Manager, IT Service Desk (Louisiana)

We take great strides to ensure our employees have the resources to live well, be healthy, continue learning, develop skills, grow professionally and serve our local communities. We invite you to apply for a career with us. Residency in or relocation to Louisiana is preferred for all positions. This role requires availability to work a regular schedule of 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. POSITION PURPOSE This position directly leads a team of Associate IT Support Representatives and IT Support Representatives by carrying out managerial responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies. The IT Support Representatives are responsible for the first level and second level support of multi-divisional applications and services as well as troubleshooting hardware and technical issues over the phone. This position is responsible for interviewing, hiring, training, appraising performance, rewarding and disciplining employees as well as planning, assigning and directing their work. The position is responsible for distribution of workload, tracking workload and performance, evaluating customer satisfaction, ensuring that established service levels are met and reporting IT Support metrics daily, weekly, and monthly to Director, IT Service Delivery. Creates long term strategies to grow the IT Support Representative. Assists the team in the resolution of issues submitted. Creates and maintains training and knowledge documentation for IT Support internal customers, and external customers. Escalates high priority incidents/problem tickets to appropriate team(s) and provides continuous communication to affected teams while managing incident to resolution. NATURE AND SCOPE Manages People This role reports to this job: Director, IT Service Delivery Necessary Contacts: In order to effectively fulfill this position, the incumbent must be in contact with: Internal Provides guidance and direction to all users of IT Services. Negotiates, defines, interprets plan/policy requirements and presents support options to all levels within BCBSLA. Interfaces directly with client management in negotiation and definition of requirements. Requires diplomatic and tactful negotiations on controversial subjects. Interfaces with IT Managers, Directors, Vice Presidents, and the CIO in content from simple to complex. External Works with vendors, outside consultants and contractors as needed. Reviews and maintains contact with selected user groups with similar challenges. Attends outside technical meetings as directed, making presentations when necessary. QUALIFICATIONS Education Bachelor's in Computer Science or related field is required Four years of related experience can be used in lieu of a Bachelor’s degree. Work Experience 5 years of technical experience is required 2 years of leadership experience is required Experience can run concurrently Experience in the ServiceDesk environment is preferred Skills and Abilities Must have demonstrated capacity to successfully lead and direct a group of employees with varying technical and customer service skill levels preferably in a ServiceDesk Experience in defining, developing and/or monitoring call center metrics is required Experience in training, evaluating and coaching technical staff Ability to diagnose hardware, network, application, and access issues using working knowledge or existing technical skills Requires knowledge of IT Security Identity Access Management systems Requires a high level of knowledge in the field of computer science, including hardware and software products, computer systems, problem troubleshooting, development/maintenance process, information reporting, and data management for large complex systems Excellent ability to diagnose personal computer system and printer issues using knowledge base or existing technical knowledge/skills. Sound working knowledge of basic network concepts including, TCP/IP, DNS, LAN/WAN concepts Working knowledge of automated deployment tools Experience applying knowledge of ITIL best practices or holds an ITIL Foundation Certification Effective communication skills, both written and oral, and presentation skills are required as is the ability to communicate calmly and patiently with both technical and non-technical audiences Excellent written professional communication skills required to produce companywide notices Decisions require significant use of extensive technical, functional, leadership, and managerial skills to maximize benefits, while minimizing impact on all external/internal information systems and headquarters/field personnel Must identify, define, quantify and solve significant, complex, technical and management issues on a regular basis. This requires creativity/innovative approaches to resolve issues despite minimum lead times and with minimum requirement definition for changes or projects of major proportions Provides leadership to Support Team daily Must correlate requirements and information from multiple sources, anticipate both current and future processing and management information needs, analyze their potential impacts, and create new solutions to meet these needs Licenses and Certifications Technical Certifications (i.e. MCP, A+ are preferred ACCOUNTABILITIES AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS Leads IT staff, promotes career development opportunities, provides mentoring to the staff to encourage personal growth and advancement, and promotes delivery of high-quality customer service and team productivity. Responsible for overall performance of IT Support Representatives. Reviews metrics daily identifying trends in the environment. Works with appropriate IT departments to remediate top support issues. Tracks remediation plan to completion. Reports on process improvements and the overall affect to IT Support. Develops, manages, and builds positive relationships / partnerships with clients, vendors, peers/other teams, and staff to ensure a high le