Service Operations Team Lead

ID
2026-50118
Division
Business Process Outsourcing
Department
Operations Management Positions
Location : Location
ZA-WC-Cape Town
Employment Type
Full-Time
Education
Grade 12 / National Senior Certificate (NSC)
Min. Years Experience
2

LOCATION

Cape Town, ZA

POSITION OVERVIEW

MCI is one of the fastest-growing tech-enabled business services companies in the USA, with a strong call center footprint and operations that extend across multiple countries. We deliver Customer Experience (CX), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) cloud technology solutions across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, retail, government, education, telecom, technology e-commerce, and financial services. Our contact centers are powered by both on-site and remote agents, leveraging advanced technologies to enhance customer journeys, drive scalability and reduce costs. 

At MCI we are committed to fostering an environment where professionals can build meaningful careers, access continuous learning and development opportunities and contribute to the success of a globally expanding, industry-leading organization.

 

 

We are seeking a hands-on, technically credible Service Operations Team Lead to act as the operational front door for technology support. This role is pivotal in ensuring incidents and service requests are managed seamlessly from first contact through to resolution, while driving service excellence across the organisation.

Blending leadership with technical capability, you will oversee day-to-day service operations across multiple sites and support channels (remote and on-site), ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery. You’ll play a key role in escalation management, major incident coordination, service improvement and team development building a high-performing, customer-focused support function.

 

Working Pattern

  • 37.5 hours per week, with flexibility based on service demand
  • Rotational shifts (Monday–Sunday)
  • Occasional on-site support required across operational environments

 

 

To be considered for this role, you must complete a full application on our company careers page, including all screening questions and a brief pre-employment test.

 

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Key Responsibilities:

 

Leadership & Service Delivery

  • Lead and manage the Service Operations team, aligning delivery with business priorities and IT strategy
  • Oversee daily operations including resource planning, rota management, and workload allocation
  • Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
  • Ensure consistent service delivery across multiple sites and support channels

Technical Oversight & Escalation

  • Act as the senior escalation point for complex incidents and service issues
  • Support hands-on troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and resolution planning
  • Manage triage oversight and prioritisation based on urgency, risk, and impact

Major Incident Management

  • Own and coordinate major incidents end-to-end, including triage, communication, and resolution
  • Lead stakeholder updates and drive post-incident reviews and follow-up actions

Quality Assurance, Training & Development

  • Drive QA standards across ticket quality, communication, and process adherence
  • Deliver structured coaching, mentoring, and training at team and individual level
  • Support onboarding and continuous development of Service Desk Analysts and Engineers

Knowledge Management

  • Own and maintain the knowledge management framework and documentation standards
  • Ensure high-quality, accessible knowledge articles, SOPs, and support materials
  • Promote knowledge sharing and continuous improvement across the team

Service Improvement & Performance

  • Monitor and analyse key metrics (SLA, KPI, CSAT, resolution times, backlog, escalations)
  • Identify trends and implement measurable improvements to service quality and reliability
  • Embed a proactive, data-driven approach to service optimisation

Automation & Self-Service

  • Drive adoption of automation and self-service capabilities
  • Support “shift-left” strategies to reduce repeat demand and improve user experience

Skills Development & Capability Building

  • Maintain a skills matrix and track certification progress across the team
  • Coordinate mentoring, study groups, and technical learning initiatives
  • Drive progression through structured skills and certification pathways

 

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS

WONDER IF YOU ARE A GOOD FIT FOR THIS POSITION?

All positive, and driven applicants are encouraged to apply. The Ideal candidates for this position are highly motivated and dedicated and should possess the below qualities:

 

Essential:

  • National Senior Certificate (NSC) or an equivalent high school qualification.
  • Proven experience leading a Service Desk, IT Support, or Service Operations team
  • Strong understanding of ITIL or similar service management frameworks
  • Hands-on experience with incident management, triage, and escalation handling
  • Solid technical knowledge across IT systems, end-user computing, and infrastructure
  • Experience managing multi-channel support environments (remote and on-site)
  • Demonstrated ability in QA, coaching, mentoring, and team development
  • Strong analytical skills with experience using service metrics to drive improvement
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Desirable:

  • Exposure to retail, logistics, or customer-facing technology environments
  • Experience with vendor and supplier management
  • Knowledge of automation and self-service tooling
  • Familiarity with certification frameworks (e.g. SFIA)
  • Technical certifications (e.g. Azure, VMware, Cisco)

What Success Looks Like

  • High ownership and timely resolution of incidents and service requests
  • Achievement of SLA, KPI, and service quality targets
  • Reduced escalation rates and improved resolution quality
  • Improved CSAT and stakeholder satisfaction
  • Strong knowledge base adoption and documentation standards
  • Increased team capability and certification levels
  • Consistent delivery of service improvements and operational maturity

ABOUT MCI (PARENT COMPANY)

MCI helps customers take on their CX and DX challenges differently, creating industry-leading solutions that deliver exceptional experiences and drive optimal performance. MCI assists companies with business process outsourcing, staff augmentation, contact center customer services, and IT Services needs by providing general and specialized hosting, software, staff, and services.

 

In 2019, Marlowe Companies Inc. (MCI) was named by Inc. Magazine as Iowa’s Fastest Growing Company in the State of Iowa and was named the 452nd Fastest Growing Privately Company in the USA, making the coveted top 500 for the first time. MCI’s subsidiaries had previously made Inc. Magazine's List of Fastest-Growing Companies 15 times, respectively. MCI has ten business process outsourcing service delivery facilities in Georgia, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, California, Kansas, Nova Scotia, South Africa, and the Philippines.

