Help Desk Manager

Help Desk Manager

Located 45 minutes from the Nation's Capital, nestled in a history-rich community of southern Maryland, The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) is a two-time Aspen Award-winning institution (top 15% of Community Colleges) with academic programs in over 100 disciplines. CSM is among America's top 100 producers of Minority Associate Degrees in twenty categories, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education. CSM offers excellent health insurance benefits; State Retirement Pension plan; wellness programs; Code Green early closure Fridays in the summer; college closure for spring break and several major holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year; and for several days in March for Spring Break. We are an innovative institution committed to student success and well known for our flexibility to meet student and community needs.

The Help Desk Manager plays a pivotal role in the successful operation of the Information Management and Technology (IMT) Division's Help Desk. This position is responsible for leading a team of technicians, providing excellent customer service along with operational and technical support for service request resolution and incident response, ensuring alignment with the organization's goals and objectives. The Help Desk Manager drives operational and technology alignment and leads a diverse customer service team to ensure the alignment of technology support to business needs through strict ticket resolution, queue management, standardized triage workflows, and SLA metric tracking.

The individual in this position provides leadership in the planning and scheduling of the technology support team and is responsible for leading Help Desk-related initiatives that strengthen campus-wide IT services. The Help Desk Manager provides leadership in key areas of IT operations and ensures IT organizational effectiveness. This position is responsible and accountable for providing comprehensive KPI reporting. The Help Desk Manager completes performance evaluations for the Help Desk Team, including IMT Temps.

Reports to: Technology Services Coordinator

The hiring salary for this position will be from the min to mid-point of the salary range advertised. This position is open until filled.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities:

• 30% Troubleshooting & Escalation Management:
• Apply the IT Priority & Severity Matrix to objectively classify tickets (P1-P4) and meet targeted response and resolution SLAs.
• Resolves service requests immediately via telephone or assigns as work orders for timely action.
• Escalates service requests to Network/Projects team (third level) when necessary.
• Enforce strict escalation thresholds, ensuring that Tier 1 tickets are effectively "packaged" with proper documentation before being handed off.
• Collaborate with other IMT departments to ensure timely ticket resolution and provide customer feedback to the appropriate internal teams, ie Network/Cyber Security.
• 25% Leadership, Management & Daily Operations:
• Manage Help Desk team and evaluate their performance utilizing data from daily metric reviews and SLA tracking.
• Lead high-energy, daily morning stand-up huddles to address system health, overnight outages, staffing coverage, and daily priorities.
• Actively manage the ticket queue, ensuring unassigned tickets are promptly routed and monitoring for "stale" tickets to prevent bottlenecks.
• Develop daily, weekly and monthly reports on help desk team's productivity and use this data to justify staffing needs and track success.
• Serve as primary escalation point for service requests and incidents.
• 25% Training & Quality Assurance:
• Conduct regular Quality Assurance (QA) reviews by sampling closed tickets and calls to monitor technical accuracy and customer service tone.
• Provide "micro-coaching" and continuous feedback loops to frontline staff to maintain high service standards.
• Develop and implement plans, processes, and procedures for the Information Technology Services help desk, including standardized triage logic flows (e.g., the "5 to 10-Minute Rule") to train staff on resolving issues quickly.
• Recruit, train and support Help Desk representatives and technicians, ensuring they are proficient in utilizing and developing the Knowledge Base (KB).
• Assist in developing and maintaining proper documentation for desktop computing resources and help develop and document solutions to common user issues and concerns.
• 20% Stakeholder Communication & Customer Service:
• Maintain timely and accurate customer service on a daily basis by establishing best practices through the entire technical support process.
• Handle direct requests and escalations from department heads, Deans, and VIPs, ensuring proactive de-escalation and relationship management.
• Draft and distribute campus-wide communications regarding system outages, upcoming maintenance, or critical P1 incidents.
• Contribute to improving customer support by actively responding to queries and handling complaints.
• Ensure a smooth transition of services by managing the End-of-Day (EOD) Handover Checklist and preventing overnight ticket backlog.
• Additional Duties:
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Education and Training:

• Associate's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Educational Technology, or related (or) 3 years' experience in a customer support capacity within an IT organization.
• One or more years leading a highly motivated, dynamic team.
• Three or more years of successful experience in Information Technology and/or a closely aligned field. (Preferred).

Preferred Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree preferred.

Licenses, Certifications, or Additional Requirements:

• Relevant certifications such as CompTia A+, HDI, ITIL, or similar are highly desirable.
• This position requires financial disclosure.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong technical troubleshooting skills
• Experience configuring, supporting and troubleshooting Windows OS
• Experience supporting and troubleshooting video conference solutions such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom
• Strong understanding of Microsoft 365 suite of applications
• Strong leadership and management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully lead day-to-day Help Desk operations in a high-performing organization, including queue management and metric tracking.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a talent for de-escalating frustrated stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience in team building and collaborative problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to work with all levels of college personnel including executive staff.
• Knowledge of IT management, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and ITIL incident frameworks.

Physical Demands:

The work is medium work which requires exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 30 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects.

Work Environment:

Office environment with occasional travel.

Availability to work outside regular business hours as needed.

General Employment Information:

The College of Southern Maryland is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Background Checks:

The College of Southern Maryland conducts background checks in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the College's staff and students. The final candidate for this position will be subject to the following background checks: Criminal History Check and Sex Offender Registry Check.

Conflict of Interest policy:

No College of Southern Maryland employee shall engage in or have a financial interest, directly or indirectly, in any activity that conflicts or raises a reasonable question of conflict with his or her duties and responsibilities. CSM Employees shall not at any time engage in any outside employment or independent consulting that would adversely affect their employment status or performance as employees at the college, create a conflict of interest, or, with the exception of constitutionally protected activities, would compromise or embarrass the college, or adversely affect professional standing. Any full-time college employee who also holds a full-time position or its equivalent in consulting elsewhere (whether permanent or seasonal) will be deemed to have a conflict of interest and will be asked to resign from one of the full-time positions. Full-time employees must promptly disclose in writing, on a form available from the Human Resources Office, to the college all other full-time employment or its equivalent in independent consulting.

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