Service Desk Manager - IT Support in Worthing

The Service Desk Manager is responsible for leading the day-to-day operation of the Service Desk, ensuring high-quality incident and request handling, effective queue and performance management, and resilient first line I.T support for over 4000 internal and external users.

The role provides leadership to 2 Team Leaders and 10 Analysts, driving capability, wellbeing and accountability, while improving customer experience through quality assurance, feedback and continual service improvement.

Working across Digital and the wider business, the postholder uses service insight and demand data to inform planning, represents the Service Desk in governance and change activity, ensures operational readiness for new or changed services, and maintains compliance with security, risk and data protection requirements.

You will also be enrolled on the ‘on call’ rota.

• Manage the day-to-day operation of the Service Desk, ensuring effective handling of incidents, service requests, queries and escalations.
• Oversee queue management, ticket progression, aged ticket follow-up, workload distribution and service continuity.
• Monitor service performance throughout the day, taking action where demand, backlogs, absence or major incidents affect service levels.
• Work with Team Leaders to ensure appropriate rota coverage, shift patterns, handovers and resource allocation.
• Ensure the Service Desk provides timely, professional and effective first-line support.
• Own the Service Desk contribution to the incident lifecycle, including logging quality, updates, escalation paths and closure quality.
• Ensure operational readiness for new or changed services, including support models, knowledge, resolver routes, SLAs, escalation paths and Service Desk training.
• Audit a regular sample of calls, emails, portal interactions, chats and ticket updates where applicable.
• Review professionalism, communication quality, ticket accuracy, troubleshooting approach, knowledge use, escalation quality and closure standards.
• Use QA and CSAT outputs to improve knowledge articles, scripts, templates, standard responses, onboarding and apprentice support.

Strong leadership, coaching and people-management skills are essential, along with an excellent customer service mindset, focusing on user experience. A good understanding of core ITSM practices, especially Incident Management, Request Fulfilment, Knowledge Management and Service Level Management is required.

Strong operational management skills, including queue management, prioritisation, escalation and workload planning, as well as strong communication skills, are necessary to engage Analysts, IT teams, suppliers and senior stakeholders.

Ability to manage performance, support wellbeing and build team capability is crucial. A good understanding of Service Desk tooling and awareness of information security, access control and data protection responsibilities is also important.

A continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to simplify processes and improve service quality, is desired. An ITIL Foundation qualification, ideally ITIL 4 or 5, is preferred, along with ServiceNow training or certification and a customer service qualification.

Information security or cyber awareness training is desirable.

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. With £7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed.

We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation.

Our mission is to protect and enhance life through water—and we need passionate people to help us achieve it.

We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years.

Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process, Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment.