IT Support Team Lead

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

IT Support Team Lead

The IT Support Team Lead is responsible for leading the day-to-day delivery of IT support services, ensuring a high-quality end-user experience and effective resolution of technology issues across the business. This role provides operational leadership to the IT Support team, acting as a senior technical escalation point while ensuring service excellence, process compliance, and continuous improvement initiatives are successfully delivered.

Working closely with IT management, business stakeholders, and technology teams, the IT Support Team Lead manages support operations, monitors service performance, coaches and develops team members, and ensures support services align with business needs and service level commitments. The role combines technical expertise, people leadership, customer service excellence, and operational management to deliver dependable workplace technology services.

Location: Milton Keynes, Witney, London Office based 3 days per week.

Reporting Line: Global Service Delivery Manager

Travel Requirements: Occasional travel to UK office locations as required.

Work Pattern: Full Time, Permanent

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Include, but are not limited to:

• Lead, mentor, coach, and develop IT Support SME’s, fostering a culture of accountability, teamwork, continuous improvement, and customer focus.
• Manage the daily operations of the IT Support function, ensuring support requests, incidents, and service requests are handled efficiently and professionally.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex technical issues
• Monitor team workloads, queues, and performance to ensure SLA’s and customer satisfaction targets are consistently achieved.
• Conduct regular team meetings, one-to-ones, performance reviews, and development planning activities.
• Coordinate incident management activities and support major incident response when required.
• Ensure effective ticket management practices are followed, including accurate categorisation, prioritisation, documentation, and resolution tracking.
• Drive continual service improvement initiatives, identifying opportunities to optimise processes, automate repetitive tasks, and improve the user experience.
• Maintain and promote knowledge management practices, ensuring support documentation and procedures remain accurate and current.
• Collaborate with Infrastructure, Security, Applications, and Global IT teams to resolve cross-functional issues.
• Support onboarding, offboarding, office moves, technology deployments, hardware refreshes, and business projects.
• Monitor support trends and operational metrics, producing performance reports and recommendations for improvement.
• Ensure compliance with IT policies, information security requirements, and company standards.
• Assist in resource planning, shift scheduling, and coverage management to maintain support service availability.
• Support vendor relationships and escalate service delivery concerns where appropriate.
• Promote ITIL best practices across Incident, Request, Problem, Asset, and Knowledge Management disciplines.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in IT Support, Service Desk, Desktop Support, End User Computing, or related IT operations roles.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in a supervisory, senior analyst, or team leadership capacity.
• Experience supporting enterprise environments with multiple locations and diverse business functions.
• Experience working within ITSM frameworks and service-oriented support organisations.

Technical Skills

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft 365, Windows operating systems, Active Directory, Azure AD/Entra ID, Intune, and endpoint management technologies.
• Experience with ServiceNow or equivalent IT Service Management platforms.
• Understanding of networking fundamentals, mobile device management, printing, conferencing technologies, and workplace technology solutions.
• Experience troubleshooting hardware, software, cloud services, and collaboration tools.
• Knowledge of Incident, Request, Problem, Asset, and Knowledge Management processes.
• Familiarity with endpoint security, identity management, and security best practices.

Leadership & Business Skills

• Proven ability to lead, motivate, and develop high-performing support teams.
• Excellent customer service and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and maintain service excellence under pressure.
• Customer-focused mindset with a passion for delivering exceptional user experiences.

Certifications (Preferred)

• ITIL 4 Foundation.
• Microsoft 365 Administrator, Endpoint Administrator, or related Microsoft certifications.
• ServiceNow certification desirable.
• Leadership, coaching, or people management qualifications advantageous.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• SLA Achievement.
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT).
• First Contact Resolution (FCR).
• Ticket Backlog Management.
• Incident Resolution Times.
• Escalation Reduction Rate.
• Knowledge Article Creation and Utilisation.
• Team Productivity and Quality Scores.
• Service Improvement Delivery.
• Employee Engagement and Development Metrics.
• Asset and Device Compliance.
• Operational Efficiency Improvements.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.