Digital Service Desk Team Leader in Chelmsford

The Digital Service Desk Team Leader is responsible for overseeing the operational delivery of the Trust's first-line IT support function, ensuring a responsive, customer-focused service that meets agreed SLAs and ITIL-aligned best practices.

As the direct line manager for the Service Desk Analysts and Senior Service Desk Analysts, the post holder provides day-to-day operational and developmental leadership to the team, including queue and rota management, workload planning, performance review, and mentorship. They are also the primary escalation point for any technical or service issues arising within the Service Desk.

The role involves close collaboration with SACM, Infrastructure, project teams, and other Digital Services colleagues to ensure service continuity, smooth transitions from project to BAU, and accurate capture of asset and configuration data. The Team Leader plays a vital role in staff development, coaching, and continuous improvement of the Digital Service Desk function, while also deputising for the Service Desk Manager and other Digital managers where required. This role has participation in an on-call rota as required.

The role also contributes to wider service administration and supports continuous improvement, ensuring digital services align with the needs of clinical and corporate users across EEAST.

• Provide line management and supervision for band 4 and 5 Service Desk Analysts, including appraisals, development plans, and performance management.
• Managing the full lifecycle of incidents and requests, ensuring quality triage, escalation, and resolution.
• Acting as the first point of senior escalation for Band 4–5 Service Desk staff and users.
• Overseeing team ticket queues, ensuring SLA compliance and workload distribution.
• Providing technical support and escalation during high-demand periods and Major Incidents (MIs)/Digital Business Continuity Incidents (DCBIs).
• Managing team rotas, providing coaching, and contributing to staff performance and development.
• Ensuring quality and currency of team-authored knowledge base articles and specialism ownership.
• Coordinating with SACM and project teams to ensure smooth service transitions and configuration updates.
• Leading service improvement initiatives and identifying recurring issues for problem management.
• Monitoring compliance with IG, security, and audit requirements across Service Desk operations.
• Deputising for the Service Desk Manager and other managers as required, and producing operational performance reports.
• Contributing to Trust-wide digital service initiatives, including governance and continuous improvement.

• Oversee incident lifecycle: Ensure timely triage, classification, and escalation of incidents and service requests.
• Monitor dashboards: Proactively monitor ITSM/ESM wallboards and reports, addressing delays or SLA risks.
• Senior escalation: Act as the escalation point for complex, urgent, or high-profile issues from Band 4–5 staff.
• Facilitate resolution: Coordinate with infrastructure, applications, and SACM teams to expedite resolution.
• Oversee queues: Responsibility for monitoring team queues for SLA compliance, overdue tickets, and quality of documentation.
• Drive performance: Ensure workload distribution is effective and team performance metrics are met.
• Quality assurance: Review tickets for accuracy, resolution quality, and adherence to process.
• Provide reporting: Produce routine and ad hoc performance reports for the Service Desk Manager.

• Promote service excellence: Ensure high standards of communication and professionalism in all interactions.
• Manage expectations: Communicate delays or risks to users and stakeholders in a timely and constructive manner.
• Resolve complaints: Investigate and respond to user complaints or dissatisfaction, escalating only when necessary. Provide reports of customer complaints and their resolutions to the Service Desk Manager, to facilitate process changes and team learning.

• Line management: Line manage Band 4 and Band 5 Service Desk Analysts, including performance review and development planning.
• Manage rotas: Plan and maintain resourcing rotas to ensure adequate coverage of core service hours.
• Support development: Coach, mentor, and support team members in their professional growth.
• Deputise as needed: Act as deputy for the Service Desk Manager and other Digital managers as required.

• Support service delivery: Provide senior technical support as needed, especially during high-demand periods.
• Manage escalations: Review and ensure timely escalation of unresolved or incorrectly triaged incidents.
• Collaborate with ITIL functions: Work with Service Desk, ITIL, and SACM Managers to ensure service quality.

• Knowledge stewardship: Ensure knowledge articles are current, relevant, and peer-reviewed.
• Lead service transition: Ensure documentation and support models are handed over effectively from project to BAU.
• Support specialisms: Oversee and develop individual team member specialisms, including NHSMail, RA, end-user devices, and clinical systems.

• High Demand Support: Provide operational support to the SACM team during peak periods or reduced capacity, particularly in relation to equipment deployment, asset verification, Smartcard services, and configuration data updates.
• Shared Responsibilities: Work collaboratively with SACM Team Leaders to align first- and second-line support workflows, coordinate operational responsibilities, and ensure consistent queue management and timely resolution of shared service requests.
• Promote SACM compliance: Ensure the Service Desk team accurately captures and updates Configuration Item data.
• Flag quality issues: Highlight asset and configuration issues to the SACM Team Leader and ITIL Manager.
• Track lifecycle updates: Ensure onboarding/offboarding and device replacement activities include configuration updates.

• Identify trends: Review incident patterns for recurring faults or inefficiencies, proposing resolutions and escalating to senior management where required.
• Champion improvement: Lead or support continuous improvement initiatives for processes and tooling.
• Foster learning: Encourage shared learning, feedback loops, and team involvement in service evolution.

• Administer systems: Maintain familiarity with core admin functions across end-user platforms and ITSM tools.
• Support major incidents/DCBIs: Take a leading role in Service Desk response during major digital incidents.
• Enable efficiency: Recommend tools, automations, or scripting opportunities to streamline front-line services.

• Enforce compliance: Ensure the Service Desk operates within IG, security, and digital governance policies.
• Lead audit prep: Support audit readiness through ticket quality reviews, policy adherence, and process evidence.
• Deliver insights: Contribute to board-level and operational reporting on digital support performance.