IT Service Department Manager

IT Service Department Manager Location: Nashville, TN (In office) Full-Time, Exempt Reports to: VP of Service Position Overview The Service Department Manager leads Technology Lab's service delivery organization across all regions, providing hands-on leadership to the regional Help Desk Supervisors and the technician pods beneath them. This role owns consistency, quality, and accountability across the full service desk operation - turning regionally-run teams into one department that performs to a single standard, closes tickets on time, and keeps clients confident in Technology Lab's delivery of white glove service. This is a working leadership role: coaching supervisors, resolving what they can't, and translating company-wide service goals into the day-to-day rhythm of the department. Reporting Structure Reports to: Brian LaPratt, Vice President of Service Direct reports: 3 Help Desk Supervisors, each leading a regional pod of technicians. Indirectly, this role sets the tone and standards for every technician working within those three pods - Tier 1 through Tier 3 - without displacing the Supervisors' direct day-to-day management of their people.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development

• Directly manage and coach the Help Desk Supervisors - regular 1:1s, performance feedback, and career development.
• Build supervisor capability so each pod runs consistently whether or not the Supervisor is available that day.
• Participate in hiring, onboarding, and performance decisions for Supervisors and, where escalated, for technicians within the pods.
• Own the department's seat on Technology Lab's Accountability Chart, with clear Rocks and a weekly Scorecard tracked in Strety. Service Delivery & Operations
• Standardize ticket handling, escalation paths, and SLA targets across Central, FL & NOC, and West so clients get the same experience regardless of region.
• Monitor Halo PSA queues at the department level - ticket aging, backlog, and workload balance across pods - and step in where a pod is falling behind.
• Own the escalation path for tickets and clients that Supervisors can't resolve, including after-hours or high-severity incidents.
• Partner with the NOC function (FL & NOC pod) on monitoring and alerting standards that should extend department-wide.
• Ensure Gold Standard hardware/software and Managed Services commitments (Network Mgmt, Backup/DR via Datto, TL Guardian, Endpoint/Email Security via Guardz, Dark Web ID, iPad Mgmt, Network Cabling) are being delivered to the SLA clients were sold. Process, Quality & Metrics
• Define and maintain the department's Scorecard - ticket volume, SLA compliance, first-response and resolution time, CSAT, and reopen rate - and report it to the VP of Service weekly.
• Run root-cause review on recurring or high-impact issues and turn findings into process fixes, not one-off patches.
• Keep department-wide documentation (Halo Cheat Sheets, SOPs, DOCS entries) current as tools and processes change.
• Identify where a technical issue is really a process or training gap, and fix the gap rather than the symptom. Client Relations & Cross-Departmental Collaboration
• Serve as the internal escalation point for at-risk service accounts, working alongside Client Relations and Sales on Technology Business Reviews and service recovery.
• Coordinate with Projects so onboarding, migrations, and installs hand off cleanly into ongoing support.
• Coordinate with Procurement on parts, RMAs, and hardware needs that affect open tickets.
• Represent the Service Department in company-wide planning (quarterly/annual sessions, budget and headcount planning) alongside the VP of Service. Staffing & Resource Planning
• Forecast staffing needs by pod based on client growth, ticket volume trends, and regional coverage (including on-call/after-hours rotation).
• Balance workload across Central, FL & NOC, and West - including temporary reassignment of technicians when one region is overloaded.
• Own the department's contractor usage (e.g., Field Nation) for overflow or specialty coverage where internal staff can't reach a site.

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of experience in IT managed services or a service desk environment, including direct people management.
• 2+ years managing managers or supervisors (multi-team or multi-site leadership strongly preferred).
• Hands-on experience with a PSA/ticketing platform (Halo PSA experience is a strong plus) and comfort reading SLA/performance data to drive decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to run a team on documented process rather than institutional memory - building and enforcing SOPs.
• Strong written and verbal communication; comfortable delivering difficult feedback to supervisors and de-escalating with clients.
• Working knowledge of core service-desk technologies: networking fundamentals, Microsoft/Google environments, endpoint and backup/DR concepts. Preferred
• Experience in a K-12 or education-focused MSP environment.
• Familiarity with EOS/Traction (Technology Lab runs on EOS via Strety) - Rocks, Scorecards, Level 10 Meetings.
• Experience overseeing a NOC or 24/7 monitoring function.
• Relevant certifications (ITIL, CompTIA Network+/Security+, Microsoft/Meraki certifications). Tools & Systems Used in This Role Halo PSA (service desk tickets, purchase orders, scope/estimates), Strety (EOS scorecards, Rocks, meeting rhythm), Meraki Dashboard (network status/source of truth), Datto (backup/DR), Guardz and Dark Web ID (endpoint/email security and monitoring), WorkSight (HR - PTO, performance), Webex (internal messaging/calls), 1Password, Expensify, and Field Nation (contractor booking for overflow coverage). Success Looks Like
• SLA compliance and first-response times are consistent across all three regions - no pod is quietly the exception.
• Escalations reaching the VP of Service are rare, because this role and the Supervisors are resolving them first.
• Supervisors are growing - able to run their pods independently, with this role coaching rather than doing the job for them.
• Client-facing service complaints trend down quarter over quarter, tracked and reviewed against the department Scorecard.