Help Desk Manager

Classification: Exempt

Reports to: Director of IT Operations and Support

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Help Desk Manager leads the IT Help Desk team and oversees daily operations using Freshservice, our IT Service Management (ITSM) platform. This role is responsible for driving operational excellence, ensuring service level agreements (SLAs) are met, mentoring support staff, and continuously improving processes to enhance customer satisfaction and service delivery for Vallarta Supermarkets.

General Duties and Responsibilities:

• Manage, coach, and mentor Help Desk staff, including hiring, onboarding, training, and performance evaluations.
• Define team goals, performance metrics, and service expectations.
• Schedule and allocate resources to maintain adequate support coverage.
• Foster a collaborative, customer-focused support culture.
• Oversee daily Help Desk operations, ensuring timely response and resolution of incidents and service requests.
• Function as an escalation point for complex or high-priority issues.
• Defining, tracking, and reporting on KPIs such as SLA, backlog trends, MTTR, ticket aging, and customer satisfaction scores.
• Monitor ticket queues, workflows, and workload distribution within Freshservice.
• Ensure adherence to SLAs, operational standards, and best practices.
• Monitor tickets and incidents to identify emerging trends and longer-running unresolved issues. Hold peer IT teams and vendors accountable for action plans and resolution.
• Analyze performance metrics such as ticket volume, resolution time, and customer satisfaction.
• Identify trends, reoccurring incidents, and opportunities for process improvement.
• Present KPI dashboards to leadership and recommend operational improvements.
• Act as the primary Freshservice administrator, responsible for system governance, configuration changes, and continuous improvement of the ITSM platform.
• Partner with IT leadership to align Freshservice usage with ITIL best practices and business needs.
• Maintain and improve incident, request, problem, and change management processes.
• Develop and manage knowledge base articles and self-service resources.
• Collaborate with other IT teams to coordinate issue resolution and service delivery.
• Manage relationships with external IT vendors, ensuring compliance with contractual obligations and service-level commitments.
• Review vendor performance dashboards and escalate recurring issues or SLA breaches as needed.
• Coordinate root cause analysis (RCA) with vendors to ensure timely and effective corrective actions.
• Communicate service status, trends, and escalations to stakeholders and leadership.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support IT projects and system changes that drive business and operational goals.
• Ensure Help Desk processes maintain compliance with IT security, PCI, data privacy regulations, and internal audit requirements.
• Review user feedback and implement service improvements.
• Advocate for users while balancing technical and business needs.
• Serve as a liaison between the Help Desk and other IT functions to ensure seamless escalation, communication, and service delivery.

Knowledge and Skills

• Strong leadership and team management skills.

• Excellent oral and written communication abilities.
• Technical expertise in PC hardware, software applications, networking, and troubleshooting.
• Ability to foster teamwork and maintain a customer-focused approach.
• Strong problem-solving and research skills.
• Familiarity with help desk software and IT service management tools.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Leadership and decision-making skills.
• Ability to foster collaboration and teamwork.
• Commitment to continuous learning and technical proficiency.
• Technical proficiency and continuous learning mindset.
• Comfortable working cross-functionally and with all levels of management and team members.
• Manage several requests and situations at one time or simultaneously (multitask).

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in IT support or help desk operations, with at least 2 years in a supervisory role.
• Comprehensive knowledge of IT concepts, principles, and best practices.
• Experience implementing help desk software and training programs.
• Familiarity with ITIL or similar frameworks is a plus.
• Strong understanding of IT support operations, systems, and enterprise technologies.
• Knowledge of IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks, preferably ITIL.
• Experience analyzing metrics and producing operational reports.
• Contributing to IT operational strategy and participating in annual planning.
• Driving continuous improvement initiatives and adopting ITIL best practices.
• Owning the maturity roadmap for the Help Desk function.

Physical Demands

This position requires the ability to perform work for extended periods while seated and/or standing for extended periods, as business needs dictate and using a computer and standard office equipment, with or without reasonable accommodation. Occasional travel may be required, up to approximately 15%. May also have to do some light lifting of supplies and materials from time to time. Ability to lift to 30 lbs. independently and up to 50 lbs. with assistance. The ability to effectively manage multiple tasks, priorities, and requests simultaneously in a fast-paced environment is required.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work
This is an Exempt Level Position; Monday – Friday, 8:00am-5:00pm; schedule would be based on business necessity and coordinated through the reporting supervisor.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive, and employees may perform other duties as directed. All employees are expected to perform any reasonable task or request that is consistent with fulfilling company goals and objectives.