IT Helpdesk Manager

True Anomaly•Long Beach, CA

20h•Onsite

About The Position

True Anomaly is seeking an experienced IT Helpdesk Manager to lead their Long Beach helpdesk team and serve as the on-the-ground management presence for their most junior office. This is a player-coach role where the manager will directly develop a small team of technicians, including a brand new hire, while staying close enough to the work to lead by example and solve real problems alongside the team. The role is for someone energized by building something from the ground up and who thrives in environments where their presence and judgment genuinely matter. The company is experiencing rapid growth, and this position offers a greenfield opportunity to establish runbooks, SLAs, and a self-sufficient satellite office, with real career growth potential as the team and company scale.

Requirements

5+ years in a technical support or helpdesk environment
2+ years managing technical teams, ideally in a high-growth or startup context
A genuine player-coach mindset; comfortable leading and still comfortable getting hands dirty
Experience with Jira Service Management or a comparable ticketing platform
Solid working knowledge of Windows and macOS support, cloud identity platforms (Okta, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365), hardware lifecycle management, and remote support tooling
Strong instincts for prioritization and process; doesn't just put out fires, figures out why they started
Clear, proactive communicator who can bridge a satellite office to a distributed IT team
Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State

Nice To Haves

Experience in aerospace, defense, or a regulated industry
Familiarity with specialized engineering tools (PLM, CAD, or similar)
ITIL Foundation or equivalent

Responsibilities

Directly lead and develop a small Long Beach helpdesk team, including an experienced specialist and a newly onboarded technician
Build a team culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement
Conduct regular 1-on-1s, performance reviews, and genuine career development conversations
Manage workload balancing, on-call rotation, and coverage planning
Coordinate with the Denver Helpdesk Manager for consistent cross-site service delivery
Own tier 1 SLA compliance and service quality for the Long Beach office
Triage and assign incoming tickets for optimal resolution
Escalate appropriately to IT Infrastructure Engineering when needed
Ensure the knowledge base and runbooks are maintained, current, and actually used
Drive first contact resolution rates and user satisfaction
Identify systemic issues in ticket trends and build solutions, not workarounds
Partner with the Enterprise Applications Engineer to automate manual workflows
Build out standard operating procedures for the team's most common work
Develop specialty tracks so each technician builds real depth, not just breadth
Champion self-service tooling to improve the employee experience
Deliver weekly metrics and insights to the Director of IT
Communicate service disruptions and incidents clearly to stakeholders
Participate in IT leadership team meetings, primarily via video with Denver
Represent Long Beach helpdesk in cross-functional projects