IT Service Desk Manager

Newcastle upon Tyne, England upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Stoke-on-Trent, England, United Kingdom

About us : We are one of the top three automotive retailers in the UK, proudly representing 32 manufacturer brands, selling a huge range of new and used vehicles from over 150 dealerships across the UK and Ireland.

We believe our people are our greatest asset, and we’re committed to recognising the valuable contribution each person makes. That’s why we continue to invest in a leading rewards and benefits package designed to support your career, wellbeing, and life outside of work.

Service Desk Manager, Maternity Cover - 15 months FTC.

Purpose of the Role

The Service Desk Manager is responsible for leading the delivery of IT support services across the organisation, ensuring users receive high-quality, efficient, and customer-focused support. The role provides operational leadership for the Service Desk, 2nd Line Support and User Access teams, while driving continual service improvement, process governance, reporting, automation and technology platform development.

The role is accountable for maintaining service performance, developing team capability, ensuring compliance with IT policies and procedures, managing key suppliers, and supporting the successful delivery of business and IT change initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Service Management

• Lead the day-to-day operation of the Service Desk, 2nd Line and User Access functions.
• Ensure incidents, service requests and escalations are managed within agreed service levels.
• Monitor and improve customer satisfaction and service quality.
• Review service performance metrics and identify trends, risks and improvement opportunities.
• Act as a senior escalation point for major incidents, customer concerns and service issues.
• Ensure effective communication to stakeholders during incidents and service disruptions.

Team Leadership and People Management

• Manage Team Leaders and support the development of the Service Desk, 2nd Line and User Access teams.
• Conduct performance reviews, coaching sessions and development planning.
• Set service expectations, objectives and performance measures.
• Drive a culture of accountability, customer service and continuous improvement.
• Support recruitment, onboarding and succession planning activities.
• Manage employee relations matters in line with company policies.

ITSM and Process Governance

Own and maintain the following IT support processes:

• Knowledge Management

Contribute to and support the organisation's Problem Management, Change Management and Major Incident Management processes, working closely with the relevant process owners to ensure the Service Desk, 2nd Line and User Access teams follow agreed procedures.

• Ensure processes are documented, reviewed and followed consistently.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency through automation and workflow optimisation.
• Lead process improvement initiatives arising from audits, service reviews and operational feedback.

ITSM Platform Management

• Own the roadmap and continual development of the ITSM platform.
• Work with stakeholders to gather requirements and implement new functionality.
• Support automation projects and service management improvements.
• Ensure the platform supports operational reporting, governance and business requirements.
• Manage testing, deployment and adoption of platform enhancements.

Reporting and Service Performance

• Produce operational, management and executive-level reporting.
• Track service desk demand, ticket trends, service levels and team performance.
• Present service performance updates and improvement plans to leadership teams.
• Analyse operational data to identify opportunities for cost reduction and service improvement.
• Maintain dashboards and reporting frameworks to support decision-making.

Supplier and Vendor Management

• Manage relationships with third-party support providers and technology partners.
• Monitor supplier performance against agreed service levels.
• Coordinate escalations and service reviews with vendors.
• Drive accountability and service improvements from external partners.
• Support contract and service review activities.

Access Management and Compliance

• Oversee user access management processes.
• Ensure joiner, mover and leaver activities are completed in line with company policies.
• Maintain compliance with audit and security requirements.
• Review and improve access management controls and governance processes.

Change and Project Delivery

• Support the delivery of business and IT projects.
• Coordinate operational readiness for new systems, services and acquisitions.
• Develop support models, documentation and transition plans.
• Ensure service teams are prepared to support new technologies and processes.

Knowledge and Continuous Improvement

• Promote knowledge sharing and documentation standards.
• Develop and maintain support procedures and knowledge articles.
• Drive initiatives to improve user experience and operational efficiency.
• Identify opportunities for automation and self-service capabilities.

Core Benefits:

• Competitive salaries with structured pay scales and progression as you grow within the business
• Generous annual leave that increases with your length of service
• Enhanced family leave, including 6 months’ full pay for maternity and adoption leave, and 2 weeks’ full pay for paternity leave
• Access to Techscheme for discounted technology purchases with flexible payments
• Eyecare vouchers to help cover vision care needs
• Smart Health – 24/7 access to GP services to support your mental and physical wellbeing
• Dental insurance for everyday dental care and unexpected treatments
• Optional critical illness cover for peace of mind during life's most challenging moments

Financial Wellbeing:

• MyView PayNow – access a portion of your pay as you earn, with features to stream, save, and track your money through a user-friendly app
• Free will writing services to help plan for the future
• Flexible life assurance options and partner life assurance for added protection
• Discounted gym memberships to support an active lifestyle
• Travel insurance to help you explore with confidence
• Access to home and technology vouchers
• bYond card and a wide range of exclusive retail and lifestyle discounts

We strongly believe in nurturing and providing our people with specific manufacturer brand and management training to enhance career development opportunities. We have a great bunch of people, and we like to celebrate and encourage success at all levels.

Lookers and Charles Hurst are an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to a working environment that is free from discrimination, is inclusive, and empowers our people to bring their whole self to work and reach their full potential.

If your application issuccessful,we will conduct relevant employment checks prior to you commencing employment with us.Thesewill includeverifying your recent employment, address, credit historyandastandardcriminal recordcheck. For roles that require you to drive, adriving licence checkwill also be carried out.Please note, all offers of employment are made subject to a 6 month probation period commencing from your start date.

We take our data protection responsibilities very seriously and are committed to upholding and respecting your privacy rights. Information about how we will process your data including the types of data we collect, the purposes for which we use it, who we may share it with and how long we keep it are set out in our privacy notice. It also includes information about your individual privacy rights. Please make sure you read our Privacy Notice so that you understand how we may collect and use your data.

Please answer with Yes or No.
(Note: Selecting “No” will not eliminate you from consideration for this role.)

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