Support Lead

Job purpose

• The Support Lead is responsible for leading the IT Support function and ensuring consistent delivery of efficient, customer-centric and ITIL-aligned support services. The Support Lead will lead and develop the support team, monitor service performance, manage escalations, identify opportunities for improvement and drive the adoption of self-service, automation and AI-enabled support capabilities.
• The role is accountable for people leadership, service performance, operational effectiveness, customer experience, escalation management and continual improvement.
• The role is not primarily a hands-on technical support position. While the Support Lead is expected to maintain sufficient technical knowledge to provide guidance and manage complex escalations, day-to-day technical resolution remains primarily the responsibility of the Support Team.

Key responsibilities

PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP & TEAM PERFORMANCE

• Lead and manage the IT Support team, creating a high-performing, customer-focused support culture.
• Set clear expectations regarding service quality, productivity, customer experience and professional conduct.
• Provide coaching, mentoring and ongoing development to team members.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and manage performance in accordance with organisational processes.
• Identify skills gaps and implement appropriate development and training plans.
• Support recruitment, onboarding and development of new team members.
• Manage team capacity, workload allocation and resource planning to meet business demand.
• Manage schedules and rosters to ensure appropriate service coverage, including after-hours requirements.
• Develop a pipeline of capable support resources and identify opportunities for career progression within the team.
• Promote collaboration, accountability and knowledge sharing across the support function.

SERVICE DELIVERY & ITSM

• Lead the day-to-day delivery of IT Support services in accordance with agreed SLAs, policies and ITIL-aligned processes.
• Ensure incidents and service requests are appropriately logged, prioritised, assigned, monitored and resolved by the Support Team.
• Monitor ticket queues, backlogs, ageing tickets and workload distribution.
• Ensure appropriate escalation of tickets that cannot be resolved within the Support Team.
• Ensure effective use of Jira Service Management and approved support channels.
• Monitor service performance and identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure appropriate adherence to Incident Management, Request Fulfilment, Escalation Management, Knowledge Management and Continual Improvement practices.
• Work with direct and internal IT Management team to identify and implement improvements to service delivery processes.

INCIDENT, ESCALATION & MAJOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

• Act as the operational escalation point for complex, high-priority and business-critical support issues.
• Provide technical guidance to the Support Team when incidents require additional expertise.
• Coordinate escalations with Infrastructure, Applications, Security, vendors and other relevant technology teams.
• Support the coordination and communication of major incidents affecting business operations.
• Ensure appropriate stakeholder communication during significant service disruptions.
• Monitor escalated incidents through resolution and ensure ownership is maintained.
• Participate in post-incident reviews and ensure agreed corrective actions are followed through.
• Identify recurring incidents and trends and collaborate with relevant teams to support root-cause analysis and problem management.

SERVICE PERFORMANCE & REPORTING

• Own and monitor IT Support performance against agreed KPIs and SLAs.
• Analyse service desk data to identify trends, performance gaps and opportunities for improvement.
• Provide regular performance reporting to the direct manager and relevant stakeholders.
• Use data to coach the team and improve individual and overall team performance.

Monitor key indicators including

• SLA achievement
• First Contact Resolution
• Mean Time to Resolve
• Ticket backlog
• Ticket ageing
• Reopened tickets

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

• Promote consistent, professional and customer-centric support experience across all support channels.
• Monitor customer feedback and identify recurring service issues.
• Ensure customer complaints and escalations are managed professionally and appropriately.
• Ensure support communications are clear, timely and appropriate to the audience.
• Identify opportunities to improve the end-user experience and reduce customer effort.

AUTOMATION, AI & SELF-SERVICE

• Identify opportunities to reduce repetitive and avoidable support demand through automation, self-service and AI.
• Drive adoption of approved AI-enabled support capabilities, including AI chatbots, WhatsApp AI and other digital support channels.
• Monitor the effectiveness and quality of AI-assisted support services.
• Identify gaps in AI responses, workflows and knowledge content and coordinate improvements with relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure appropriate human oversight of AI-enabled support processes.
• Promote self-service and knowledge-based support to empower users to resolve appropriate issues independently.
• Own the effectiveness of the IT Support knowledge management capability.
• Ensure knowledge articles, FAQs, troubleshooting guides and support documentation are accurate and current.
• Ensure knowledge is readily accessible to both support teams and end users.
• Encourage the Support Team to contribute to and maintain the knowledge base.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT & OPERATIONAL OVERSIGHT

• Maintain sufficient technical knowledge to provide guidance and support escalation management.
• Provide technical direction to Support Team members when issues exceed their current capability.
• Review complex technical issues and ensure appropriate escalation where required.
• Oversee the effective delivery of desktop, endpoint, application and connectivity support by the Support Team.
• Support the planning and execution of technology upgrades and changes affecting end users.

SECURITY, RISK & COMPLIANCE

• Ensure Support Team activities comply with relevant information security policies, standards and procedures.
• Ensure security-related incidents are appropriately identified and escalated.
• Collaborate with SecOps and other relevant teams on security-related support matters.
• Ensure appropriate controls are considered when implementing automation, AI and self-service solutions.
• Promote security awareness and good technology practices within the Support Team and user community.
• Ensure appropriate handling and escalation of security and data-related risks.

CONTINUAL SERVICE IMPROVEMENT

• Identify opportunities to improve service quality, efficiency and customer experience.
• Use service data, customer feedback and operational trends to identify improvement opportunities.
• Lead or participate in initiatives to improve IT Support processes and services.
• Identify opportunities to eliminate repetitive work through automation and self-service.
• Identify recurring incidents and support problems and work with relevant technology teams to reduce recurrence.
• Measure the impact of improvement initiatives and communicate outcomes to stakeholders.
• Promote a culture of continual improvement within the Support Team

Experience and Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years' experience in IT Support, Service Desk, Technical Support, Customer Service or IT Service Management.
• Proven experience leading or supervising a technical support team.
• Working knowledge of IT Service Management principles and practices
• Experience managing service performance against SLAs and KPIs.
• Relevant IT, Business, Management or related diploma/degree, or equivalent practical experience.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities Required

• People leadership
• Coaching and mentoring