Sr. Manager, Service Desk

About the role

Harris County Universal Services is transforming the way the County does business and seeking a Sr. Manager, Service Desk to join the team. Universal Services is the enterprise IT solutions center for the departments and offices of Harris County, providing Information Technology, Public Safety and Justice Technologies, 311 Constituent Engagement Services, Fleet Services, and Records and Information Governance Services. Harris County is the third‑largest and most diverse county in the nation, serving more than 4.7 million residents with a budget of over $4 billion.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the County’s 24/7 enterprise Service Desk and technical support operation, including staffing, workload management, service delivery, escalation, troubleshooting, performance management, and operational strategy.
• Establish and maintain Service Desk standards, procedures, service‑level agreements (SLAs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and customer‑service expectations.
• Lead Incident Management and Major Incident Management, ensuring appropriate prioritization, escalation, communication, coordination, resolution, and post‑incident review.
• Ensure incidents and service requests are appropriately categorized, assigned, monitored, escalated, and resolved within established service levels.
• Lead the enterprise Change Management process in accordance with ITIL practices, including change review, risk assessment, approval, scheduling, communication, compliance, and Change Advisory Board activities.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex or high‑impact technical and customer‑service issues and coordinate resolution across infrastructure, application, cybersecurity, networking, desktop, and other technology teams.
• Provide leadership and functional oversight for ServiceNow or the County’s designated ITSM platform, including platform implementation, workflow development, configuration, enhancements, integrations, reporting, dashboards, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with technical and business teams to improve Incident, Request, Problem, Change, Knowledge, and Asset Management processes within the ITSM platform.
• Use operational data, dashboards, trends, and customer feedback to identify recurring issues, service gaps, and opportunities for automation and process improvement.
• Develop and maintain Service Desk procedures, knowledge articles, escalation matrices, support models, and operational documentation.
• Lead and develop Service Desk managers, supervisors, analysts, and technical support personnel, including performance management, coaching, training, workforce planning, and succession planning.
• Coordinate Service Desk support during emergency activations and significant County events and ensure appropriate technology support is available for critical operations.
• Collaborate with County departments, leadership, technology teams, vendors, and external partners to ensure effective delivery of enterprise IT services.
• Participate in technology planning, budgeting, vendor management, contract management, and IT service‑management initiatives as required.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of enterprise IT operations and service continuity.
• Provide senior management oversight of Service Desk and technical support operations, including direct and indirect staff.
• Manage staffing and workforce planning, performance evaluations, goal setting, coaching and development, work assignment, scheduling, hiring and promotion recommendations, disciplinary actions, and ensure appropriate coverage for 24/7 operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Information Systems, Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Minimum five (5) years of progressively responsible experience managing or leading a large‑scale enterprise Service Desk, Help Desk, or IT support organization.
• Demonstrated experience with Incident Management and Major Incident Management in a complex enterprise environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing ITIL Change Management processes.
• Demonstrated experience with ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise ITSM platform, including implementation, administration, configuration, enhancement, or platform/process ownership.
• Experience establishing and managing Service Desk SLAs, KPIs, operational metrics, dashboards, escalation processes, and continuous‑improvement initiatives.
• Demonstrated management experience leading technical personnel in an enterprise environment.

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of enterprise Service Desk/Help Desk operations and end‑user support.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL principles and IT Service Management practices.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Incident Management, Major Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Service Request Management, and Knowledge Management.
• Strong working knowledge of ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise ITSM platform.
• Understanding of ITSM platform architecture, workflows, queues, assignment groups, SLAs, automation, dashboards, reporting, integrations, and service catalogs.
• Ability to lead or participate in ITSM platform implementations, upgrades, enhancements, and process transformations.
• Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure, endpoint technologies, applications, networking, identity/access management, and cybersecurity support dependencies.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to use operational data and performance metrics to improve service delivery.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate during major incidents and executive‑level escalations.
• Ability to establish productive working relationships with technical teams, executive leadership, County departments, vendors, external agencies, law enforcement, and first responders.

Tools and Systems

• Enterprise IT Service Management platforms, preferably ServiceNow, covering Incident, Change, Problem, Request, Knowledge, Service Catalog, reporting, dashboards, workflow, and related capabilities.
• Microsoft enterprise technologies and other tools supporting Service Desk, endpoint management, identity management, monitoring, remote support, collaboration, and reporting.

Schedule

Onsite, five days per week.