Manager, Enterprise Service Desk (Tier 1)

Job Summary

The Manager, Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) is a tactical leadership role responsible for the daily execution, management, and enablement of the Tier 1 Enterprise Service Desk staff.

Reporting directly to the Sr. Manager, Enterprise Service Desk, this position focuses on driving the day-to-day operations of the help desk, maintaining high team performance, and directly supporting the front-line technical team. The ideal candidate will bridge technical execution with operational goals, ensuring service delivery remains highly efficient, client-centric, and aligned with organizational standards.

Role Focus

The primary focus of this role is to champion continuous improvement and alignment with the company’s strategic vision, cultivating an empowered team culture through highly skilled coaching and structured mentorship, while driving execution around rigorous KPI standards, systemic efficiency, white glove customer service, and top-tier client escalation resolution.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership and Management
• Staff Oversight: Manage, coach, and support the Tier 1 service desk staff to maximize operational readiness and career pathing
• Talent Development: Oversee the onboarding process for new hires and coordinate continuous technical and customer-service training to ensure up-to-date skillset alignment.
• Performance Accountability: Conduct structured performance reviews, lead daily operational huddles to check on backlog progress, and proactively resolve internal roadblocks.
• Workforce Management: Design, implement, and maintain complex multi-shift team schedules to ensure stable, cost-effective coverage across all active client service windows.
• Performance and Quality Assurance
• Target Enforcement: Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs) constantly to ensure team performance targets are met quickly and effectively.
• Quality Assurance Auditing: Conduct regular ticket, phone call, and live chat evaluations to maintain exceptional quality standards, professional etiquette, and precise technical documentation.
• Metric Reporting: Synthesize raw ticketing data into meaningful daily and weekly operational performance reports to present to clients and senior leadership.
• Client Relationship and Escalation Management
• Incident Management: Act as the main tactical point of contact for handling complex technical issues and client-facing escalations.
• Relationship Management: Build and maintain active, positive relationships with critical client contacts, leveraging post-incident surveys and verbal feedback to address underlying concerns.
• Communication Bridge: Serve as a seamless, high-clarity communication link between technical support personnel and client business stakeholders, driving problems to full resolution.
• Strategic & Operational Oversight
• Process Improvement: Identify workflow inefficiencies and knowledge base gaps, continuously updating internal standard operating procedures (SOPs) to optimize the overall support process.
• Client Onboarding: Assist with the practical technical and operational onboarding of new customer accounts into the Tier 1 Service Desk ecosystem.
• Incident Preparedness: Participate actively in a regular management on-call rotation for high-severity major incidents and attend leadership strategy meetings to align on departmental goals.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• SLA Adherence: Maintain >95% (or corporate target) compliance on initial response and overall resolution times across all active tiers.
• First Contact / First Touch Resolution (FCR / FTR): Optimize front-line handling mechanics to consistently maximize first contact / touch resolutions and lower overall escalation ratios.
• Quality Assurance (QA) Score: Ensure team call, chat, and documentation audit scores average at or above targeted departmental baselines.
• Team Utilization: Track active agent productivity (time spent resolving tickets, on calls, or in chat channels) against scheduled availability to maintain cost-efficiency.
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Maintain high transactional customer satisfaction scores across all closed team incidents.
• Throughput & Team Velocity: Track and drive individual and team metrics for tickets handled and closed per hour to maintain high-efficiency output and prevent backlog stagnation
• Call Handle Ratios & Abandonment Rates: Manage real-time queue performance to ensure the ratio of incoming interactions to successfully completed calls meets established corporate thresholds.
• Knowledge Base (KCS) Contribution: Measure the team's active creation, updates, and utilization of internal troubleshooting documentation to foster a culture of continuous learning and support self-service enablement.
• KPIs metrics to be developed, tracked, and reviewed as part of continuous improvement
• Skills
• ITSM & Tools Proficiency: Comprehensive hands-on experience with enterprise management tools including Connectwise, ServiceNow, and Contact Center Platforms (RingCentral).
• Operational Metrics Design: Advanced capability to analyze ticket analytics, track business hour conversions, and construct data-driven reporting metrics.
• Process Engineering: Strong foundational expertise in ITIL framework, SLA architecture, and incident management workflows.
• Strategic Team Building: Proven track record of managing scaling operations and executing performance optimization initiatives.
• Workforce Management (WFM): Proficiency in utilizing forecasting tools and data to design optimized shift schedules, managing queue coverage across multiple time zones, and ensuring sufficient resource allocation.
• Knowledge Management Governance: Expertise in designing and maintaining a Knowledge Centered Service (KCS) architecture to empower agent learning, document technical solutions, and support self-service enablement.
• Performance Coaching & Mentorship: Demonstrated mastery of structured coaching frameworks to identify performance gaps, deliver actionable real-time feedback, and foster the career development of front-line technicians.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree preferred, or equivalent combination of education and hands-on professional IT management experience.
• ITIL certification or equivalent service management qualification required.
• 5+ years of experience in IT service delivery or technical customer support environments, with at least 2–3 years in a direct supervisory, shift lead, or team management capacity.
• Experience in an MSP, healthcare, financial services, or other complex client-facing support environment strongly preferred.
• The Benefits of Working for Abacus
• Exposure to a diverse array of technologies
• Part of a team of experienced technicians that aim to deliver exceptional services.
• Competitive compensation
• Robust benefits package: medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401k, and PTO
• Opportunities to further technical education through Employee Certification Program
• Positive, friendly, supportive office environment
• Workplace perks such as healthy snacks, wellness programs, and fun events