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Associate Vice President, L1 Support

senior · Operations

Over the last 20 years, Ares’ success has been driven by our people and our culture. Today, our team is guided by our core values – Collaborative, Responsible, Entrepreneurial, Self-Aware, Trustworthy – and our purpose to be a catalyst for shared prosperity and a better future. Through our recruitment, career development and employee-focused programming, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive work environment where high-performance talent of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can build careers within this exciting and growing industry.

Job Description

The Associate Vice President (AVP) - L1 Support Operations is responsible for building, launching, and leading a centralized Level 1 (L1) team of up to 18 professionals based in Mumbai. The team will provide first-line Application Support and Service Desk services across defined shifts as part of a global follow-the-sun model. The AVP is accountable for establishing the operating model, recruiting and developing the team, implementing SOP-driven workflows, and delivering consistent service against agreed SLAs, OLAs, and KPIs.

The function will serve as the initial point of contact for incidents and service requests, performing intake, classification, prioritization, initial diagnosis, approved SOP/runbook-based resolution, user communication, and timely escalation to the appropriate L2 teams when issues cannot be resolved within L1 scope. The AVP partners with business stakeholders, application owners, Infrastructure, Workplace Technology, L2 support teams, and global technology leadership to provide reliable, scalable, and customer-focused support.

Primary functions and essential responsibilities:

Function Build-Out and Global Service Delivery:

• Design, build, launch, and scale a centralized Mumbai-based L1 function of up to 18 team members across Application Support and Service Desk.
• Define the organization, role profiles, shift-lead model, service catalog, RACI, intake channels, and engagement model with L2 teams.
• Lead phased onboarding of applications and services, including knowledge transfer, readiness criteria, pilots, and transition sign-off.
• Deliver global coverage through Mumbai shifts aligned to a follow-the-sun model while meeting SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, and customer targets.

L1 Triage, Resolution, and Escalation:

• Own the L1 entry point for incidents and service requests received through phone, chat, email, portal, monitoring, and approved channels.
• Ensure accurate logging, categorization, prioritization, assignment, impact assessment, and user communication.
• Drive initial diagnosis and resolution using approved SOPs, runbooks, knowledge articles, scripts, and standard troubleshooting.
• Enforce evidence capture and clear L1-to-L2 escalation criteria, routing, handoffs, and ownership to minimize delays and ticket bouncing.

Operational Governance and Service Management:

• Establish daily operations controls, weekly service reviews, monthly reporting, and executive dashboards.
• Monitor volumes, first-contact resolution, response and resolution times, SLA attainment, backlog, aging, escalation rates, quality, shift performance, and customer satisfaction.
• Present service performance, risks, trends, capacity needs, and improvement plans to technology leadership and business stakeholders.
• Ensure ITIL, SOP, security, policy, and audit compliance; identify potential major incidents and trigger the required process and initial communications.

Shift Operations and Service Continuity:

• Develop shift schedules, staffing plans, leave coverage, rotations, and contingency arrangements for all assigned support windows.
• Implement disciplined follow-the-sun handovers covering open-ticket status, business impact, completed actions, next steps, and ownership.
• Balance queues and resources across Application Support and Service Desk demand to protect service levels and reduce backlogs.
• Maintain business continuity, disaster recovery support, surge-capacity, and operational readiness procedures.

Team Leadership and Workforce Management:

• Recruit, onboard, lead, mentor, and retain up to 18 L1 analysts and shift leads based in Mumbai.
• Set performance goals, role expectations, skill matrices, training plans, and certification paths aligned to the service catalog.
• Conduct coaching, quality reviews, performance evaluations, career development, and succession planning.
• Build an accountable, customer-focused culture and forecast staffing and shift allocation based on demand and growth.

SOP, Knowledge, and Quality Management:

• Own the lifecycle of L1 SOPs, runbooks, knowledge articles, scripts, call guides, and escalation matrices.
• Partner with L2 teams and service owners to define L1 scope, resolution steps, acceptance criteria, and escalation triggers.
• Implement ticket, call, and process quality assurance covering documentation, SOP adherence, diagnosis accuracy, and customer handling.
• Close knowledge gaps through feedback, refresher training, cross-training, and controlled documentation updates.

Stakeholder Management and Service Readiness:

• Build relationships with business partners, application owners, Infrastructure, Workplace Technology, L2 teams, vendors, and senior leadership.
• Serve as the primary operational contact for centralized L1 Application Support and Service Desk delivery.
• Lead service readiness for new applications, releases, and services, ensuring knowledge, access, tooling, monitoring, and support acceptance before go-live.
• Communicate service performance, planned changes, operational risks, critical escalations, and improvement initiatives.

Continuous Improvement and Automation:

• Identify automation, self-service, monitoring, and shift-left opportunities that improve L1 resolution and reduce manual effort.
• Use operational data to improve first-contact resolution, reduce avoidable escalations, and lower acknowledgement and restoration times.
• Analyze recurring contacts and incident trends and provide actionable feedback to L2 teams, Problem Management, and service owners.
• Champion process simplification, standardization, and customer-experience improvements across the support organization.

Qualifications

Experience Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in Application Support, Service Desk, Production Support, IT Operations, or Technology Services.
• 5+ years of experience leading L1 Application Support and/or Service Desk teams, including managers or shift leads.
• Demonstrated experience building, centralizing, or scaling a support function and recruiting and onboarding teams of comparable size.
• Experience managing shift-based 24x7 or follow-the-sun operations, workforce planning, and service continuity.
• Proven experience managing SOP-driven L1 triage, request fulfillment, incident escalation, and service quality.
• Strong experience with ITIL-based service management, SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, and operational governance.
• Experience managing executive stakeholders, service transitions, and high-priority incidents.
• Background supporting financial services or another highly regulated industry is preferred.

Technical Skills:

• Strong understanding of L1 Application Support, Service Desk, End User Support, and IT Operations.
• Knowledge of ITIL Incident, Service Request, Knowledge, Problem, Change, and Major Incident Management processes.
• Experience with ServiceNow or comparable ITSM platforms, including queue, workflow, SLA, knowledge, and reporting capabilities.
• Ability to design and govern SOPs, runbooks, service catalogs, knowledge articles, and escalation matrices.
• Experience with omnichannel and remote support, endpoint services, identity and access, and collaboration tools.
• Ability to interpret monitoring alerts, application and infrastructure logs, and basic diagnostic data for initial triage.
• Working knowledge of Windows, Microsoft 365, networking, cloud platforms, middleware, databases, and enterprise applications.
• Experience defining and reporting first-contact resolution, SLA, backlog, aging, escalation, quality, and customer satisfaction metrics.
• Knowledge of workforce management, shift scheduling, demand forecasting, and capacity planning.
• Familiarity with automation and reporting tools such as PowerShell, Python, Power BI, Tableau, or ServiceNow Performance Analytics is preferred.

General Requirements:

• Strong leadership, team-building, and people management capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to create a new function, establish operating discipline, and lead organizational change.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• Customer-focused mindset with a commitment to service excellence and first-line ownership.
• Ability to lead calmly during high-pressure incidents and make sound operational decisions.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and data-driven decision-making skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, global environment.
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive accountability without direct authority.
• Strong organizational and project management skills with a continuous-improvement mindset.
• Ability to work across time zones and provide off-hours leadership coverage when required.
• ITIL Foundation required; advanced ITIL, HDI, PMP, Agile, or Scrum certifications are advantageous.

Reporting Relationships

There is no set deadline to apply for this job opportunity. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.