Service Desk Manager
Department: OCU Digital
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Preston
Reporting To: Rachel Rowlandson
Description
Be the driving force behind OCU's digital workplace experience.
As Service Desk Manager (1st Line & Request Fulfilment), you will lead the team that sits at the front door of OCU's Technology function, supporting approximately 6,000 colleagues across multiple regions. This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for delivering outstanding customer experience, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across phone, portal, chat and self-service channels.
Reporting to the Service Operations Manager, you will own the end-to-end 1st Line operating model, ensuring colleagues receive fast, effective support while driving automation, self-service adoption and service quality improvements. You'll lead a multi-region team, optimise service performance through data-led decision making, and work closely with technology teams and service partners to enhance the overall user experience.
This is more than a traditional Service Desk management role. We're looking for a proactive leader who can build scalable processes, improve first-contact resolution, reduce customer effort, and create a high-performing, customer-focused culture. You'll play a key role in delivering OCU's ambition to become a world-class, award-winning Service Operations function.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead 1st Line support and request fulfilment services across phone, portal, chat and walk-up channels.
- Drive service performance against key metrics including SLA, XLA, CSAT, first contact resolution and ticket quality.
- Own triage, routing and workload management processes to ensure efficient resolution and seamless escalation.
- Develop and deliver self-service, automation and shift-left initiatives that reduce demand and improve colleague experience.
- Manage and enhance the service catalogue, knowledge base and request fulfilment processes.
- Lead major incident communications and front-line service response activities.
- Drive continuous improvement through data analysis, customer feedback and service reviews.
- Build, coach and develop a high-performing multi-region team, creating clear career pathways and capability development programmes.
- Partner with Technology, Engineering, Security and managed service providers to improve end-to-end service delivery.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
You will bring proven experience leading a Service Desk, 1st Line Support or Request Fulfilment function within a complex, multi-site or global enterprise environment. You are passionate about customer experience, operational excellence and team development, with a strong track record of improving service performance through automation, self-service and continuous improvement.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Experience managing a Service Desk, 1st Line Support or Request Fulfilment team supporting large-scale enterprise environments (5,000+ users).
- Strong understanding of ITIL/ITSM practices across incident, request and knowledge management.
- Experience with enterprise ITSM platforms such as ServiceNow, Freshservice or Jira.
- Demonstrable success delivering automation, self-service and service improvement initiatives.
- Strong analytical skills with experience using service performance data to drive decision making.
- Experience operating multi-region or follow-the-sun support models.
- Proven people leadership, coaching and team development experience.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
- ITIL v4 Foundation or equivalent certification.
- Experience with service automation platforms such as Microsoft Copilot or Power Automate.
- Knowledge of ISO 27001, ISO 22301 or Cyber Essentials Plus.
- Experience with Lean, Six Sigma or other continuous improvement methodologies.
- Experience developing structured analyst training and career progression programmes.
Service Desk Manager in Preston employer: OCU Group
At OCU, we pride ourselves on being a leading employer in the utilities and energy sector, offering a dynamic work environment in Reading that fosters innovation and collaboration. Our commitment to employee growth is evident through ongoing training and development opportunities, ensuring that our team members are equipped with the latest skills and knowledge in high voltage electrical systems. With a strong focus on safety and excellence, we provide a supportive culture where every individual can thrive and contribute to impactful projects that shape the future of infrastructure engineering.
