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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Support Manager

💰 $ - $

ITManagementTechnical Support

🎯 Role Definition

The IT Support Manager leads the day-to-day operations of the IT support organization, ensuring timely incident resolution, excellent end-user experience, SLA compliance, continuous process improvement, and alignment with IT service management principles (ITIL). This role combines technical expertise across desktop, network, server, and cloud environments with managerial responsibilities including hiring, coaching, workforce planning, vendor management, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable support services.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior IT Support Engineer / Lead Desktop Support
  • Systems Administrator / Network Administrator
  • Service Desk Team Lead or Technical Support Lead

Advancement To:

  • IT Operations Manager / Head of IT Support
  • Director of IT / Director of Operations
  • Head of Infrastructure or Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Service Delivery Manager
  • IT Project Manager
  • Security Operations Manager / Cybersecurity Team Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own and manage the IT support function (service desk and field support), ensuring incident and request fulfillment processes meet defined SLAs and customer satisfaction targets; drive continuous improvement to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and increase first contact resolution (FCR).
  • Lead, coach, and mentor a distributed team of support engineers and technicians; drive hiring, performance reviews, career development plans, and training programs to strengthen technical capabilities and customer service skills.
  • Oversee ticketing system administration (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Desk, Zendesk), including workflow design, SLA configuration, automation rules, reporting, and integrations with monitoring and asset systems.
  • Implement and enforce ITSM/ITIL practices — incident, problem, change, request, and knowledge management — to ensure predictable, auditable, and repeatable support operations.
  • Monitor and report on key support KPIs (SLA compliance, ticket volume, backlog, MTTR, CSAT/NPS) and present actionable insights to IT leadership and business stakeholders to drive decision-making.
  • Develop and maintain a comprehensive knowledge base and runbooks for common incidents, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and escalation paths to improve consistency and reduce resolution times.
  • Manage vendor relationships and external support contracts for hardware, software, managed services, and third-party escalations; ensure vendor performance aligns with SLAs and contractual KPIs.
  • Coordinate incident response and major incident management processes, act as escalation point for high-impact outages, lead root cause analysis (RCA) and post-incident reviews to prevent recurrence.
  • Plan, prioritize, and execute desktop and device lifecycle management programs, including procurement, imaging, configuration, deployment, refresh cycles, and secure disposal in line with asset management policies.
  • Own endpoint management and patching strategy (SCCM, Microsoft Intune, JAMF), ensuring timely security patch deployment and compliance across Windows, macOS, and mobile endpoints.
  • Manage Active Directory and identity lifecycle functions in collaboration with identity teams — user provisioning/deprovisioning, group membership, password resets, permissions audits, and single sign-on (SSO) support.
  • Coordinate network and connectivity troubleshooting (LAN/WAN, VPN, Wi‑Fi), working with network engineering teams to resolve cross-domain incidents affecting end-user productivity.
  • Drive desktop and application support for cloud collaboration platforms (Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, Google Workspace) including mailbox management, tenant governance, and user training.
  • Administer and optimize remote support tooling and methods (MS Remote Desktop, TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Intune remote actions) to support a hybrid workforce with high-quality remote troubleshooting.
  • Partner with cybersecurity and compliance teams to implement endpoint security controls, anti-malware, encryption, and secure configuration baselines; contribute to vulnerability remediation and incident containment activities.
  • Manage budgeting and cost control for the support function — licensing, hardware refreshes, service contracts, and third-party labor — and prepare regular forecasts and capital expense proposals.
  • Lead or support IT projects with a people-impact focus (device migrations, email migrations, VDI rollouts, SSO deployments), coordinating change management, communications, pilot programs, and user acceptance testing.
  • Maintain and evolve the IT support roadmap — tools, processes, staffing models, and automation opportunities (chatbots, self-service portals, runbook automation) to increase efficiency and scalability.
  • Ensure compliance with internal policies, data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA where relevant), and industry standards; implement secure handling of sensitive data during support processes.
  • Design and run regular training, onboarding, and certification programs for support staff; establish mentorship, knowledge sharing sessions, and community-of-practice forums.
  • Oversee field services and vendor-managed onsite assistance for office moves, hardware repairs, and break/fix workflows ensuring SLA adherence and minimized downtime.
  • Maintain an on-call rota and incident escalation matrix for critical systems, ensuring coverage for out-of-hours incidents and a smooth handover process between shifts and teams.
  • Conduct regular service reviews with business stakeholders to align support priorities to organizational objectives, gather feedback, and drive user experience improvements across teams and regions.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc reporting and analytics requests related to service desk performance, asset inventories, and license usage; collaborate with data teams to surface trends and forecasts.
  • Contribute to the organization's IT service strategy and roadmap by proposing initiatives that reduce cost-to-serve, increase automation, and improve employee experience.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate operational needs into technical requirements for tooling, workflows, and support-level agreements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies for IT projects that require support-team deliverables; help prioritize backlog items that deliver the most strategic value.
  • Provide guidance during audits, compliance checks, and vendor reviews, preparing evidence and remediation plans as required.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • IT Service Management (ITSM) and ITIL foundation-level best practices — incident, problem, change, and knowledge management.
  • Ticketing and service desk platforms: ServiceNow, Jira Service Desk, Zendesk, Freshservice — configuration, automation, and reporting.
  • Endpoint management and patching: Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM), Microsoft Intune, JAMF — imaging, patch deployment, and compliance monitoring.
  • Microsoft 365 administration (Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive) and mailbox management for enterprise tenants.
  • Active Directory and identity services: user lifecycle management, Group Policy, AD troubleshooting, Azure AD sync, SSO fundamentals.
  • Networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN, Wi‑Fi troubleshooting, and working knowledge of firewalls and routing for support escalations.
  • Desktop, laptop and mobile device support across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android platforms.
  • Basic cloud platform familiarity (Azure, AWS) for troubleshooting cloud-hosted apps and collaborating with cloud teams on incidents and deployments.
  • Endpoint security and anti-malware technologies, encryption, and secure configuration baselines; working with security operations to remediate threats.
  • Remote support and collaboration tools: Remote Desktop, TeamViewer, AnyDesk, ConnectWise, Slack/Teams for notifications and communication.
  • Asset and inventory management tools — Lansweeper, ServiceNow CMDB, JAMF, or similar — for lifecycle and audit readiness.
  • Scripting and automation basics (PowerShell, Bash) to automate common support tasks and reporting.
  • Backup and disaster recovery fundamentals — ensuring recoverability for user data and critical endpoints.

