IT Service Desk Lead-6-10 years - Chennai

We are Hiring IT Service Desk Lead for Chennai location !!
Join us and become a part of a transformative Team !!
🎓 Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering or a related field.
💼 Experience: 6–10 years of IT service desk or end-user support experience, with at least 2 years as a Team Lead or Shift Lead.
📍 Location: Chennai (Work from Office)
🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time
📅 Workdays: 5 working days
" Candidates who are willing to consider relocation to Chennai are encouraged to apply. Immediate joiners and candidates serving a short notice period are highly preferred."
Role overview
We are an IT Managed Service Provider looking for an IT Service Desk Lead to run our multi-client service desk from our Chennai office during UK business hours. You will lead a team of L1/L2 analysts supporting several clients at once, each with its own contract, SLAs, ITSM workflows and escalation paths.
The role blends hands-on technical troubleshooting with people leadership, contract-driven SLA delivery, ITIL process ownership and client-facing service reviews. You will help onboard new clients to the desk and grow our footprint within existing accounts.
Key roles and responsibilities
Team leadership and people management
Lead, mentor and motivate a team of L1/L2 analysts working across shared (multi-client) and dedicated client pods.
Plan shift rosters, leave cover and skill mix so every client is covered by trained analysts through UK business hours.
Cross-train analysts on multiple client environments to reduce single points of failure.
Conduct daily huddles, one-to-ones, monthly performance reviews and annual appraisals.
Run onboarding and client-specific training, and handle attendance, conduct and performance issues in line with HR policy.
Service desk operations
Oversee the full ticket lifecycle for all clients across phone, email, chat and self-service portal channels.
Monitor queues across multiple ITSM instances or client tenants in real time and prioritize work by each client's contract and SLA.
Act as the escalation point for complex, high-priority, or client VIP issues.
Provide hands-on L2 support across varied client environments: Windows/macOS, Microsoft 365, Active Directory/Entra ID, Intune, VPN, printers and end-user devices.
Ensure accurate ticket categorization, client tagging and closure notes so billing and reporting are correct.
Multi-client delivery and onboarding
Deliver each client's service in line with its contract, statement of work (SoW), SLAs and operating level agreements (OLAs).
Maintain client runbooks, contact matrices, escalation paths and approved-change lists for every account.
Lead the service desk side of new client onboarding and transition: knowledge transfer, SOP creation, tool setup, shadow and reverse-shadow phases, and go-live hypercare.
Support client offboarding and handovers cleanly and securely.
Track ticket volumes and effort per client to support capacity planning, resource billing and contract renewals.
Flag out-of-scope requests and support change requests or upsell opportunities with the account team.
ITIL process management
Own Incident, Service Request and Problem Management processes at the desk level, adapting to each client's ITIL maturity and workflows.
Coordinate Major Incident response with internal resolver groups and client IT teams, and send timely, client-specific communications.
Raise problem records for recurring issues and share trends across clients to prevent repeat incidents.
Follow both our own and each client's Change Management procedures (including client CAB approvals).
Maintain separate, client-specific knowledge bases and SOPs, plus a shared library of common fixes.
SLA, reporting and quality
Track KPIs per client and across the desk: SLA compliance, first contact resolution, average handle time, backlog and CSAT.
Prepare daily, weekly, and monthly client-specific performance reports, plus a consolidated view for internal management.
Avoid and manage SLA breaches that carry contractual service credits or penalties.
Carry out regular ticket quality audits and call/chat reviews, and give feedback to analysts.
Lead monthly or quarterly service review meetings (MSRs/QBRs) with each client and agree service improvement plans.
Stakeholder and vendor management
Act as the day-to-day service contact for multiple client IT managers and business users during the UK shift.
Work closely with the Managers on client health, escalations, and renewals.
Liaise with internal resolver groups (network, infrastructure, cloud, applications, security) and third-party vendors on behalf of clients.
Manage client escalations and complaints professionally, through to resolution and root cause.
Provide a clear shift handover to the next support team at the end of each shift.
Continuous improvement
Identify automation, self-service and shift-left opportunities that can be reused across clients.
Enforce strict client data segregation, access controls and confidentiality between accounts.
Ensure the team follows information security, UK GDPR, ISO 27001 and each client's compliance requirements.
Skills and qualifications
Essential
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering or a related field.
6–10 years of IT service desk or end-user support experience, with at least 2 years as a Team Lead or Shift Lead.
Experience at an MSP or IT services company, supporting multiple UK or European clients at the same time.
Proven ability to deliver against contractual SLAs, OLAs and service credits across different accounts.
Strong working knowledge of ITIL processes: Incident, Request, Problem and Change Management.
Hands-on experience supporting ITSM and RMM/PSA tool configuration and improvements (MSP Central, ManageEngine products) including multi-tenant setups.
Solid technical skills in Windows 10/11, macOS, Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory/Entra ID, Intune, basic networking and remote support/RMM tools, Endpoint Mgmt.
Experience of client onboarding or service transition is a strong advantage.
Excellent spoken and written English, with client IT managers confidence presenting to and senior stakeholders.
Willingness to work the UK shift (12:30 PM – 9:30 PM IST) from the Chennai office, Monday to Friday.
Mandatory hands-on tool experience
ManageEngine MSP Central: Day-to-day use of its RMM, PSA and ITSM features across multiple client accounts, including ticket queues, SLA rules, patch policies, remote access, automation scripts, asset discovery and client reporting.
Zero Trust platform: Configuring and supporting Zero Trust access controls such as Microsoft Entra Conditional Access, MFA, device compliance policies, just-in-time privileged access and ZTNA (VPN-less) access to client applications.
Microsoft 365: Administration across multiple client tenants: M365 admin centre, Entra ID, Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint/OneDrive, Intune (including Autopilot) and Defender. Experience with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse and GDAP is an advantage.
ThreatLocker endpoint management: Application allowlisting, Ringfencing, Elevation Control and Storage Control; running learning mode and policy rollout for new clients; and handling approval requests within SLA.
ITIL processes: Running Incident, Service Request, Problem, Change and Major Incident Management in a multi-client service desk, including priority matrices, root cause analysis and CAB participation.
ITAM (IT Asset Management): Maintaining hardware and software asset registers, tracking and reconciling licences (including M365), managing the asset lifecycle from deployment to secure disposal, and keeping the CMDB accurate.
Preferred certifications
ITIL 4 Foundation (required or obtained within 6 months of joining)
Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator / Endpoint Administrator Associate
CompTIA A+, Network+ or HDI Support Center Team Lead
Behavioral competencies
Customer-first mindset, with a calm approach under pressure.
Ability to switch context quickly between clients with different priorities.
Commercial awareness: understands scope, contracts and how service quality drives renewals.
Coaching style of leadership that builds team capability.
Clear, structured communication and reporting.
What we offer as IT Startup Organization
Competitive salary + Health insurance for employee.
Certification support (ITIL, Microsoft, CompTIA).
Fixed weekends off (Saturday and Sunday).
Clear career path to Service Desk Manager, Service Delivery Manager roles, with exposure to a wide range of client environments and technologies.

Work arrangement
No