Title: IT Service Desk Lead
Location: Washington, DC
Terms: Proposal Pipelining
Clearance: U.S. Citizenship required with an active Top Secret clearance
Travel: 0–10%
RESULTS. INNOVATION. VALUES. ACCOUNTABILITY.
That’s RIVA.
We’re a mission-driven IT services company and systems integrator supporting digital transformation and modernization for Federal government agencies. Since 2009, we’ve partnered with our customers to solve complex challenges through smart, practical innovation to deliver real outcomes where they matter most. Our teams are made up of industry-leading experts who are passionate about doing great work and making a difference. We don’t just develop solutions—we support efforts that strengthen communities and serve the public good.
RIVA’s culture is built on four core values: Results, Innovation, Values, and Accountability (R.I.V.A.). They guide how we work, how we collaborate, and how we measure success. Our employee-first approach is rooted in trust, ownership, and meaningful work. By investing in our people and fostering a flexible, supportive environment, you will have the opportunity to grow your skills, contribute ideas, and make an impact from day one—all while building a career that lasts.
Program Overview
RIVA Solutions is pursuing a Department of Commerce CATTS Service Desk opportunity supporting the Office of the Chief Information Officer in modernizing and centralizing enterprise IT service delivery across DOC and its bureaus.
This effort delivers scalable, customer-focused IT service desk and contact center support, including Tier 0–3 support, incident and request management, knowledge management, and end-user services. The program will leverage ITSM tools such as ServiceNow to improve operational efficiency, strengthen reporting, increase first-call resolution, and enhance the overall user experience for the DOC workforce.
The IT Service Desk Lead will play a critical role in overseeing daily service desk operations, ensuring end users receive timely, effective, and high-quality IT support in a performance-based federal environment.
Position Overview
RIVA Solutions is seeking an experienced IT Service Desk Lead to oversee the day-to-day activities of enterprise service desk operations supporting a federal IT environment. This individual will be responsible for ensuring that end users receive responsive and effective IT support while maintaining alignment with program requirements, performance standards, service-level expectations, and ITIL v4 best practices.
The ideal candidate has expert-level experience leading, re-engineering, or standing up service desks according to industry best practices. This role requires strong operational leadership, hands-on service desk management experience, deep understanding of incident management, and the ability to drive measurable improvements in service quality, first-call resolution, knowledge management, and customer satisfaction.
This position requires an active Top Secret clearance and the ability to operate effectively in a high-visibility, performance-driven federal environment.
Core Responsibilities
Service Desk Operations Leadership
- Oversee the day-to-day activities of the IT service desk to ensure end users receive timely, accurate, and effective support.
- Lead service desk teams supporting Tier 0–3 incident, request, and end-user support functions.
- Ensure service desk operations align with contract requirements, service-level agreements, performance measures, and customer expectations.
- Monitor daily workload, ticket queues, escalation paths, staffing coverage, and response/resolution performance.
- Provide guidance, coaching, and operational direction to service desk analysts, technical support staff, and escalation teams.
- Support a customer-focused service culture centered on responsiveness, professionalism, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Incident, Request & Performance Management
- Manage incident and request management processes in a performance-based environment aligned with ITIL v4 standards.
- Ensure incidents, service requests, escalations, and problem trends are properly documented, categorized, prioritized, assigned, and resolved.
- Track service desk metrics, including first-call resolution, response times, resolution times, backlog, customer satisfaction, escalation rates, and SLA compliance.
- Identify recurring issues, service gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities to improve operational performance.
- Support root cause analysis and corrective action planning in coordination with technical teams and program leadership.
- Develop and maintain reporting that provides visibility into service desk performance, customer experience, and operational health.
Service Desk Re-Engineering & Best Practices
- Lead or support the re-engineering, optimization, or establishment of service desk operations in accordance with industry best practices.
- Develop, implement, and refine service desk processes, workflows, escalation procedures, and operating standards.
