IT Service Desk Manager

The IT Service Desk Manager is responsible for leading a geographically distributed service desk team— spanning Chicago, New York, and offshore team members — and ensuring the firm’s end users receive exceptional technical support across hardware, enterprise software, and an increasingly AI-powered technology stack. This is a hands‑on, player‑coach role requiring both strong technical depth and the ability to manage, coach, and develop a high‑performing team.

The ideal candidate will bring a white‑glove service mindset, a broad and current knowledge of enterprise technologies, and the flexibility to operate effectively across a wide range of situations — from complex infrastructure escalations to providing discreet, high‑priority support for senior leadership and other VIP stakeholders. The IT Service Desk Manager will drive service quality, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement, and will serve as a key partner to other IT disciplines in the delivery of end user technology and automation initiatives.

This role reports to the Executive Director, IT Infrastructure & Support and, as an onsite/hybrid employee, you are expected to be in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday.

• Lead, manage, and develop a geographically distributed service desk team across Chicago, New York, and offshore team members, ensuring consistent service quality and team cohesion across all locations.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex technical issues, providing hands‑on Tier 2/3 support and coaching team members through resolution of challenging problems.
• Deliver white‑glove, high‑touch IT support for executive leadership and other VIP stakeholders, maintaining discretion, urgency, and professionalism at all times.
• Monitor and manage the service desk queue to ensure issues and requests are appropriately triaged, prioritized, and resolved within established SLAs.
• Provide regular reporting and metrics on service desk performance, including ticket volume, resolution times, customer satisfaction, and SLA adherence; present findings and recommendations to IT leadership.
• Establish and maintain training plans for service desk team members, ensuring knowledge stays current across a rapidly evolving technology landscape including AI tools, cloud platforms, and endpoint technologies.
• Hire, onboard, and continuously develop service desk staff and third‑party partners, including offshore and after‑hours support resources.
• Maintain and expand the firm’s self‑service knowledgebase for end users and internal knowledgebase for service desk staff, ensuring documentation is accurate, current, and actionable.
• Define, document, and continuously improve service desk processes; identify and implement automation and self‑service solutions to improve efficiency and the end‑user experience.
• Support the rollout, adoption, and ongoing support of AI productivity tools (e.g., Fireflies AI, Claude, ChatGPT), coordinating training, troubleshooting, and user enablement across the firm.
• Assist in evaluating, selecting, and sourcing end user equipment and enterprise software, including participation in asset lifecycle management and technology refresh planning.
• Proactively identify the need for hardware and software upgrades, configuration changes, or new systems and escalating or acting accordingly.
• Drive or contribute to projects related to service desk operations and end user technology, collaborating cross‑functionally with Infrastructure, Security, and business stakeholders.
• Provide direct end user support for hardware and enterprise software as needed, maintaining hands‑on technical fluency.

• College coursework in pursuit of a B.A./B.S. degree with a concentration in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field preferred.
• Microsoft 365 suite administration (Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, One Drive).
• Microsoft Intune / Endpoint Manager for device management and policy enforcement.
• Microsoft Entra  (formerly Azure AD) and Active Directory.
• Configuration/Infrastructure‑As‑Code experience (Simeon Cloud or similar software).
• Windows 11 and…