IT Support Team Lead

We’re sourcing a hands-on IT Support Team Lead to join our Blue Zoo IT team. You'll lead our IT support team and make sure everyone in the studio has the tools, kit and help they need. You'll be part problem-solver, part people-leader, and a calm head in a fast-paced environment. Reporting into the Head of IT, you'll manage the team and oversee the support queue, which comes in through a few different routes (Ticketing Helpdesk, the HR-IT inbox and more), and you'll still roll your sleeves up when things get challenging. Requests here are always evolving and often last-minute, so you'll also take a fresh look at how we work. You'll spot where we can automate the repetitive tasks, streamline our processes and practices, and keep improving them as the studio grows, so the team can keep things running smoothly and effectively.

We are very happy to discuss flexible, hybrid and remote working options for all our vacancies. This opportunity is being offered on a permanent contract, full time (PAYE). The successful candidate must be based in the UK.

Day to Day:

• Lead, coach and support a team of IT support engineers, establishing clear priorities, rotas, and individual development plans.
• Oversee the helpdesk and ensure requests and incidents are handled in a timely manner, communicated clearly and kindly with the person involved and on the ticket for handover, plus routinely report back to line manager key performance indicators such as average ticket response/close times.
• Be the escalation point for complex issues, and work with sysadmin and infrastructure colleagues on bigger challenges as well as other technical and non-technical teams such as Pipeline and People & Talent.
• Look after workstation setup, rollout, upgrades and maintenance, including high-spec creative workstations.
• Conduct periodic checks on office equipment and maintain efficient workflow and asset management systems.
• Oversee the process of onboarding new joiners, internal movers and offboarding leavers' equipment and accounts, working closely with the support team and People & Talent.
• Support creative software and pipelines (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite, Toon Boom, Maya, Unreal, Blender, Houdini, Nuke) alongside production and technical teams.
• Daily checks of monitoring and security systems and seeing these issues through to resolution or escalation to the systems team.
• Support good security practice, including MFA, patching, device encryption and staff awareness.
• Assistance with resource planning such as ensuring there’s always onsite support in London and remote support for regional offices.
• Assistance in capacity planning and procurement and provisioning.
• Keep our asset inventory, licences and documentation up to date, assisting in where things should be delegated and/or escalated.
• Improve how we work by spotting patterns, fixing root causes, and building simple self-serve guides and processes.
• Analyse support metrics and complex data to identify patterns, evaluate root causes, and recommend continuous improvements.
• Oversee and help with studio moves, events and AV set-ups when needed.

Must Have:

• Proven experience in IT support, with some experience leading or mentoring others (formally or informally).
• Excellent communication skills. A calm, approachable communicator who can explain technical things to non-technical people.
• Experience in animation, VFX, games, design or another creative environment.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across Windows, Mac, DCC applications and remote access, including tracking down performance issues across the workstation, network and storage, and knowing when to elevate.
• Good knowledge of Google Workspace admin, networking basics, and endpoint management, Active Directory users and groups, GPOs, SRP, Windows firewall.
• Proven experience using a ticketing/helpdesk system, prioritising tasks effectively under time constraints to optimise department workflow.
• Organised, reliable and comfortable juggling competing demands while staying open to feedback and growth.
• Ability to use AI ethically to help accelerate work and improve accuracy.
• Works well under pressure in high pressured environments.
• Proactively seek continuous improvement, building sustainable self-serve guides and habits rather than just fixing immediate problems.
• You lead by example and bring out the best in your team, offering coaching through challenges or mentoring where it's needed.
• Ability to identify other staff members' communication styles and adjust your own communication to help them, the team and the business.
• Provide objective coaching, performance feedback, and guidance alongside the Head of IT to elevate team capabilities and align with business objectives.

Bonus Points:

• General networking and firewall experience.
• Familiarity with render farms, shared storage (NAS/SAN) or pipeline tools.
• Experience with scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python) or automation to innovate and optimise daily workflows.
• Knowledge of configuration management systems and MDM tools.
• ITIL or similar certification, or relevant security awareness (e.g. Cyber Essentials).