Soft Skills

  • Strong verbal and written communication tailored for technical and non-technical stakeholders; ability to simplify complex technical issues for end users and executives.
  • Leadership and people management: coaching, conflict resolution, performance management, and fostering a high-trust team culture.
  • Customer service orientation and stakeholder empathy — prioritizing user experience and continuous improvement of support interactions.
  • Problem-solving and analytical thinking for root cause analysis and durable remediation.
  • Time management and prioritization under pressure — managing concurrent incidents, projects, and team needs effectively.
  • Change management and influencing skills for adoption of new tools, processes, and policies across distributed teams.
  • Vendor negotiation and contract management skills, including SLA review and vendor performance escalation.
  • Attention to detail for compliance, documentation, and audit readiness.
  • Adaptability to evolving technologies and the ability to quickly learn new platforms and tools.
  • Data-driven mindset — using metrics and KPIs to drive team behavior, staffing decisions, and process optimizations.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Network Engineering, or a related technical discipline — or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's plus professional certifications (ITIL Foundation, CompTIA Network+/Security+, Microsoft 365 Certified, Azure Fundamentals).
  • Master's degree in IT Management, Information Systems, or Business Administration is a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology / Information Systems
  • Network Engineering
  • Cybersecurity
  • Business Administration (with IT concentration)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5–8 years of progressive IT support experience with at least 2–3 years in a leadership or supervisory role managing support engineers and technicians.

Preferred:

  • 7–10+ years in enterprise IT support or managed services environments with demonstrable experience owning service desk operations, ticketing platforms (ServiceNow/Jira), ITIL practices, vendor management, and multi-site or global support coverage. Certifications such as ITIL, Microsoft 365, Azure, CompTIA, or PMP are highly desirable.
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