent communication, customer service and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships with clients and internal teams. • Strong organisational, prioritisation and time management skills, with a proactive and detail-oriented approach. • Relevant Microsoft certifications (for example MS-900, AZ-900, MD-102 or MS-102) required or actively being pursued; higher-level Microsoft certifications advantageous. • A coaching mindset with a genuine desire to develop people and lift team performance. • Excellent Communication and Time Management.