Support Center Manager

ABOUT WESTED

WestEd is a national, nonpartisan research, development, and service agency. Our mission is to improve learning, healthy development, and equity in schools and communities. With headquarters in San Francisco, WestEd has over 1200 employees who work in 46 states and DC, with a significant number of staff working virtually. Our core values include research-based approaches to serving the needs of our clients, ensuring excellence and integrity in all our work, equity, and striving for impact. To view our 2020 Year in Review from our CEO, Glen Harvey, please visit here.

Serving as trusted partners in the areas of education, health, and justice, our teams enhance capacity within communities and school districts to prioritize impact — asking the right questions, customizing methodologies, developing relevant tools, and implementing best practices specific to a diverse range of stakeholder needs. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is core to who we are and how we work. We are committed to working with our clients to illuminate and address disparities, value and elevate diverse voices, and ensure equitable access to our resources and services. We value a range of perspectives provided by a diverse workforce and the ways in which those perspectives enrich and inform our agency and the work we do. Read more about WestEd’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion here.

SPECIAL NOTICE REGARDING THE WORK LOCATION OF THIS POSITION—Although WestEd provides the option of working at one of its facilities for employees, many roles allow employees to choose to work remotely for their own convenience. The decision to allow remote work at the employee's convenience is based on the requirements of the position or project in question.

This position will be based in WestEd’s Seal Beach or San Francisco offices. Candidates will work a minimum of 3 days per week on-site.

Department Overview:

WestEd’s Information Technology Department is seeking a mission-driven Support Center Manager. Our team has been rebuilt to focus on providing technology solutions to serve our clients and internal staff. Our culture values communication, collaboration, accountability, and strong customer service skills. WestEd’s Information Technology Department supports and deploys hardware, software, SaaS Solutions, custom applications, and network infrastructure for the agency. The successful candidate will lead the Service Desk and IT Asset Management teams.

Position Overview:

The Support Center Manager ensures that WestEd staff are supported in their use of technology. Further, they are responsible for coordinating with their staff and other IT professionals to uncover support challenges and strategies to resolve/mitigate them in accordance with agency metrics. In addition to overseeing the Support Center team, the manager will also be responsible for the IT asset management function. To be successful, you will need to mentor and lead your teams to prioritize tasks to align with escalation procedures and agency priorities. You will also provide them with expertise to resolve technical and situational issues encountered in their daily work.

The right candidate will:

• Have a passion for quality work
• Be driven to provide excellent customer service
• Ability to lead your team in resolving technical issues
• Exude leadership by example, modeling our IT Core Operating principles of Transparency, Collaboration, Accountability and being Solutions-Oriented & Forward Thinking
• Be both player and coach; when the team needs help, you have the ability to dive into technical details, or difficult customer support situations.
• Collaborate with other IT managers to develop escalation workflows with their teams
• Have a proven record of successfully leading change within a Support Center team
• Build and foster an active and positive culture for the team
• Be innovative and have a continuous improvement mindset

Responsibilities:

• Supervise Support Center analysts
• Direct triage workflow for cases, handle escalated cases and issues
• Monitor for cases needing escalation, missing SLAs, or otherwise needing additional resources
• Mentor the Support Center team, and develop their technical, troubleshooting, and research skills
• Train team to perform as a team; ability to get staff to recognize that IT is all one team
• Provide Tier 1 and 2 in a multi-channel environment using remote tools with a strong emphasis on responsive customer service
• Establish best practices through the entire technical support process by embracing continual service improvement
• Ensure adherence to IT policies, procedures, and standards
• Develop and uses metrics to measure and evaluate performance
• Develop metrics to measure staff satisfaction, then follow-up with staff to identify areas for improvement
• Contribute to customer service by actively responding to queries and handling complaints
• Develop reports to senior IT leadership to represent the team’s work, productivity, and effectiveness
• Identify and provide solutions to chronic issues impacting Support Center and staff
• Provide coverage and monitoring for emergency after-hours support
• Troubleshoot and resolve desktop & network issues with macOS, iOS, and Windows operating systems
• Escalate help tickets to technical experts and/or our infosec team as appropriate
• Ensure senior IT leadership is aware of system issue trends, problems, and successes
• Developing, maintaining, and tracking metrics to senior leadership/management of support issues and trends through formal system reporting
• Provide support for company supported SaaS (Software as a Service) applications (i.e., Box, Smartsheets, G-Suite, WestEd intranet, Salesforce, Zoom, etc.)
• Serve as the primary escalation point for conference room, facilities, and onsite issues, including regular testing and appropriate staffing to make sure equipment is ready for staff events and support is available
• Manage the asset management team in all phases of IT asset management from; deployment, assignment, tracking, and reclamation
• Travel Required: Up to 15% to WestEd Headquarters

Qualifications:

• Experience providing asset management services and reports
• Experience providing support in a completely remote environment
• Experience providing support to clients greater than 1200 individuals
• Experience with Team Dynamix
• Expertise using remote support technologies such as Manage Engine, and Apple Remote Desktop
• Experience working in a heterogeneous environment macOS, iOS, user owned devices, and Windows 10 operating systems
• Ability to forecast peak workloads, staffing needs, and hardware/software needs based on incoming cases
• Excellent Communication Skills
• Detail Oriented: Capable of carrying out a given task with all details necessary to get the task done well
• Innovative: Consistently introduces new ideas and demonstrates original thinking
• Team Player: Works well as a member of a group
• Bachelors or better in Information Technology or related field preferred
• Successful candidates must be authorized to work in the USA (visa sponsorship not available)

Requirements:

• Ability to multi-task, manage priorities, work within a team and operate in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to troubleshoot hardware and software issues (MS Office, email, Internet access, printer drivers, etc.)
• Experience leading support in a multi-channel environment (i.e., in-person, email, phone, Slack)
• Ability to prioritize work and deliver to tight deadlines in a dynamic environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience managing remote staff
• 2 years: IT Asset Management experience
• 3 years:Supervising a service desk team following established procedures and metrics
• 4 years: Service Desk support experience

• Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Successful candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

The full salary range for this position, WestEd level G, is $85,440 to $128,200 but WestEd does not typically hire at or near the top of the salary range. The typical hiring range for this role is $85,440 to $106,800. The actual offer takes into account multiple factors including but not limited to education; experience; internal equity, and other organizational needs.

In addition to the base salary, benefits include:

• 15% contribution toward retirement effective day 1 of employment (Example: Total Cash Compensation based on $100K annual salary 15% ($15,000) = $115,000/yr with WestEd retirement contribution)

• Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts

• All health/welfare benefits are effective first of the month following hire date

• PTO: 3 weeks’ vacation (increases to 4 weeks beginning the 4th year of employment) 13 paid holidays / 12 days paid sick leave per year

• Life Insurance: value of 3x gross salary (Example: Based on annual salary of $100K x 3 = $300,000 Life Insurance value)

• Opportunities for annual merit-based performance increases annual incentives

• Professional development opportunities & mentorship program

For more detail about our benefits, go to:

https://www.wested.org/work-at-wested/benefits/

Committed to the diversity of race, ethnicities, perspectives, and opportunities, WestEd offers a variety of social and professional learning communities, such as Employee Resource groups, the Data Intelligence, Insights, and Innovation PLC, and the WestEd Parent Community, just to name a few. We hope you’ll consider joining us to build better schools, communities, learning pathways, and more! #LI-Hybrid

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)