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:

o SLA achievement

o First Contact Resolution

o Mean Time to Resolve

o Ticket backlog

o Ticket ageing

o 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

• Customer focus

• Stakeholder management

• Problem solving

• Decision making

• Analytical thinking

• Conflict resolution

• Change management

• Continuous improvement

• Communication

• Accountability

• Innovation and adaptability

• Ability to work effectively under pressure