Director, Help Desk Center of Excellence

Director, Help Desk Center of Excellence (COE)

CampusWorks is seeking a Director, Help Desk Center of Excellence (COE) to lead and mature a centralized Tier 1 Help Desk operation supporting multiple higher education managed services clients. The Director will be responsible for the strategic leadership, operational management, staffing, service quality, and continuous improvement of a remote call center-style Help Desk environment.

The Help Desk COE serves as the primary point of contact for all client IT incidents, service requests, and general support inquiries. Requests are initiated through phone calls, email, ITSM ticket submissions, and chat services. The Help Desk does not provide walk-up support services.

The Help Desk operates as a 24x7x365 support operation designed to provide continuous intake, triage, communication, and Tier 1 support services for managed services clients.

The Help Desk COE is responsible for the intake, triage, resolution, routing, escalation, and communication coordination of Tier 1 support activities. Incidents, requests, and technical issues beyond Tier 1 scope are escalated and coordinated with the appropriate higher-tier technical teams, infrastructure teams, application teams, information security teams, PMO processes, or local delivery teams as appropriate.

This leader will oversee daily operations while driving strategic improvements in customer experience, operational maturity, service delivery consistency, workforce management, reporting, knowledge management, and IT service management (ITSM) practices. The Director will collaborate closely with CIOs, COE leaders, client stakeholders, and operational leadership to ensure the Help Desk delivers high-quality, responsive, and measurable customer support services.

As the Help Desk COE continues to expand, this individual will play a key role in scaling operations, developing staff, standardizing processes, and building a sustainable service delivery model aligned with organizational growth objectives.

Responsibilities:

Operational Leadership

• Lead the day-to-day operations of the centralized Help Desk COE supporting multiple managed services clients within a 24x7x365 operational support environment.
• Ensure consistent delivery of Tier 1 support services across all supported institutions and customers.
• Oversee intake, triage, escalation, and communication workflows for incidents, service requests, and operational support needs.
• Ensure incidents and requests requiring advanced technical expertise are properly escalated to the appropriate higher-tier technical resources, operational support teams, or PMO processes as appropriate.
• Monitor and manage support queues, call volumes, ticket flow, response times, service levels, staffing coverage, and after-hours operational support processes.
• Develop staffing models, scheduling strategies, and workforce management practices to support continuous 24x7x365 operational coverage.
• Act as a leadership escalation point for urgent, high-impact, or complex customer support situations.
• Establish operational standards, procedures, workflows, and service delivery expectations.
• Develop and maintain reporting dashboards, operational metrics, KPIs, and service performance measurements.
• Drive operational maturity and process improvement initiatives aligned with ITSM and industry best practices.
• Partner with leadership to support operational planning, growth strategies, and service scalability initiatives.

Customer Experience & Service Delivery

• Champion a customer-focused support culture emphasizing professionalism, responsiveness, communication, and service excellence.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with CIOs, client stakeholders, and internal operational teams.
• Ensure customer communications are timely, accurate, and appropriately coordinated during incidents and service disruptions.
• Identify trends, recurring issues, and customer pain points and coordinate improvement initiatives accordingly.
• Collaborate with other COEs and operational teams to improve the end-user support experience and service delivery consistency.
• Ensure Help Desk processes align with contractual service expectations and organizational standards.

Workforce & Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, coach, and develop staff.
• Build staffing models and workforce management strategies appropriate for a multi-client, call center-style 24x7x365 support environment.
• Assist with recruiting, onboarding, performance management, career development, and succession planning activities.
• Foster a culture of accountability, teamwork, adaptability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Develop scheduling strategies to ensure appropriate operational coverage across supported hours and service demands.
• Provide leadership during organizational growth, operational change, and service transitions.

ITSM, Process Improvement, & Knowledge Management

• Lead the development, implementation, and improvement of Help Desk operational processes and procedures.
• Support and promote ITSM best practices including Incident Management, Request Management, Knowledge Management, Major Incident Coordination, and Service Level Management.
• Ensure documentation standards, knowledge base articles, support procedures, and self-service resources are maintained and continuously improved.
• Collaborate with operational leadership and technical teams to streamline support workflows and escalation paths.
• Utilize operational data and analytics to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements and service enhancements.

Technical & Operational Knowledge

• Understanding of ITSM principles and operational support models.
• Knowledge of Help Desk operational workflows, call routing, queue management, escalation processes, and after-hours support operations.
• Experience with ticketing systems, contact center technologies, reporting tools, and knowledge management platforms.
• Ability to analyze operational metrics and utilize data to drive service improvements.
• Understanding of support triage models and multi-tier escalation structures.
• Onboarding new clients.

Leadership & Communication Skills

• Strong customer service orientation and relationship management skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, operational leadership, executive stakeholders, and customers.
• Strong conflict resolution, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to lead teams through operational change and organizational growth.
• Strong presentation, documentation, and communication skills.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, certifications, and relevant experience.
• Minimum of five (5) years of leadership experience within a Help Desk, IT support center, contact center, or managed services support environment.
• Minimum of eight (8) years of experience in IT operations, customer support, service delivery, or related technical support roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading remote teams in a high-volume, 24x7x365 support or call center-style environment.
• Experience managing workforce scheduling, queue management, operational metrics, and service delivery performance.
• Experience developing and improving operational processes, procedures, and customer service standards.
• Strong leadership, organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced operational environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working within a Managed Services Provider (MSP) environment.
• Experience supporting higher education institutions or academic technology environments.
• ITIL, HDI, or related IT service management certifications.
• Experience with ITSM platforms, ticketing systems, contact center technologies, and workforce management tools.
• Familiarity with Microsoft 365, endpoint support operations, identity/access management concepts, and common enterprise support technologies.
• Ability to lead teams across multiple shifts while maintaining consistency in service delivery, communication, and operational standards.
• Experience managing workforce challenges in a fast-paced operational support or contact center environment.
• Ability to make operational decisions during high-volume periods, escalations, staffing shortages, or critical incidents.

What You Can Expect from Us

At CampusWorks, we don't just help our clients succeed; we help our employees succeed. Competitive pay, robust benefits for full-time employees, and professional development opportunities are a few of the many reasons that CampusWorks is a great place to build your career.

Our employees enjoy:

Meaningful work. Our employees often tell us that their work gives them a sense of purpose because it makes a difference in the lives of students and educators. CampusWorks Inc., as a large consulting firm, provides its employees with an opportunity to work both onsite and remotely with our clients across the United States and in Canada. With the nature of our clients' work evolving quickly, we're all being asked to support larger CampusWorks initiatives. Upon joining CampusWorks in a consulting role, your talent and expertise may be applied to a range of projects, assignments, and clients.

A CEO who cares. Chairman and CEO Liz Murphy has