Service Desk Lead

Experience: 8–10 Years
Reports To: Service Delivery Manager
Languages: English essential; Arabic strongly advantageous
Location: UAE

Role Purpose:

Own the performance, quality and operating model of the service desk supporting users across 573 locations, and line-manage the 20-person desk organization.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own service desk SLA and KPI performance - answer rate, abandonment rate, first contact resolution, average handling time and CSAT.
  
• Design and maintain the operating model, shift patterns and forecast-based staffing across term time, holidays and examination peaks.
  
• Line-manage Supervisors, Senior Agents, Tier 1 Analysts and Tier 1.5 Remote Resolution Analysts.
  
• Own the knowledge management lifecycle and drive the shift-left agenda to reduce field dispatch.
  
• Own the call quality assurance and coaching framework.
  
• Manage telephony, ACD and ITSM platform configuration for the desk.
  
• Own recruitment, induction and training pathways for the desk.
  
• Report service desk performance into the monthly governance cycle and lead improvement actions.
  
• Act as escalation point for complex or sensitive user issues routed to the desk.
  
  

Requirements

Required Technical Skills:

• Proven service desk leadership at scale - 20+ agents in a high-volume environment.
  
• Workforce management, forecasting and scheduling.
  
• ITSM and telephony/ACD platform administration.
  
• Knowledge management and shift-left methodology
  
• Quality assurance frameworks and coaching.
  
• Strong analytics and performance reporting
  

Qualifications & Certifications:

• Bachelor's degree in IT or a related discipline.
  
• ITIL Intermediate minimum.
  
• HDI or COPC certification advantageous
  

Education Sector Experience

• Prior experience supporting schools, universities, colleges, or other education-sector IT environments is a strong advantage.
  
• Familiarity with academic-calendar-driven service demand, examination periods, classroom technology, computer labs, and safeguarding requirements will be considered favorably.
  

Other Requirements

• Arabic language capability is a significant advantage given the bilingual user base.
  
• Availability for escalation outside core hours
  
• Clean police clearance and security vetting.