Optomi, in partnership with our client, are seeking an experienced Service Desk Manager to lead a team of IT support professionals and drive high-quality service delivery across a multi-location organization.
We are seeking a Service Desk Manager to lead and elevate a high-performing IT Service Desk organization. This is an opportunity for a hands-on leader who enjoys building teams, driving operational excellence, and creating scalable processes that improve both employee experience and service delivery.
Our Service Desk team is already staffed with talented professionals. We need a leader who can coach, set clear expectations, develop future leaders, and establish a culture of accountability, execution, and continuous improvement.
This role will partner closely with IT leadership to enhance service delivery, mature ITSM practices, and leverage technology—including emerging AI capabilities—to improve efficiency and user satisfaction.
What You'll Do
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead and develop a Service Desk organization consisting of supervisors and analysts supporting a fast-paced, growing business.
- Coach, mentor, and empower team members through regular feedback, career development planning, and performance management.
- Establish clear expectations, accountability measures, and performance standards across the team.
- Foster a culture focused on collaboration, customer service excellence, and continuous improvement.
Service Management & Operations
- Own the day-to-day operations of the IT Service Desk, ensuring timely and effective resolution of incidents and service requests.
- Define, monitor, and improve key service metrics, including SLAs, KPIs, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
- Serve as the escalation point for critical incidents and high-priority issues.
- Ensure consistent incident, request, problem, and change management practices aligned with ITIL standards.
- Oversee ticket lifecycle management, prioritization, escalation paths, and service quality.
Process Improvement & Strategy
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance service delivery, reduce recurring issues, and improve user experience.
- Identify operational inefficiencies and implement scalable processes, workflows, and automation opportunities.
- Partner with IT leadership to align service desk operations with broader technology and business objectives.
- Support audits, compliance efforts, risk assessments, and service management governance activities.
- Evaluate and implement AI-driven capabilities and automation tools where appropriate to improve service delivery and team productivity.
Technical & Operational Support
- Monitor service performance and operational health through reporting and system monitoring tools.
- Provide leadership during outages, major incidents, and service disruptions.
- Support broader IT initiatives, technology implementations, and organizational growth efforts.
- Collaborate with infrastructure, security, application, and business teams to ensure effective support delivery.
Required Qualifications
- 4+ years of experience in IT Service Management, Service Desk, or IT Operations environments.
- 2+ years of people leadership experience managing technical support teams.
- Demonstrated success coaching, developing, and growing high-performing teams.
- Strong knowledge of ITSM best practices and ITIL frameworks.
- Experience administering or managing enterprise ITSM platforms and ticketing systems.
- Proven ability to drive process improvement initiatives and operational execution.
- Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
Preferred Qualifications
- ITIL certification.
- Experience implementing automation or AI-enabled service management capabilities.
- Experience managing vendors, contracts, and service-level agreements.
- Experience supporting distributed or remote service desk organizations.
- Ability to work from or near Rolling Meadows, Mundelein, or our downtown Chicago headquarters.