We are looking for an experienced and motivated Service Desk Team Leader to join Akita and help lead one of our Service Desk teams.
This is a hands-on leadership role combining people management, service delivery, technical understanding and operational responsibility. You will be responsible for helping your team perform at its best, ensuring customers receive a consistently high standard of service while supporting the development, wellbeing and progression of the engineers within your team.
You will work closely with the wider Service Desk Management team, helping to manage priorities, maintain service standards, resolve escalations and continuously improve the way the team operates.
While strong technical knowledge is important, this role is about more than resolving technical issues. We are looking for someone who can lead people, provide direction, make good decisions under pressure and create an environment where engineers are supported while remaining accountable for the service they deliver.
You will provide day-to-day leadership for your team, including:
Coaching, mentoring and developing Service Desk Engineers.
Providing regular, constructive feedback on performance, behaviours and development.
Supporting individual development plans and identifying training or skills gaps.
Helping team members develop greater technical capability, confidence and ownership.
Supporting performance conversations where standards or expectations are not being met.
Creating a positive, supportive and accountable team environment.
Leading by example in your communication, attitude, professionalism and approach to customers.
You will help ensure the team delivers an effective and responsive service by:
Managing daily workload and priorities across the team.
Ensuring tickets are allocated appropriately based on priority, SLA, technical ability and operational requirements.
Monitoring ticket flow and helping remove blockers that could affect customer service.
Reviewing the quality of ticket updates, documentation and customer communication.
Ensuring agreed processes and service standards are consistently followed.
Identifying trends, recurring issues or areas where processes could be improved.
Supporting the team in achieving agreed service and individual KPI targets.
Ensuring ticket handovers and reallocations are managed effectively.
You will act as a point of guidance and escalation for both engineers and customers.
This will include:
Supporting engineers with technical, operational and process-related escalations.
Helping manage major incidents and high-priority customer issues.
Supporting the resolution of customer concerns and complaints.
Ensuring customers receive clear, professional and appropriate communication.
Making balanced decisions that consider the needs of the customer, the team and the wider business.
Escalating significant risks or concerns to Service Desk Management when appropriate.
Maintaining and improving the quality of our service will be an important part of the role.
You will:
Review ticket quality and identify opportunities for improvement.
Ensure engineers maintain accurate and meaningful service ticket notes.
Encourage the creation and maintenance of knowledge base documentation.
Identify opportunities to improve processes, collaboration and efficiency.
Work with management to identify recurring skills, resource or operational issues.
Help translate wider Service Desk and business objectives into practical actions for your team.
You will be an active member of the Service Desk leadership team and will:
Work collaboratively with other Team Leaders and Service Desk Management.
Provide constructive input into operational and management discussions.
Communicate emerging issues, risks and concerns clearly and promptly.
Support wider Service Desk initiatives and improvement projects.
Help maintain a consistent management approach across the Service Desk.
Demonstrate and reinforce Akita's professional standards, culture and values.
We are looking for someone who combines strong technical credibility with the ability to lead and develop others.
You should have:
Strong technical knowledge gained within an IT support or Managed Service Provider environment.
Experience working at a senior Service Desk or 3rd Line support level.
Previous experience leading, supervising or line-managing a technical team.
A strong understanding of Service Desk operations, ticket prioritisation, SLAs and service performance.
Experience handling technical and customer escalations.
Strong customer relationship and communication skills.
The ability to coach and develop people with different levels of experience.
Good judgement and the confidence to make fair and consistent decisions.
Excellent written communication and documentation skills.
Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
The right person for this role will:
Remain calm and effective in a busy or pressured environment.
Take a logical and methodical approach to problem solving.
Lead by example and take ownership of outcomes.
Be comfortable giving constructive feedback while maintaining positive working relationships.
Promote accountability without creating a blame culture.
Be approachable and supportive while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
Understand when to coach, when to challenge and when to escalate.
Be able to balance customer expectations, team wellbeing and business priorities.
Communicate clearly and confidently with engineers, managers and customers.
Look for ways to improve how the team works rather than simply accepting existing processes.
Take pride in delivering a high standard of customer service.
Although the primary focus of the position is leadership, you will retain a strong understanding of the technical work carried out by the Service Desk.
You may be required to:
Provide guidance on technically challenging tickets.
Support engineers with escalation decisions and troubleshooting approaches.
Work appropriate service tickets where your technical expertise is required.
Assist with significant incidents or escalations.
Support the wider technical escalation structure of the Service Desk.
The objective is not to become the person who resolves every difficult ticket, but to help the team develop the capability and confidence to resolve more issues themselves.
Our Service Desk Team Leaders play an important part in creating the environment in which our engineers and our customers succeed.
You will have the opportunity to influence how your team works, help individuals progress in their careers and contribute directly to the quality of service Akita provides to its customers.
We are looking for someone who wants to lead rather than simply supervise, someone who can develop people, maintain high standards, take ownership when things go wrong and help the team continually become better at what it does.
