Service Desk Lead

Dunelm; Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading homewares retailer is seeking a Service Desk Lead to nurture and develop a talented group of service desk technicians in Leicester. The role involves overseeing team performance, driving continuous improvement, and ensuring compliance with service delivery standards. Candidates should have significant experience leading IT Helpdesks, strong leadership skills, and familiarity with ITIL frameworks. This position provides a hybrid work option and is pivotal for enhancing colleague support across the organization.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading an IT Helpdesk or Service Desk.
• Experience of coaching and mentoring staff.
• ITIL V3/4 Certifications or relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Provide line management for Service Desk Technicians.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and provide feedback.
• Monitor team performance and provide statistics.

Skills

Leadership

Coaching and mentoring

Communication

Technical knowledge of Microsoft and Mac OS

ITIL certifications

Agile methodologies

Tools

Service Now

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

This role will be based in Leicester, and we operate a hybrid working policy. The successful colleague will be required to travel to Leicester on a weekly basis.

Home. There’s no place like it. And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home.

At Dunelm, that’s what we do.

We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And the caring and supportive culture we've created makes this a place you'll feel right at home too.

About the area

This is a pivotal position within our Colleague Technology Support team, responsible for nurturing and developing a talented group of service desk technicians. As Service Desk Lead, you will lead by example by motivating and empowering the team to deliver a consistently high-performing, colleague-centric support experience.

You will champion best practice across all aspects of service delivery, driving continuous improvement initiatives that elevate our support standards to industry-leading levels.

Success in this role requires a hands‑on, adaptable individual who thrives in dynamic environments and is committed to delivering outstanding business‑critical support. You’ll be expected to balance strategic thinking with operational execution, ensuring that our service desk remains responsive.

The Role

As one of two Service Desk leads, you will provide line management for Service Desk Technicians, overseeing wellbeing, performance, and career development.

Conduct regular performance reviews, provide constructive feedback, and establish individual development plans to support the career advancement of support employees.

Monitor team performance and provide regular, clear statistics and trend analysis narratives to drive improvement and meet business expectations.

Regularly review and update the skills matrix and career framework to define an effective learning and development programme to unlock potential and grow the confidence and expertise of colleagues within support.

Provide end‑to‑end ownership of all incidents, requests, events, problems and changes within Service Now.

Proactively monitor ticket trends to identify recurring issues, uncover root causes, and ensure appropriate problem records are raised and prioritised for resolution.

Alongside the Colleague Support Principal, implement process improvements that aligns the service desk to best practice frameworks including ITIL V4, ISO20000, and Service Desk Institute guidelines.

Establish a structured environment for capturing, storing, and accessing knowledge across the service desk.

Ensure that service level agreements (SLAs) are adhered to, and plans are put in place to remediate SLA breaches.

Manage escalations and complex issues, ensuring swift and satisfactory resolutions. Support the transition of new services into support, ensuring support documentation is created and transitional activities are completed.

Review colleague satisfaction and translate lessons learnt into continual service improvements. Identify and propose improvements to Service Desk Tooling (Service Now, Vonage, Splashtop, etc.) including the automation of service requests where appropriate and identify areas of lifecycle improvement to the Colleague Support Principal.

Participate in monthly service reviews with suppliers to identify collaborative opportunities and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Stay informed with industry trends and best practice to identify and implement continual service improvements.

Foster a culture of collaboration, excellence, and transparency.

About you

• Significant experience leading an IT Helpdesk or Service Desk.
• Experience of coaching and/or mentoring staff.
• ITIL V3/4 Certifications or relevant experience.
• Comprehensive technical knowledge of Microsoft and Mac operating systems and Microsoft office suite.
• Experience in recruiting and onboarding colleagues.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate technicians and engineers to achieve their full potential.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• A commitment to diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion, with a track record of fostering inclusive work environments.
• Comprehensive knowledge of Microsoft and Mac operating systems and Microsoft office suite.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies.
• Experience within Service Now or other market leading ITSM suites.
• Technical support experience within a retail environment.
• Resilient, and aligned with organisational goals.