3rd Line Support Team Leader @ Doherty Associates

Salary: £49,000 - 89,000 per year

Requirements

• Proven experience leading or supervising senior infrastructure, cloud or 3rd Line engineers within an MSP or comparable multi-client IT services environment.
• Strong technical background across Microsoft 365, Azure, Entra ID, Intune, Windows Server, Active Directory and hybrid infrastructure, with sufficient breadth to guide complex investigations and challenge technical decisions.
• Practical experience with incident, major incident, problem, change, escalation and continual service improvement practices in an ITIL-aligned environment.
• Experience controlling a technical support queue and balancing complex reactive work with planned engineering, audits, changes and service-transition commitments.
• Demonstrable experience with root cause analysis, problem remediation, technical documentation and knowledge management.
• Experience with client onboarding, project-to-support transition and operational readiness assurance.
• Confident client-facing communication, including explaining technical risk and recovery activity to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Effective people-management and coaching capability, including objective setting, feedback, development planning and performance management.
• Ability to interpret operational and technical information, identify priorities and convert issues into clear actions with accountable owners.
• Experience with ITSM or PSA tooling such as ConnectWise Manage, together with monitoring, documentation and endpoint-management platforms.
• Excellent spoken and written English, including the ability to produce clear technical, incident and management reporting.
• Relevant current Microsoft certification in Azure, Microsoft 365, security, identity or endpoint management is desirable.
• Experience supporting professional services, financial services, legal or other high-expectation and regulated clients is desirable.
• Experience with managed security or SOC interfaces, vulnerability remediation and security incident coordination is desirable.
• Experience designing or operating proactive technical cadence programmes, health checks or client environment assessments is desirable.
• Experience implementing automation, scripting, self-service or AI-enabled improvements within technical support operations is desirable.
• Knowledge of ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus operating environments is desirable.
• Experience collaborating across onshore and offshore or multi-location service teams is desirable.
• Visible, credible, accountable and approachable leadership; calm decision-making under pressure; technical curiosity; collaboration; a coaching-led approach; customer focus; analytical and improvement-focused thinking; organisation and decisiveness; and high integrity and discretion.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop 3rd Line Support Engineers in the UK, and guide engineers in Malaysia, setting expectations for accountability, urgency, technical quality, collaboration and professional conduct.
• Run one-to-ones, objectives, performance and probation reviews, development planning and regular feedback; address gaps promptly and fairly.
• Allocate work according to priority and capability, balancing workloads and leadership coverage.
• Foster knowledge-sharing, constructive challenge, clear documentation and collaboration across Managed Services.
• Manage the 3rd Line queue and planned workload, including priority escalations, aged and reopened tickets, problem records, technical changes, proactive activities and service-transition actions.
• Ensure 1st and 2nd Line escalations are actioned promptly and identify opportunities to improve support and shift work left.
• Direct complex and major incidents, coordinate specialists and escalate material risk or cross-service impact to the Managed Services Manager.
• Assure root cause analysis, known-error records, remediation plans and post-incident learning; assign and follow through on preventative actions.
• Review ticket notes, client updates, technical decisions and closure evidence, addressing work that does not meet required standards.
• Manage team capacity and coverage, flagging conflicts between reactive demand, planned work and proactive commitments before delivery is affected.
• Plan and assure recurring technical health checks, baseline reviews, Microsoft 365 and Azure assessments, endpoint and infrastructure audits, configuration reviews and other agreed proactive services.
• Ensure proactive activity meets consistent scope, frequency and evidence standards, and translate findings into prioritised recommendations.
• Coordinate remediation with Service Delivery Managers, Account Managers, Professional Services, Managed Security and client stakeholders, establishing clear ownership and target dates.
• Use incident trends, platform data and technical findings to identify risks, reduce failure demand and strengthen resilience, security and supportability.
• Identify opportunities to standardise or automate repeatable engineering activity and reduce reliance on manual effort or individual knowledge.
• Lead the 3rd Line contribution to onboarding clients and transitioning new or changed services into Managed Services.
• Work with Professional Services, Project Managers and technical specialists to define support requirements and confirm handover documentation, runbooks, monitoring, tooling, access, support boundaries and escalation routes are complete before go-live.
