IT Service Desk Manager 12m contract

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IT Service Desk Manager 12m contract

About Benchmark

Our award-winning, proprietary solutions cover regulatory, platform and investment services, and are designed to support advisers at every step of their journey - from starting and running a financial advice business more productively and effectively, to accelerating its growth and realising its value.

We support high quality financial advisers with our award-winning technology and support services.

And with our own Financial Advice business, we help families find solutions to meet their needs and aspirations and achieve peace of mind. By providing access to higher quality solutions, we make it easier for them to meet and exceed their goals. Ensuring good client outcomes, with the client's interests central to decision making, is very important at Benchmark. Treating Customers Fairly principles are embedded within our organisation and we take responsibility for embracing and promoting our duty of care to all clients, including those who may be more vulnerable than others.

The base

You'll be based at our Schroders Business Campus near Horsham in West Sussex. It has high standards and international reputation, without being in the city: a big, countryside campus means life will feel a little different. We support our offices by using cutting edge software and hardware and our spacious campus facilities mean there's a great working environment for the team. With an on-site restaurant, coffee shop and gym, our campus has much to offer. And commuters can relax on our dedicated regular shuttle bus to and from Horsham's main line train station.

What you'll do.

This position is responsible for fully managing the Technical Service Desk team. The team is responsible for supporting the internal staff of the Benchmark Capital Group, its subsidiaries and acquisitions for IT incidents and requests. This is achieved by ensuring all employees are provisioned with the hardware, software, ongoing technical support and guidance required to allow them to perform their roles.

Responsibilities:

• Fully manage the Technical Service Desk IT support team, both onsite and remotely in order to ensure they maintain customer focus. This will include recruitment, time management, HR reviews, hosting individual one-to-ones and team/personal objective setting and development.
• To manage the internal client support environment and ensure its function is highly available and operates within agreed targets and SLAs whilst offering excellent customer service.
• Ensure adequate resource levels are available within the team by managing rotas, absence and recruitment to ensure consistent service is available on weekdays between 8am - 6pm.
• Receive and respond to escalated requests and incidents from the service desk, prioritising and triaging as necessary through to resolution and within agreed timescales. This will interface with the wider infrastructure services team.
• Perform regular reporting and liaise with the Infrastructure Services Manager and Group Head of Enterprise Technology on the status of the Service Desk, informing of any key issues or blockers that require escalation.
• Manage the inventory and procurement of all IT assets, consumables and software licences, ensuring it is an accurate representation of the IT estate as well as value for money and spend within budget and act as an approver for any larger spends.
• Ensure daily routine maintenance checks are completed on key systems by the Service Desk team.
• Create accurate documentation for instances of hardware failure, repair, installation, and removal.
• Evaluate, develop and implement policies and procedures related to computer systems operation and development, ensuring these are kept up to date.
• Oversee installation, configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting of end user hardware, software, and peripheral devices, including telecoms.
• Account Management - ownership of the joiners/leavers process from an access control and hardware perspective, following a fully auditable procedure.
• Liaise with and provide training to staff on computer operation, new user onboarding, Infrastructure policies and application use within the business.
• Help and support the wider Group IT in deploying and rolling out internal software applications and updates.
• Liaise cross-functionally, with Acquisitions and third-party vendors as the sole contact for any Group IT projects, queries or concerns; providing excellent customer service and rapport.
• Monitor and test hardware performance and provide statistics and reports to the Infrastructure Services Manager.
• Ensure the company complies with regulatory standards and best practices and support with IT related verifications, audits and due diligence.
• Attend Benchmark Capital Group sites to coordinate support and efforts for site set-up, IT requests, issues and upgrades as required.
• Arrange resources for remote site support and ensure the team is provisioned with the equipment, knowledge and guidance to confidently execute off-site visits.
• Manage and consult Incident, Problem and Change Management processes, applying them to the business model and its fundamentals using ITIL practices.
• Maintain the current and future ITSM ticketing tool to ensure it meets current operational requirements.

The knowledge, experience and qualifications you need:

• Demonstrable technical knowledge of current network protocols, modern client operating systems (Windows 10/11), and best practice IT standards.
• Experience in understanding technical issues and conveying the issues in a straightforward way to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
• Good knowledge of ITIL concepts along with ITSM best practices.
• An understanding of networking principles, including TCP/IP coupled knowledge of Active Directory, machine builds via Imaging.
• Strong customer service and relationship management focus and can present ideas and concepts in user-friendly language.
• Ability to troubleshoot problems in a timely and accurate fashion, and provide training and assistance where required.
• Excellent interpersonal, time management and communication skills-both written and oral.

What you'll be like

Promoter of the Treating Customers Fairly principles and deliver your own responsibility for the duty of care to our clients. The ideal candidate is energetic, motivated with a proactive and enthusiastic attitude, possesses good analytical and problem-solving abilities, and is keen to take on a role in a department with development and advancement opportunities. Due to the unpredictable nature of the IT industry, it is also important for this person to be willing to expand their IT knowledge, and to upgrade their skills set as and when required. The role will involve managing an expanding team, in an environment of open information-sharing to assure cross-training and cover within the department.

We're looking for the best, whoever they are

Our purpose is to provide excellent client outcomes and service. Diversity of thought facilitated by an inclusive culture will allow us to make better decisions and better achieve our purpose. This is why inclusion and diversity are a strategic priority for us and why we are an equal opportunities employer: you are welcome here regardless of your age, disability, gender identity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic background or any other protected characteristics.