Help Desk Manager

IT Help Desk Manager

Department: Information Technology

Reports To: Vice President of Information Technology

Location: Waterloo, Iowa

Work Arrangement: Full-Time, On-Site

FLSA Status: Exempt

The IT Help Desk Manager leads CPM's global IT Help Desk organization, ensuring exceptional customer service, operational excellence, and continuous improvement of IT support services. This position oversees daily Service Desk operations, develops Help Desk personnel, manages service performance, and ensures Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are achieved.

This is a full-time, on-site leadership position based in Waterloo, Iowa. The successful candidate provides direct leadership and coaching to the Help Desk team while partnering with Infrastructure, Applications, Information Security, Human Resources, and business leadership. The role supports employees across North America, Europe, Asia, and other global locations.

• Lead, coach, and develop the global IT Help Desk team.
• Conduct one-on-one meetings, coaching sessions, and annual performance evaluations.
• Establish goals and professional development plans.
• Manage staffing, scheduling, workload balancing, vacation planning, and team coverage.
• Develop, maintain, and administer the Help Desk on-call rotation, ensuring equitable after-hours coverage.
• Interview, hire, onboard, and train Help Desk employees.
• Develop annual departmental goals, operating metrics, and continuous improvement initiatives aligned with the IT strategic plan.

• Manage daily operations within Service Desk Plus.
• Monitor ticket queues and workload distribution.
• Coordinate after-hours support and maintain the on-call schedule.
• Ensure timely escalations to Infrastructure, Applications, Information Security, and vendors.
• Develop and maintain Help Desk procedures, workflows, and knowledge articles.
• Ensure support requests are resolved in accordance with established service levels.

• Own and improve SLA compliance, first response time, resolution time, first contact resolution, backlog, aging tickets, reopened tickets, technician productivity, and customer satisfaction.
• Review performance regularly and implement corrective actions.

• Prepare weekly and monthly KPI dashboards and operational reports for IT leadership.
• Present trends, recommendations, and improvement initiatives.

• Deliver exceptional customer service.
• Manage escalated issues through resolution.
• Support executive and VIP users when required.

• Identify recurring issues and permanent solutions.
• Improve self-service capabilities and knowledge management.
• Identify automation opportunities to reduce ticket volume.
• Promote ITIL best practices.

• Ensure Help Desk staff follow cybersecurity policies.
• Support internal and external audits.
• Partner with Information Security to maintain compliance.

• Support computer lifecycle management, hardware deployments, Windows upgrades, imaging, mobile device support, inventory accuracy, and endpoint lifecycle planning.

• Coordinate with hardware, software, telecommunications, and managed service providers.

• Minimum 10 years of progressive IT Help Desk or Service Desk experience.
• Minimum 2 years of experience managing or supervising an IT Help Desk or Service Desk team.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field preferred.
• Equivalent military education, technical training, and relevant military leadership or information technology experience will be considered in lieu of some or all formal education requirements.
• Experience managing enterprise IT support operations.
• Strong understanding of IT service management principles (ITIL preferred).
• Experience with ITSM platforms (Service Desk Plus preferred).
• Strong Microsoft 365, Windows, Active Directory, and endpoint management knowledge.
• Excellent leadership, communication, organizational, and problem‑solving skills.

• ITIL Foundation Certification.
• Microsoft and CompTIA certifications.
• Experience supporting manufacturing…