• Challenge solutions that are not supportable, sufficiently documented or ready for transition, escalating unresolved risk to the Managed Services Manager.
• Coordinate early-life support and ensure transition issues, lessons and residual actions are captured and closed.
• Peer-review and provide technical assurance for operational changes, ensuring implementation, validation, communication and rollback arrangements are proportionate to risk.
• Partner with the Service Desk Team Leader to maintain clear escalation paths, improve escalation quality, share actionable learning with front-line teams and increase resolution at the earliest appropriate level.
• Coordinate with Field Engineering on required on-site activity, ensuring visit scope, technical context, records, handover and follow-up actions are clear.
• Work with Managed Security on alerts, incidents, vulnerabilities and remediation requiring infrastructure, identity, endpoint or Microsoft cloud engineering input.
• Work with Professional Services on project handover, service design, technical debt and operational readiness, maintaining clear ownership between project delivery and live support.
• Provide Service Delivery Managers and Account Managers with technical input for service reviews, client improvement plans, escalations and proposals, translating technical risk into practical business impact.
• Engage Microsoft and third-party vendors for specialist support while retaining internal ownership of progress, evidence and client communication.
• Collaborate across UK and Kuala Lumpur service operations to support consistent standards, effective handovers and shared technical knowledge.
• Act as a credible technical and management escalation point for complex client issues, communicating clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ensure client updates explain ownership, impact, progress, risk, next actions and expected communication points in accessible language.
• Attend client meetings requiring advanced technical input, service assurance or explanation of findings.
• Support service recovery and improvement with evidence-based technical analysis and ensure agreed engineering actions are completed.
• Maintain a strong focus on client experience while protecting technical quality, process adherence and appropriate risk controls.
• Own the quality and usability of 3rd Line runbooks, troubleshooting guides, known-error records, platform documentation and client-specific operating procedures.
• Convert learning from incidents, problems, projects and audits into reusable knowledge for Managed Services.
• Use service and technical data to identify recurring issues, bottlenecks, capability gaps and opportunities for automation or process improvement.
• Drive agreed continual improvement actions to completion and report measurable outcomes to the Managed Services Manager.
• Contribute practical technical insight to Managed Services standards, tooling and service roadmaps within the direction set by the Managed Services Manager and Head of Managed Services.
• Monitor and report on queue health, aged work, escalation volumes, problem themes, major incidents, workload, capacity, proactive activity completion, transition readiness and improvement actions.
• Provide concise management reporting on performance, root causes, risks, interventions and decisions required.
• Ensure the team follows agreed IT service management, change, security, quality and documentation controls.
• Support compliance with applicable company policies and standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus.
• Contribute to resource planning and use team capacity responsibly, balancing client commitments, operational risk, service quality and development needs.

Technologies

• AI
• Active Directory
• Azure
• Cloud
• Support
• ITIL
• ITSM
• Microsoft 365
• Security
• Windows
• Office 365

More

We are Doherty Associates (DA), and we have delivered IT solutions for over 30 years to world-renowned international clients, primarily in the professional and financial services sectors. We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner with multiple designations, hold a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP relationship and operate to ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 standards. Our services are built on the Microsoft cloud ecosystem and focus on secure, high-quality, outcome-driven solutions. Our expertise includes cloud solutions, hybrid working, modern workplace, data and BI, cyber security, governance and compliance.

This 3rd Line Team Leader role reports to our Managed Services Manager and combines people leadership, operational control and hands-on technical oversight across Managed Services and its partner teams. The role is hybrid remote in London, WC1V 7BD. We offer a basic salary plus performance bonus; 34 days of annual leave, including UK bank holidays and a day off on your birthday; enhanced family-friendly benefits including company sick pay; sponsored training and development and, where applicable, a technical exams incentive scheme; private medical insurance and an Employee Assistance Programme; income protection and life insurance; and a company pension scheme. We use AI note-taking tools to transcribe interviews for internal review, and proceeding with an interview constitutes consent.

last updated 43 week of 2026