Senior Associate - Service Desk Improvement

The Associate / Senior Associate - Service Desk Improvement provides first-line support through telephone, portal, chat and email.

Responsibilities

• The role records, categorises, priorities, diagnoses and resolves incidents, fulfils approved standard requests, and retains ownership of the customer experience when work is escalated.
• Associate operates with greater independence on complex first-line issues, supports shift handovers and quality, coaches colleagues, and contributes to knowledge and controlled shift-left.
• The role does not own specialist engineering, security investigation, application development or infrastructure administration unless an activity has been formally documented, trained, authorised and controlled for Service Desk fulfilment.
• Act as a professional single point of contact for IT incidents and service requests through supported channels; verify user identity and capture the affected service, device, location, business impact and required evidence.
• Create, categorise and prioritise tickets accurately using agreed impact and urgency criteria; check known incidents and outages; set clear expectations and provide meaningful updates.
• Perform structured first-line diagnosis using approved knowledge, remote-support tools and troubleshooting methods; resolve within authorised capability and confirm restoration before closure.
• Fulfil approved standard requests only when required information, approvals and controls are present; route privileged, non-standard, engineering or business-approval work to the accountable team.
• Identify potential major incidents and security concerns promptly and engage the defined escalation process without attempting unauthorised investigation or remediation.
• Escalate unresolved issues with complete diagnostics, error details, screenshots/logs where appropriate, actions already taken, business impact and a clear next-step request.
• Retain end-to-end ownership of the customer experience after escalation by monitoring SLA position, following up with resolver teams, coordinating callbacks and confirming user acceptance before closure.
• Maintain high-quality work notes, resolution details, closure codes and shift handovers to support auditability, reporting, Problem Management and continual improvement.
• Use approved knowledge articles, identify gaps or outdated content, and create or improve draft knowledge from repeatable resolutions.
• Follow security, privacy, identity-verification, least-privilege and data-handling requirements always.
• Contribute to service measures including response, first-contact/first-line resolution, SLA compliance, aged backlog, reopen rate, misrouting, ticket quality, knowledge use and customer experience.
• Senior Associate: provide floor support, coach Associates, review ticket and escalation quality, support queue health and shift handover, and help validate new first-line procedures before adoption.

First-line service coverage

• Access, identity and JML assistance: password reset, account unlock, MFA, Okta and YubiKey support; approved mailbox, distribution/security group and collaboration access; joiner support for missing access/apps; accurate routing of mover, leaver, guest, auditor and privileged-access requests.
• Devices and software: Windows laptop/desktop triage, peripheral and printer troubleshooting, approved application installation/removal through Company Portal, Intune or SCCM, device-build evidence capture, mobile/tablet setup and enrolment, and lost/stolen device workflow initiation.
• Email, collaboration and file services: Outlook, Exchange/Microsoft 365, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, shared mailboxes, delegation, supported conferencing tools, Copilot access/standard-use triage, file sharing, removable-media requests and document-productivity tools.
• Connectivity and remote working: VPN, wireless, office connectivity, Citrix, client/external portal access, mobile Wi-Fi/tethering guidance and initial diagnostics for SFTP or allow-list requests before specialist routing.
• Meeting rooms, telephony and voice: displays, cameras, microphones, room technology, ClickShare, Teams Voice, Avaya, Genesys, digital fax, call recording, digital dictation and voice-recognition applications at first-line scope.
• Business and divisional applications: consistent intake, access triage, installation/add-in support where documented, outage identification and evidence-led routing to Product Support, line-of-business teams or vendors.
• Reporting and analytics: first-line access and client/browser diagnosis for Power BI, QlikView and SSRS; route workspace, gateway, dataset, report logic and underlying-data issues to the accountable owner.
• Infrastructure-generated contacts: capture user impact and correlate contacts for availability, backup/restore, cloud, database, server, network, capacity or continuity issues; specialist teams retain engineering accountability.

Service boundaries

• Out of scope unless formally shifted left: network/firewall configuration, server provisioning or patching, database administration, cloud/VM engineering, backup-policy or disaster-recovery design, security monitoring/investigation, application development/defect correction, procurement decisions and business-process support owned by Finance, Payroll, HR or divisional teams.
• Unsupported, retired or vendor-owned products must be routed according to the approved application support matrix; the Service Desk must not imply technical ownership where none is assigned.
• Hands-on use of an ITSM tool such as ServiceNow to log, categorise, prioritise, update, resolve and close incidents and requests.
• Experience supporting users across Microsoft 365, Windows endpoints, identity/authentication, remote working, connectivity, devices and common collaboration tools.

Requirements

• Associate: typically 1-5 years of relevant Service Desk, technical support or customer-facing IT support experience.
• Senior Associate: typically 5-9 years of relevant Service Desk experience, including independent handling of complex first-line issues, escalation quality, shift handover and peer support.
• Experience working to SLAs while maintaining accurate ticket documentation and customer communication.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent recognised undergraduate qualification in technology, computer science, engineering or a related discipline; equivalent relevant professional experience may be considered.
• Role-relevant technical training or certifications are advantageous when supported by demonstrable practical capability.
• Strong technical troubleshooting across Windows, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive/SharePoint, identity and access, MFA/Okta, VPN, Citrix, wireless, devices, peripherals, printers and approved software.
• Working knowledge of ITIL-aligned Incident Management, Request Fulfilment, Knowledge Management, escalation and Major Incident identification.
• Ability to distinguish an incident from a request, assess impact and urgency, select the correct service/category and gather evidence that enables rapid resolver diagnosis.
• Customer-focused communication: active listening, clear language, expectation management, ownership and professional handling of high-impact or frustrated-user situations.
• Ability to follow documented procedures and security controls, including identity verification, data handling, approvals and least privilege.
• Good written documentation with concise work notes, reproducible diagnostic steps, resolution details and effective handovers.
• Ability to manage competing priorities during high-volume periods, work collaboratively across global resolver teams and adapt to rotational shifts.
• Associate: demonstrates learning agility, procedural discipline and readiness to broaden technical coverage.
• Senior Associate: demonstrates sound judgement, coaching capability, queue awareness, quality focus and confidence challenging incomplete or incorrect routing without losing customer ownership.

Essential requirement (non-negotiable) *

• Hands-on Service Desk or equivalent first-line technical/customer support experience at the appropriate Associate or Senior Associate level.
• Demonstrated first-line troubleshooting capability across core workplace technology and authentication/connectivity issues.
• Excellent spoken and written communication with evidence of customer ownership and accurate expectation setting.
• Ability to work through approved rotational shifts supporting global operations from office location only.
• Proven ability to work to SLAs, maintain high-quality ticket records and escalate with complete diagnostic evidence.
• Willingness to use and improve knowledge and to learn new services as controlled shift-left is introduced.
• Preferred: ITIL 4 Foundation.
• Certifications support but do not replace demonstrable hands-on Service Desk capability.

Preferred

• Preferred: KCS Fundamentals or equivalent knowledge-management training.
• Advantageous: Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, Azure Fundamentals, ServiceNow Fundamentals/CSA exposure, CompTIA A+/Network+ or an equivalent role-relevant certification.

Knowledge, Skill, ability

Commitment to security, privacy, identity verification, least privilege and approved procedures.