Service Desk Manager

About Doherty Associates

Doherty Associates (DA) has successfully delivered IT managed services and consultancy for the past 30 years to world-renowned, international clients. Our focus is on delivering exception customer services to the professional and financial services sector, including leading private equity and venture capital firms and top 10 UK law firms.

We are a Microsoft Gold Partner with six gold competencies, a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP relationship and are ISO27001 & ISO9001 accredited.

Our clients rely on us to bring specialist expertise across cloud solutions, hybrid working, modern workplace, data and BI, cyber security, governance and compliance, and networking. We have built a reputation as a company that keeps its promises and delivers quality.

About the role

The position is office-based (London, Holborn), Monday to Friday.

This is a leadership position that will best suit an already established, hands-on and people-oriented professional, with an exceptional customer service ethos and deep understanding of how to drive a 1st class user support experience.

You will lead a London-based team of circa 15 UK support engineers and work closely with our Malaysian operation to ensure consistent 24/7 global support. You will play a pivotal role in upholding Doherty Associates’ service excellence, focusing on team development, operational effectiveness, and client satisfaction.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Build and develop a cohesive team; manage people effectively through coaching and instilling the right behaviours
• Conduct regular one-to-one meetings to ensure staff’s wellbeing
• Ensure effective staff onboarding, probations and performance reviews
• Train the service desk team on how to deliver outstanding customer experience
• Perform skills analysis, identifying technical training needs across the team

Service Desk Operations

• Ensure effective and efficient ticket triage, escalation, and resolution
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex support issues; take ownership and drive to resolution
• Monitor SLAs, optimise KPIs and service metrics to drive high performance and outstanding customer satisfaction
• Regularly analyse and report on service performance, client health, and improvement roadmaps, including financial impact analysis

Client Engagement & Satisfaction

• Own the client relationship; proactively communicate about service performance, incident status, and improvement initiatives
• Identify opportunities to enhance service delivery; collaborate with the sales account management team where appropriate
• Partner with the Malaysian teams to ensure consistent, high-quality global service operations overall.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Champion automation and self-service initiatives, improving both productivity and user experience
• Stay informed about industry trends and technological advances to ensure the service desk remains competitive and innovative

Strategic & Commercial Awareness

• Contribute to budget planning and resource allocation, balancing cost-effectiveness with high service quality
• Ensure service desk compliance with relevant regulations and standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and Cyber Essentials Plus
• Align service desk objectives with wider business goals

Qualification, experience and skills

• Experience managing a busy service desk in an MSP environment
• Experience of IT service management frameworks (e.g., ITIL) and PSA ticketing systems
• Strong grasp of Microsoft-based technologies
• Proven experience of proactively engaging and managing customer’s relationships; driving high levels of customer satisfaction
• Demonstrable experience in successfully managing employee relations
• Demonstrable leadership experience with a track record of building high-performing and engaged teams

About the person

• People oriented; able to inspire and understand that success comes through effective people leadership
• Excellent communicator (both verbally and in writing); high level of empathy
• Analytical mindset; comfortable using metrics and KPIs to assess performance and drive improvements
• Organised and detail-oriented; strong problem-solving abilities
• Commercial awareness; able to collaborate with sales and account teams to identify value-add opportunities
• Adaptable and proactive; able to navigate fast-pace environment and emerging technologies

What we offer in return

• Basic salary plus performance bonus
• 34 days of annual leave (incl. 8 UK bank holidays and a day off on your birthday)
• Enhanced family-friendly benefit schemes including company sick pay
• Private medical insurance and Employee Assistance Programme
• Income protection and life insurance
• Company Pension scheme

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