"ITS Helpdesk Manager"

Job Details

About Occidental College
Founded in 1887, Occidental is a nationally recognized, private college of the liberal arts and sciences, dedicated to providing a gifted and diverse group of students with a total educational experience of the highest quality -- one that prepares them for leadership in an increasingly complex, interdependent and pluralistic world.
What makes Occidental special? An intellectually rigorous academic environment. Small classroom settings where students collaborate with professors and their peers while pursuing or discovering their passion. A beautiful residential campus that offers students hands-on engagement with the cultural and intellectual resources of Los Angeles. A community open to stimulating conversation and divergent points of view. Some 2,100 students from 46 states and 28 countries choose from 41 majors and minors and participate in one the country’s top undergraduate research programs. Oxy students routinely win top awards and fellowships; its first Rhodes Scholar was named in 1907. Dedicated to excellence and equity, Occidental also is one of the country’s most economically diverse campuses, according to the New York Times. Some 71 percent of Oxy students receive some form of financial aid; 20 percent are Pell Grant recipients; and 19 percent are the first in their family to attend college.

Title: ITS Helpdesk Manager
Department: Information Technology Services
Duration: Indefinite
Employment Status: Non-Exempt, Full Time, 40 hours per week

Job Summary
Reporting to the Director, User Experience, the ITS Help Desk Manager will manage the College’s classrooms and computing environment, in collaboration with the User Experience team.
The Helpdesk Manager anchors the front line of IT support at the College, overseeing a unified IT service desk that welcomes, listens, and responds to the technology needs of the campus community. The Helpdesk Manager oversees day-to-day operations of the service desk and leads a team of broadly-trained student workers who provide customer service for Level 0 and Level 1 incident response in person, by phone, and via the ticketing system. The service desk conducts initial troubleshooting of computers, AV systems, wifi and network connectivity, and software applications. The service desk also performs routine onboarding and offboarding tasks, manages technology equipment checkout, and conducts routine classroom technology checks.
The Helpdesk Manager acts as both steward and conductor of the front-line environment: ensuring consistent coverage, supporting student staff, coordinating escalations, and cultivating a service experience that is calm, attentive, and professionally grounded. The Helpdesk Manager serves as the first responder of the User Experience team and collaborates closely with Level 2 professional staff for escalations, training, and workflow improvement. Additionally, the Manager will oversee service management, documentation, and operational effectiveness of the service desk.

Job Duties

• 40% - Frontline Operations & Service Desk Leadership: Oversee daily operations of the unified AV and Helpdesk Service, ensuring effective daily operations and consistent first-level support across all ITS units. Maintain accountability for intake, triage, diagnosis, resolution, and escalation of client issues involving computer software, hardware, AV systems, and networking. Develop, implement, and maintain the technical support processes and procedures of the unified service desk to ensure efficient, reliable, and customer focused service delivery. Evaluate and recommend helpdesk tools and ITSM feature enhancements to support service desk operations and improvements. - (Essential)
• 40% - Student Workforce Leadership & Development: Recruit, hire, train, schedule, and supervise a merged team of cross-trained student workers in computing and AV support for the effective staffing of the unified ITS Service Desk. Specifically, ensure the provision of professional, accurate, timely and complete resolution of customer AV and computer problems and inquiries (calls) by working with the student worker team. Design and deliver a training program for student workers that emphases the development of customer service and technical skills, including canned responses and scripts. Maintain reliable student coverage for walk-up triage, incident intake classroom tech first response, equipment check out, and student-supported events needs. - (Essential)
• 10% - Operational Effectiveness and Continuous Improvement: Ensures tickets across the entire ITS Service Desk are accounted for and maintains relevant metrics and dashboards to uphold Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and customer satisfaction. Creates and publishes self-help and internal helpdesk materials and documentation. Provides feedback on recurring problems as a means of improving customer service. Designs and implements reports to measure performance of IT Service Desk staff as required. - (Essential)
• 10% - Education & Outreach for ITS: Lead user education and orientation sessions. Collaborate with the Director of User Experience on ITS Project Intake and Evaluation procedures, working across constituencies. Develops and maintains accurate and standard procedures for on and off-boarding of staff. Ensures self-help content for new students, new faculty, and alumni are accurate and well-distributed. - (Essential)

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent combination of education and experience in technical support, customer service and service desk operations.
• Two years of progressively responsible experience in help desk/customer support positions and/or computer support.
• Two years of supervisory experience.
• Broad knowledge of Windows, MacOS, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Office applications.
• Must be familiar with basic principles of networking and server infrastructure.
• Ability to diagnose and troubleshoot problems with standard college technologies at a practitioner level.
• Energetic and enthusiastic with a great deal of intellectual curiosity.
• Approaches issues from a broad perspective and thinks strategically.
• Independent learner and researcher. Flexible, able to respond to unexpected emergencies.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Google drives/folders/forms, Adobe Acrobat, Web Editing, and social media applications.
• Demonstrated ability to be detail-oriented and thorough; skilled at anticipating and preventing potential problems and handling a wide variety of tasks with efficiency and accuracy.
• Strong commitment to a quality work product.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate verbally, in writing and electronically.
• Effective interpersonal skills as evidenced in the ability to collaborate with a variety of constituencies.
• Demonstrated commitment to justice, equity, inclusion & diversity.
• Demonstrated skill in adapting to and performing work effectively in high-volume, high accountability, confidential environment with multiple and changing priorities.
• Effective organizational, logistical, time management and planning skills with the ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks/projects simultaneously, prioritize and fulfill the functions of an office in a timely manner.
• Ability to self-motivate and work independently.
• Ability to provide effective leadership and training, and to work effectively and professionally across functions, disciplines, levels, and with diverse groups.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a personal computer support role in an academic setting and in a multi-platform network (PC, Mac, and Unix).

EXPECTED HIRING RANGE: $28.24/hr-$33.65/hr
If you are offered this position at Occidental College, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills, education, experience, and/or geographic location. In addition to those factors, Occidental complies with applicable pay equity laws and considers internal equity among current employees when developing the final offer. Please keep in mind that the range mentioned above is the base salary range for the role. Hiring at the maximum of the range would not be typical in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a generous compensation and benefits package.

Advertised: 25 Feb 2026 Pacific Standard Time
Applications close: