Service Desk Manager

Job Description Position Summary - The Service Desk Manager owns the performance, strategy, and leadership of Arraya's Global Service Desk team, with a focus on delivering exceptional client experience and building a high-performing support organization. - This role is responsible for leading Service Desk Team Leads and Technicians located in the Philippines, ensuring operational excellence, SLA achievement, customer satisfaction, staffing, process maturity, and employee development. - The Manager develops future leaders, drives accountability, supports continuous improvement initiatives, and ensures consistent service delivery aligned with client and organizational objectives. - The Service Desk Manager serves as the operational leader of the Global Service Desk organization and is expected to be a visible and active leader who fosters a strong team culture through regular engagement, professional development, recognition programs, and periodic in-person team events. - The role is reporting to the Director of Managed Services Delivery. Supervisory Responsibilities - Directly manage Service Desk Team Leads and oversee all Service Desk Technicians. - Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with Team Leads and Service Desk Technicians to review performance, challenges, and development plans. - Approve time off, manage scheduling conflicts, and ensure adequate coverage across all shifts. - Own hiring, onboarding, and offboarding for all Service Desk staff, including defining requirements, conducting interviews, making selection recommendations, and confirming readiness before independent queue work. - Provide performance feedback, handle disciplinary actions, and lead annual performance reviews. - Set goals and development plans for team members in alignment with organizational objectives. - Own training programs, certification tracking, and cross-skilling, maintaining an accurate record of each team member's progress against their learning path. - Promote a culture of accountability, professionalism, and continuous improvement. - Develop and mentor Team Leads to create a strong leadership pipeline within the Global Service Desk organization. - Partner with Human Resources and Managed Services leadership to recruit, onboard, and retain Service Desk personnel located in the Philippines. - Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, customer service, and continuous improvement across a geographically distributed support team. - Organize and lead periodic in-person team gatherings, training sessions, workshops, and team meetings to strengthen technical capabilities, collaboration, and employee engagement. - Promote a positive and inclusive team culture through employee recognition activities, team-building events, and engagement initiatives that support retention and morale. - Foster strong working relationships across the Service Desk organization through regular team interactions, knowledge-sharing sessions, and professional development opportunities. Responsibilities - Manage daily service desk operations, ensuring tickets are assigned, prioritized, and resolved on time. - Review and follow up on high-priority tickets to ensure resolution and client communication. - Own client escalations directly through to confirmed closure, with cause and resolution recorded. - Oversee staffing schedules, approve time off, and adjust coverage to maintain SLA compliance. - Conduct daily and weekly check-ins with Team Leads and technicians on workload and performance. - Audit tickets and interactions for quality, documentation, and process adherence. - Provide hands-on coaching, feedback, and support to service desk staff as needed. - Track and report KPIs including volume, resolution time, first-call resolution, and satisfaction. - Escalate unfillable coverage gaps in advance of the gap, with proposed mitigation. - Raise recurring or systemic issues with problem statements and proposed corrective actions. - Escalate performance or conduct concerns and departure risks to the Director and HR before acting. - Own the upkeep and accuracy of service desk documentation. - Coordinate with infrastructure, projects, and service delivery on cross-functional service issues. - Ensure technicians progress against learning paths and certification goals. - Lead the day-to-day operations of Arraya's Global Service Desk organization. - Ensure staffing, workforce planning, scheduling, and coverage models support client requirements and service level commitments. - Drive employee engagement, retention, training, and career development initiatives for the Philippines-based Service Desk team. - Establish consistency in service delivery, reporting, documentation, escalation management, and operational processes across the Service Desk. - Develop Team Leads and future leaders to support the continued growth and scalability of the Global Service Desk. - Develop and execute team engagement initiatives that strengthen collaboration, communication, and alignment with company values. - Coordinate training events, team meetings, leadership workshops, and development activities designed to support skills development, operational excellence, and career growth. - Partner with leadership and Human Resources to support employee engagement, recognition, and team-building programs. Expectations - Service KPIs are tracked and trending to target, with accurate reporting delivered to the Director on the agreed cadence and variances explained. - Contracted response and resolution SLAs are met, with misses documented and corrected. - Customer satisfaction meets or exceeds target, every detractor response is closed, and a client-first and people-first mindset is promoted across the team. - Every direct report has documented one-on-ones, a current development plan, and quarterly progress against learning paths and certifications. - Client escalations are owned directly and closed with confirmed client communication recorded. - All shifts are staffed to protect SLA commitments, with schedules published in advance. - Ticket quality standards are enforced through recurring audits, and SOPs and knowledge base content are reviewed on a defined cycle with gaps tracked to closure. - Processes are improved continuously, cross-team collaboration is maintained, and accountability, professionalism, and strong communication are modeled throughout. - Team Leads demonstrate continued professional growth and increased operational ownership through coaching, mentorship, and leadership development initiatives. - Employee retention, engagement, and satisfaction remain a focus through regular communication, training opportunities, recognition programs, and team-building activities. - Team training plans are maintained, executed, and measured against defined development objectives. - Periodic team gatherings and development events are conducted to strengthen culture, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. Preferred Qualifications and Experience - 7+ years of experience in IT support, service desk operations, or service delivery leadership. - 3+ years of experience leading technical support teams within an MSP or multi-client environment. - Prior experience directly managing Team Leads, supervisors, or frontline managers. - Demonstrated success building high-performing teams, improving operational performance, and developing future leaders. - Experience managing distributed or remote teams, preferably within the Philippines. - Proven experience owning staffing, workforce planning, employee development, and customer escalations. Education - Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field. - Equivalent combination of education, technical certifications, and relevant leadership experience may be considered in lieu of a degree. - Preferred Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline. - Leadership, management, or business-related coursework or certifications. - ITIL Foundation certification or higher. - Industry certifications such as CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Microsoft, or other relevant technical certifications. - Supervisory, leadership, or people-management training certifications. Position Type and Expected Hours of Work - Full-Time Remote 40+ hours per week, as required to support business needs. - Primary work schedule aligned to U.S. Eastern Time (EST/EDT) business hours. - Must be available to support management meetings, employee coaching sessions, customer escalations, and operational reviews during Eastern Time business hours. - Flexibility to adjust work schedules as needed to support Team Leads, technicians, and operational activities across first, second, and third shifts within a 24x7x365 service delivery environment. - Occasional evenings, overnight, weekend, or holiday availability may be required to support critical incidents, major outages, staffing needs, team development activities, and business initiatives. - Travel within the Philippines may be required for team gatherings, training events, leadership meetings, employee engagement activities, and team-building events. - Remote Monday through Friday. - Ability to adjust schedule to support evening one on one or meetings.