Service Operations Manager

Lead great people. Run a brilliant Service Desk. Make things work better.

Ready to run the engine room of a global Service Desk?

At CNS, our Service Desk is the engine room of our Managed Services business. And we're looking for someone exceptional to run it.

You'll be the person who knows exactly what's happening across the operation. How your people are performing, where resources are stretched, what's working, what isn't and what needs to improve.

You'll lead the team, drive performance and make sure the entire operation runs like a well-oiled machine.

- Somewhere you'll have genuine ownership of Service Desk operations, not just the ticket queue.
- Somewhere you'll lead and develop technical teams across Australia, the US and UK.
- Somewhere you'll drive efficiency, productivity and service quality.
- And somewhere you'll have the freedom to challenge how things work and make them better.

We're looking for someone who takes pride in running a brilliant operation. Someone who spots problems early, gets the best out of their people and gives leadership confidence that the Service Desk is in good hands.

Sound like your kind of challenge? We'd love to introduce you to CNS.

A little about CNS

We're a North Sydney-based technology company with more than 80 people, specialising in Managed Services, Cloud, Networks and Cyber Security.

We've been around since 1988, but we don't behave like a 38-year-old IT company. We're a Microsoft Solutions Partner, ISO 27001 certified and growing. We're technically very good at what we do. But we don't think being clever is an excuse to be difficult to work with.

We like straightforward people. People who know their stuff, get on with the job, help each other out and don't need an ego to go with their expertise. We've got good clients, valuable people and solid systems. Are we perfect? Absolutely not. And we'd be a bit concerned if you thought we were.

We're looking for someone who can see what needs improving and enjoys getting stuck in to make it happen. We work hard, have high standards and genuinely enjoy each other's company. There's plenty of ambition here, but not much interest in corporate theatre.

What will you get from the role?

You'll own the operational performance of our Service Desk, ensuring we deliver consistently excellent service across our 24/7 global operation.This is a proper leadership role. You'll have the opportunity to improve how we operate, develop your people and build a more efficient, productive and accountable team.

You'll report to the Head of Managed Services and work closely with our teams across Australia, the US and UK. You'll also work alongside our Service Delivery Managers, who look after client relationships and service commitments, while you make sure the operational engine delivers.

And when you've got a good idea, we want to hear it. Better still, we want you to make it happen.

You'll also receive paid training across our platforms, including ConnectWise, LogicMonitor, N-able and Confluence.

What you'll be doing

Operational excellence

This is the heart of the role.

You'll be accountable for making sure our Service Desk runs efficiently, productively and consistently well.

- Drive improvements in efficiency, productivity and service quality.
- Set clear operating standards and hold people accountable.




- Identify bottlenecks, recurring problems and wasted effort.
- Improve workflows, processes and automation.
- Turn good ideas into measurable improvements.

We don't need someone to tell us everything is fine because the dashboard is green.

We want someone who understands what's really happening, spots what isn't working and does something about it.

Triage and workflow management

You'll own our triage function, ensuring tickets are correctly prioritised, allocated and progressed through to resolution.

You'll oversee ticket quality, backlogs, ageing, escalations and effective handovers between our global teams.

The goal is simple: the right work, with the right engineer, at the right time.

And when something gets stuck, we don't want people pointing fingers or passing the problem around. We want someone who takes ownership and gets it moving.

Resource management and productivity

You'll know how your team's time is being spent, where capacity exists and where productivity can improve. You'll manage workload distribution, monitor engineer capacity, identify bottlenecks and anticipate future resource requirements. We're not particularly interested in whether everyone looks busy. We're interested in whether the team is productive, customers are getting great service and we're making the best use of our people.

Reporting and operational visibility

Reporting is a big part of this role.

You'll own the reporting that gives our leadership team a clear picture of the health and performance of the Service Desk, including:

- SLAs and customer satisfaction.
- Ticket volumes, backlogs, ageing and resolution times.
- Engineer capacity, workload and productivity.
- Ticket quality and recurring issues.
- Operational trends, risks and improvement opportunities.

But there's a difference between producing reports and actually understanding what's going on.

We want someone who can tell us what's working, what's not, why it matters and what we're doing about it. No hiding behind dashboards. No surprises that could have been spotted weeks earlier.

Just clear, useful information that helps us run a better business.

Incident management

When something important goes wrong, you'll help bring calm and structure to the situation.

You'll coordinate P1 and P2 incidents, get the right people involved, keep communication clear and make sure issues are resolved properly.

You'll also make sure we learn from what happened. Because fixing the same problem over and over again isn't really fixing it.

Leadership and team development

You'll lead, coach and develop technical people, building a team that takes pride in doing great work.

You'll set expectations, manage performance, provide regular feedback and help people grow.

We want someone who's approachable, fair and prepared to have difficult conversations when needed.

Someone who backs their people, gives credit where it's due and doesn't disappear when things get tough.





You'll be hands-on when required, but your real success will be building a team that performs brilliantly without needing you to solve every problem personally.

You might be perfect for this role if...

- You've successfully led a Service Desk or IT operations team, ideally within an MSP.
- You've delivered measurable improvements in efficiency, productivity or service quality.
- You're comfortable managing SLAs, operational KPIs, resource capacity and team performance.
- You understand ITIL principles and tools such as ConnectWise.
- You've worked in a 24/7 or follow-the-sun environment.
- You know your way around operational data and can turn it into action.
- You know how to develop technical people and hold them accountable.
- You're comfortable dealing with engineers, clients and senior leadership.
- You challenge processes constructively and follow through on improvements.

And just as importantly, you're the sort of person people enjoy working with.

You're technically credible, straightforward, curious and happy to roll up your sleeves.

You don't need to be the smartest person in the room. You just need to make the team better.

Your technical toolkit

You don't need to be our best engineer. That's not what we're hiring you for.

But you do need enough technical understanding to lead the people who are.

A solid working knowledge of these areas will help:

- Microsoft: Windows, Microsoft 365 and server environments.
- Networking: Routing, switching, TCP/IP, DNS and VPNs.
- Azure: Cloud infrastructure, networking, storage and backup.
- Security: Security principles and tools such as Defender and Sentinel.
- Automation: PowerShell, APIs and ways to make service workflows more efficient.

You'll also be comfortable using service management, monitoring and reporting platforms to understand how the operation is performing.

Where this role can take you

We're growing, and as we grow, so will the scale and complexity of our Service Desk.

You'll have a real opportunity to shape how we operate, introduce better processes and build something you're proud of.

We're not promising a fancy title every 12 months.

But if you're good at what you do, take ownership and make a difference, you'll find plenty of opportunity here.

The details

Location North Sydney

Employment type Full-time

Reports to Head of Managed Services

Team Managed Services

Hours 8:00am–5:00pm

What you'll get

- Rewards and recognition program
- Additional leave and wellbeing allowance
- Paid training and certifications

Our values

- Be a Visionary: Innovation drives everything we do.
- Be a Legend: We deliver exceptional customer outcomes.
- Be a Teammate: Collaboration is our superpower.
- Be Your Best: We pursue excellence every day.
- Be Positive: Attitude shapes success.

Ready for what's next?

If you're an experienced Service Operations leader who loves building great teams, improving performance and making things run better, we'd love to hear from you.

We're looking for someone who's good at what they do, easy to work with and genuinely cares about delivering great outcomes.

At CNS, you'll be known. Your ideas will be heard. And when you make a difference, people will notice.

Good people. Interesting problems. Real ownership.

If that sounds like your kind of place, we'd love to meet you.

📌 Service Operations Manager (Sydney)
🏢 CNS
📍 Sydney