Managed Operations Support Manager

About the role

The Managed Operations Support Manager is responsible for leading and continuously improving the Managed Operations support function. This is a hands-on operational leadership role accountable for effective 24x7 support coverage, disciplined ticket management, balanced workload distribution, high-quality customer communication and consistent achievement of agreed service levels.

The role oversees day-to-day support performance and Freshservice ITSM governance, working closely with Service Managers, technical engineers, DevOps and cloud teams to ensure incidents, service requests and operational activities are effectively managed, prioritised, escalated and resolved.

The successful candidate will also drive quality assurance, team development, performance reporting, capacity planning and continual service improvement to strengthen operational efficiency, customer experience and overall service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

1. Support Leadership and Workforce Management

• Lead daily support operations, including 24x7 shift coverage, resource allocation, workload balancing, leave planning, shift handovers and after-hours escalation readiness.

• Monitor ticket queues, backlogs, workload distribution and team performance to ensure service commitments are consistently met.

• Maintain clear ownership of tickets and operational activities, intervening proactively where work is delayed or at risk of breaching SLAs.

• Lead operational stand-ups and shift handovers to communicate priorities, risks, escalations and outstanding customer commitments.

• Coach and develop team members through regular feedback, performance reviews, skills development and on-the-job guidance.

• Support recruitment, onboarding, training and workforce planning to maintain the required operational capacity and capability.

2. Freshservice ITSM and Ticket Governance

• Own the operational effectiveness of Freshservice across the Managed Operations support function, including workflows, assignment groups, priorities, SLAs, automations, templates and reporting.

• Ensure tickets are accurately categorised, prioritised, assigned, documented and progressed in accordance with established processes and customer commitments.

• Maintain high standards of ticket quality, including customer updates, technical notes, resolution details, time capture and closure records.

• Ensure billable effort is accurately recorded and supported by appropriate evidence of work performed.

• Maintain and improve the service catalogue, ticket forms, routing rules, standard operating procedures and workflow automation.

• Identify opportunities to leverage automation, workflow orchestration and AI capabilities to improve efficiency, consistency and service quality.

3. Quality Assurance and Customer Experience

• Establish and manage a structured ticket quality assurance programme to assess technical quality, process compliance, customer communication and resolution effectiveness.

• Review ticket samples across team members and shifts, provide constructive feedback and track corrective actions.

• Ensure customers receive timely, clear and professional communication throughout the ticket lifecycle, including during extended investigations and major incidents.

• Monitor customer satisfaction and service feedback, investigate service concerns and implement improvement actions with relevant stakeholders.

• Promote a customer-first support culture focused on accountability, transparency and effective resolution.

4. Incident, Escalation and Problem Management

• Coordinate initial responses to priority incidents, ensuring timely escalation and engagement of the appropriate technical resources.

• Manage escalation pathways across support teams, Service Managers, L2/L3 engineering, DevOps, cloud teams, vendors and customer stakeholders.

• Lead or support major incident coordination, including stakeholder communication, action tracking, service restoration and handover to problem management.

• Ensure post-incident reviews and root cause analyses are completed, documented and translated into corrective and preventative actions.

• Identify recurring incidents and operational trends, initiate problem records and drive permanent remediation.

• Maintain after-hours escalation readiness through regular process testing, service-readiness drills and validation of contact lists, runbooks and responder availability.

• Coordinate weekly service-readiness drills, including two internal role-playing exercises and two customer-participation drills per month.

5. Service Performance, Reporting and Capacity Management

• Define, monitor and report on key operational performance indicators, including SLA achievement, response and resolution times, backlog, ticket ageing, reopen rates, escalation rates, quality scores and customer satisfaction.

• Use Freshservice dashboards and operational data to identify trends, service bottlenecks, capacity constraints and improvement opportunities.

• Produce weekly and monthly operational reports highlighting performance, risks, corrective actions and progress against improvement objectives.

• Forecast staffing and skills requirements based on demand, customer growth, shift coverage and planned onboarding activity.

• Balance service quality, team sustainability and commercial efficiency when managing resources and workload.

6. Operational Readiness and Customer Onboarding

• Ensure new customers, workloads and services meet operational readiness requirements before being accepted into Managed Operations support.

• Coordinate the preparation and validation of support runbooks, monitoring coverage, access, escalation paths, service levels, support boundaries and customer communication channels.

• Confirm that support personnel have the necessary training, documentation and technical knowledge before new services enter production support.

• Track onboarding actions and escalate readiness gaps to prevent unsupported or inadequately documented services from entering the support environment.

• Collaborate with Service Managers and technical teams to maintain accurate customer documentation and operational knowledge.

7. Continual Improvement, Knowledge and Automation

• Lead continual service improvement initiatives across people, processes, technology and customer experience.

• Develop and maintain knowledge articles, troubleshooting guides, support procedures, standard responses and shift task lists.

• Drive shift-left initiatives to increase first-line resolution capability while maintaining appropriate quality and control standards.

• Identify repetitive tasks and opportunities for sustainable automation in collaboration with technical teams.

• Use quality findings, incident trends, operational data and customer feedback to prioritise and measure improvement initiatives.

• Promote the responsible use of AI-assisted quality checks, ticket summarisation, knowledge retrieval and operational reporting.

8. Stakeholder and Vendor Collaboration

• Act as the primary operational point of accountability for support-function performance and ticket execution within Managed Operations.

• Work closely with Service Managers to align operational delivery with customer commitments, priorities and service review outcomes.

• Build effective working relationships with engineering, DevOps, cloud, security, finance and sales teams to support coordinated service delivery.

• Manage operational engagement with relevant service and tooling vendors, including Freshworks, escalating product or service performance issues where necessary.

• Communicate operational risks, performance gaps and cross-team dependencies clearly, ensuring timely action and resolution.

9. Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Ensure support activities comply with internal policies, customer contracts, information security requirements and applicable audit controls.

• Maintain appropriate access governance, operational records, supporting evidence and process documentation.

• Identify operational risks and control weaknesses, assign corrective actions and escalate material concerns to the Head of Managed Operations.

• Support internal and external audits by providing accurate records, process evidence and documented improvement plans.

Decision-Making and Accountability

The Managed Operations Support Manager will be accountable for:

• Assigning and reprioritising work across the Managed Operations support team.

• Maintaining ticket ownership, quality standards and adherence to agreed operational processes.

• Escalating incidents, service risks, capacity constraints and performance concerns to the appropriate stakeholders.

• Recommending improvements to support processes, Freshservice configuration, workforce planning, shift structures and training priorities.

• Assessing operational readiness and recommending whether new customers, workloads or services are ready for support acceptance.

• Driving measurable improvements in service performance, customer experience, operational efficiency and team capability.

Measures of Success

Success in this role will be demonstrated through:

• Consistent achievement of agreed SLAs and customer service commitments.

• Improved ticket quality, ownership, documentation and customer communication.

• Effective management of ticket queues, backlogs and workload distribution.

• Timely incident escalation, service restoration and completion of corrective actions.

• Improved customer satisfaction and reduced recurring incidents.

• Effective workforce planning, team development and 24x7 operational readiness.

• Increased operational efficiency through knowledge management, automation and continual improvement.

• Consistent compliance with governance, security and audit requirements.

Qualifications and Experience

• Relevant diploma or bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Service Management or a related field.

• ITIL 4 Foundation certification is required; advanced ITIL certifications are advantageous.

• Demonstrable experience administering, configuring or managing Freshservice or an equivalent IT Service Management (ITSM) platform is required.

• Minimum of five years' experience in IT service management, service desk, technical support or IT operations.

• At least three years' experience leading or managing a support, service desk or operations team.

• Experience operating in a 24x7 support environment, including shift management and after-hours escalation.

• Experience within a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or multi-customer support environment is highly advantageous.

• Demonstrated experience in workload management, ticket quality assurance, performance reporting and continual service improvement.

• Working knowledge of cloud operations, monitoring, incident response and DevOps support models is advantageous.

• Relevant cloud certifications in AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are advantageous.

Core Competencies

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following competencies:

• Operational leadership and accountability: Ability to lead day-to-day operations, take ownership of service performance and drive results.

• Customer-focused communication: Ability to communicate clearly, professionally and proactively with customers and internal stakeholders.

• Workload prioritisation and capacity management: Ability to allocate resources effectively, manage competing priorities and maintain balanced workloads.

• Data-driven decision-making: Ability to interpret operational metrics, identify trends and use performance data to inform decisions.

• ITSM and Freshservice expertise: Strong understanding of ITSM principles, ticket governance, service workflows and platform optimisation.

• Coaching and performance management: Ability to develop team capability, provide constructive feedback and manage performance.

• Quality assurance and attention to detail: Commitment to accurate ticket records, process compliance, technical quality and consistent customer communication.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Ability to work effectively with Service Managers, technical teams, DevOps, cloud teams, vendors and other stakeholders.

• Incident and escalation management: Ability to coordinate responses, manage escalations and maintain operational readiness in a 24x7 environment.

• Continual improvement and automation mindset: Ability to identify inefficiencies, improve processes and leverage knowledge, automation and AI-enabled capabilities responsibly.

Key Measures of Success

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Consistent achievement of agreed service levels and response commitments.

• Healthy ticket queues, clear ownership, controlled backlogs and minimal aged or stalled tickets.

• Effective workload distribution across team members and shifts.

• Improved ticket quality, customer communication and time-capture accuracy.

• Strong customer satisfaction and timely completion of improvement actions arising from customer feedback.

• Effective major incident response, escalation management and follow-through on root cause analyses and corrective actions.

• Reliable 24x7 support coverage, effective shift handovers and sustainable team performance.

• Increased adoption of knowledge management, automation and shift-left practices.

• Successful operational onboarding and readiness of new customers, services and workloads.

• Accurate and timely reporting, early identification of operational risks and measurable continual improvement.