- Support the adoption of ITIL-aligned practices across incident management, request fulfillment, knowledge management, problem management, and continuous improvement.
- Evaluate current-state operations and recommend improvements to enhance service quality, efficiency, responsiveness, and user experience.
- Support standardization of service desk documentation, playbooks, scripts, procedures, and customer communication templates.
- Partner with program leadership to mature service delivery capabilities and strengthen operational governance.
ITSM Tools, Knowledge Management & Reporting
- Manage and optimize use of ITSM tools such as ServiceNow or comparable platforms for ticket tracking, workflow management, reporting, and service delivery.
- Ensure tickets and service records are accurately documented and updated in accordance with program standards.
- Support knowledge management practices to improve self-service, Tier 0 support, analyst efficiency, and first-call resolution.
- Identify opportunities to expand and improve knowledge base content, FAQs, service catalog items, and standard operating procedures.
- Use ITSM reporting and dashboards to monitor trends, measure performance, and inform operational decision-making.
- Ensure data quality, process compliance, and timely reporting within the incident management system.
Customer Engagement & Continuous Improvement
- Serve as an operational point of contact for service desk performance, escalations, and day-to-day support matters.
- Communicate effectively with Government stakeholders, end users, technical teams, and internal program leadership.
- Support regular status reporting, performance briefings, and operational reviews.
- Promote continuous improvement initiatives focused on customer satisfaction, first-call resolution, response quality, and service consistency.
- Ensure service desk communications are clear, professional, timely, and aligned with customer expectations.
- Foster a collaborative environment across service desk, infrastructure, application, and program management teams.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field.
- Expert-level experience leading, managing, re-engineering, or standing up IT service desks in accordance with industry best practices.
- Experience managing an incident management system in a performance-based environment.
- Experience operating within ITIL v4-aligned service management standards.
- Demonstrated experience overseeing day-to-day service desk operations, including ticket queues, escalations, staffing coverage, workload management, SLA performance, and customer support quality.
- Experience supporting Tier 0–3 service desk, contact center, end-user support, or enterprise IT operations environments.
- Experience using ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, Jira Service Management, or comparable platforms.
- Strong understanding of incident management, request fulfillment, escalation management, knowledge management, problem management, and service desk reporting.
- Ability to analyze service desk performance data and identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency, service quality, and user experience.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, end users, Government stakeholders, and leadership.
- Strong leadership, interpersonal, and customer service skills with the ability to guide teams in a fast-paced, performance-driven environment.
- U.S. Citizenship required with an active Top Secret clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Service Desk Institute or HDI certification as an HDI Support Manager.
- ITIL v4 Foundation certification or comparable IT service management certification.
- Experience supporting Department of Commerce, OCIO, or federal civilian IT environments.
- Experience managing service desk operations for a federal agency or large enterprise environment.
- Experience supporting contact center operations, Tier 0 self-service, knowledge-centered service, and customer experience improvement initiatives.
- Experience with ServiceNow reporting, dashboards, workflows, service catalog, knowledge base, and incident/request management modules.
- Experience driving first-call resolution improvement, SLA compliance, customer satisfaction, and service desk maturity initiatives.
- Experience creating or maintaining standard operating procedures, escalation matrices, knowledge articles, service desk scripts, and operational playbooks.
- Experience supporting performance-based contracts with formal SLAs, KPIs, deliverables, and recurring customer reporting.
Salary
Up to $160,000 per year based on experience.
RIVA Benefits
- Health, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- Life Insurance
- Retirement Benefits / 401(k) with company matching
- HSA/FSA Spending Accounts
- Long- and Short-Term Disability
- Pet Insurance
- Wellness Program Initiatives
- RIVA Flex
- Additional Workplace Benefits
Equal Opportunity Statement
RIVA Solutions is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex including pregnancy and related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any protected class.
If you need a reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or to submit an online application, please email accommodations@rivasolutionsinc.com. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned.
