Senior Principal - Service Desk Assurance

Job Purpose
The Technology Service Desk is the front door to Digital & Tech for GSK colleagues worldwide and is delivered through an outsourced provider. This senior role owns the assurance and performance governance of the outsourced Tech Service Desk, managing the provider to agreed SLAs, XLAs and quality expectations and driving continuous improvement. A key part of the role is to drive the Service Desk modernisation agenda, increasing the use of AI and automation to accelerate shift left, expand effective self-service and deliver material improvements in colleague experience. It sets and refreshes SLAs and XLAs to ensure continuous stretch and improvement, and ensures a robust “voice of the customer” feedback-to-improvement cycle. Operating within GSK's largely outsourced, multi-sourced ecosystem, the role sets, monitors and governs standards and delivery discipline for the service outcome.
Key Responsibilities
Service Desk Performance Assurance
Manage the outsourced Tech Service Desk provider to agreed SLAs, XLAs and quality expectations, holding the provider to account for outcomes.
Assure the quality and delivery discipline of the service, driving improvements where performance or experience falls short.
Own the end-to-end colleague experience of the Service Desk, not just the L1 interaction – where issues are escalated from L1 to L2, retain accountability for the outcome and ensure L2 delivers what is required to resolve it, escalating to L2 service owners where appropriate.
SLA / XLA Refresh & Continuous Improvement
Drive the refresh of SLAs, XLAs and measures to ensure continuous stretch and improvement over time.
Set, monitor and govern service standards and improvement plans across internal and provider teams.
Voice of the Customer & Experience
Ensure a robust “voice of the customer” feedback-to-improvement cycle, using experience data (eg XLA/CSAT) to shape service change.
Standards, Quality & Governance
Define and govern service standards, quality expectations and operational governance artefacts.
Ensure audit-readiness of the Service Desk operation, maintaining the controls, evidence and documentation needed to demonstrate compliance to internal and external audit at all times.
Ensure compliance of the products owned by and directly supporting the Service Desk (e.g. Smart IVR).
Service Desk Modernisation, AI & Automation
Own and drive the Service Desk modernisation agenda, working with the outsourced provider, Automation Acceleration Hub and enabling product teams to increase the use of AI and automation across operations.
Deliver measurable strides in shift left by expanding knowledge-enabled resolution, intelligent self-service, automation and effective deflection, while improving colleague experience and service efficiency.
Translate modernisation opportunities into a prioritised roadmap with clear adoption, experience and performance outcomes, holding partners to account for delivery and realised benefits.
Ensure AI and automation are used responsibly, with appropriate security, compliance, human review and change control before operational use.
Education & Professional Qualifications
Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant field (e.g. Computer Science, IT or a business discipline), or equivalent experience.
ITIL Foundation required; ITIL Intermediate / Managing Professional desirable.
Certification in enterprise ITSM tooling (e.g. ServiceNow) or service management desirable.
Area of Specialisation
Knowledge of Service Desk operations, service management and the ITIL framework.
Strong capability in SLA/XLA design, performance assurance and experience-level management.
Understanding of AI-enabled service desk automation, self-service and deflection, and how they improve experience and efficiency.
Experience Required
Overall 15 Years and 10 years+ in service management or service desk assurance within a large, complex, global organisation.
Proven track record of governing an outsourced service desk to SLAs, XLAs and experience measures, and driving improvement.
Experience designing and refreshing SLAs/XLAs to sustain continuous stretch and improvement.
Experience running a structured voice-of-the-customer to improvement cycle.
Proven experience driving Service Desk modernisation through AI, automation and shift-left initiatives, with demonstrable improvements in adoption, colleague experience and operational performance.
Experience working with strategic partners and managed service providers while retaining in-house governance.
Experience owning the end-to-end colleague experience of the Service Desk, not just the L1 interaction – including where issues are escalated from L1 to L2, retaining accountability for the outcome and ensuring L2 delivers what is required to resolve it.
Experience in a regulated industry (pharmaceutical, life sciences, financial services or similar) desirable.
Skills/Background
Ability to balance control, compliance, pace and agility while holding a provider to account.
Strong SLA/XLA design, performance-management and governance capability.
Strong documentation, standards and process-design capability.
Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret service performance and experience data.
Practical AI fluency, applying service desk automation within security, compliance and change guardrails.
#ADTech
Skills
Audits Compliance, Automation Technology, Business Continuity Management (BCM), Data Analysis, Disaster Recovery (DR), Financial Operations, Incident Analysis, IT Service Management (ITSM), Log Analysis, Metrics Management, Network Performance Management (NPM), Performance Monitoring, Quality Assurance (QA), Reliability Engineering, Security Controls, Security Incident Response, Service Audit, Service Desk Management, Service Operations, Stakeholder Management, Support Systems
Why GSK?
Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.
GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.
People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.
Inclusion at GSK:
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Please contact our Recruitment Team at IN.recruitment-adjustments@gsk.com to discuss your needs.
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