 

Driving modernization through digitalization, MCI ensures clients do more for less. MCI is the holding company for a diverse lineup of tech-enabled business services operating companies. MCI organically grows, acquires, and operates companies that have synergistic products and services portfolios, including but not limited to Automated Contact Center Solutions (ACCS), customer contact management, IT Services (IT Schedule 70), and Temporary and Administrative Professional Staffing (TAPS Schedule 736), Business Process Management (BPM), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Claims Processing, Collections, Customer Experience Provider (CXP), Customer Service, Digital Experience Provider (DXP), Account Receivables Management (ARM), Application Software Development, Managed Services, and Technology Services, to mid-market, Federal & enterprise partners. MCI now employs 10,000+ talented individuals with 150+ diverse North American client partners across the following MCI brands: MCI BPO, MCI BPOaaS, MarketForce,  GravisApps, Gravis Marketing, MarchEast, Mass Markets, MCI Federal Services (MFS), OnBrand24, The Sydney Call Center, Valor Intelligent Processing (VIP), BYC Aqua, EastWest BPO, TeleTechnology, and Vinculum.

POSITION OVERVIEW

MCI is one of the fastest-growing tech-enabled business services companies in the USA, with a strong call center footprint and operations that extend across multiple countries. We deliver Customer Experience (CX), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) cloud technology solutions across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, retail, government, education, telecom, technology e-commerce, and financial services. Our contact centers are powered by both on-site and remote agents, leveraging advanced technologies to enhance customer journeys, drive scalability and reduce costs. 

At MCI we are committed to fostering an environment where professionals can build meaningful careers, access continuous learning and development opportunities and contribute to the success of a globally expanding, industry-leading organization.

 

 

We are seeking a hands-on, technically credible Service Operations Team Lead to act as the operational front door for technology support. This role is pivotal in ensuring incidents and service requests are managed seamlessly from first contact through to resolution, while driving service excellence across the organisation.

Blending leadership with technical capability, you will oversee day-to-day service operations across multiple sites and support channels (remote and on-site), ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery. You’ll play a key role in escalation management, major incident coordination, service improvement and team development building a high-performing, customer-focused support function.

 

Working Pattern

  • 37.5 hours per week, with flexibility based on service demand
  • Rotational shifts (Monday–Sunday)
  • Occasional on-site support required across operational environments

 

 

To be considered for this role, you must complete a full application on our company careers page, including all screening questions and a brief pre-employment test.

 

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Key Responsibilities:

 

Leadership & Service Delivery

  • Lead and manage the Service Operations team, aligning delivery with business priorities and IT strategy
  • Oversee daily operations including resource planning, rota management, and workload allocation
  • Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
  • Ensure consistent service delivery across multiple sites and support channels

Technical Oversight & Escalation

  • Act as the senior escalation point for complex incidents and service issues
  • Support hands-on troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and resolution planning
  • Manage triage oversight and prioritisation based on urgency, risk, and impact

Major Incident Management

  • Own and coordinate major incidents end-to-end, including triage, communication, and resolution
  • Lead stakeholder updates and drive post-incident reviews and follow-up actions

Quality Assurance, Training & Development

  • Drive QA standards across ticket quality, communication, and process adherence
  • Deliver structured coaching, mentoring, and training at team and individual level
  • Support onboarding and continuous development of Service Desk Analysts and Engineers

Knowledge Management

  • Own and maintain the knowledge management framework and documentation standards
  • Ensure high-quality, accessible knowledge articles, SOPs, and support materials
  • Promote knowledge sharing and continuous improvement across the team

Service Improvement & Performance

  • Monitor and analyse key metrics (SLA, KPI, CSAT, resolution times, backlog, escalations)
  • Identify trends and implement measurable improvements to service quality and reliability
  • Embed a proactive, data-driven approach to service optimisation

Automation & Self-Service

  • Drive adoption of automation and self-service capabilities
  • Support “shift-left” strategies to reduce repeat demand and improve user experience

Skills Development & Capability Building

  • Maintain a skills matrix and track certification progress across the team
  • Coordinate mentoring, study groups, and technical learning initiatives
  • Drive progression through structured skills and certification pathways

 

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS

WONDER IF YOU ARE A GOOD FIT FOR THIS POSITION?

All positive, and driven applicants are encouraged to apply. The Ideal candidates for this position are highly motivated and dedicated and should possess the below qualities:

 

Essential:

  • National Senior Certificate (NSC) or an equivalent high school qualification.
  • Proven experience leading a Service Desk, IT Support, or Service Operations team
  • Strong understanding of ITIL or similar service management frameworks
  • Hands-on experience with incident management, triage, and escalation handling
  • Solid technical knowledge across IT systems, end-user computing, and infrastructure
  • Experience managing multi-channel support environments (remote and on-site)
  • Demonstrated ability in QA, coaching, mentoring, and team development
  • Strong analytical skills with experience using service metrics to drive improvement
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Desirable:

  • Exposure to retail, logistics, or customer-facing technology environments
  • Experience with vendor and supplier management
  • Knowledge of automation and self-service tooling
  • Familiarity with certification frameworks (e.g. SFIA)
  • Technical certifications (e.g. Azure, VMware, Cisco)

What Success Looks Like

  • High ownership and timely resolution of incidents and service requests
  • Achievement of SLA, KPI, and service quality targets
  • Reduced escalation rates and improved resolution quality
  • Improved CSAT and stakeholder satisfaction
  • Strong knowledge base adoption and documentation standards
  • Increased team capability and certification levels
  • Consistent delivery of service improvements and operational maturity

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

All MCI Locations

  • Must be authorized to work in the country where the job is based.

Subject to the program and location of the position

  • Must be willing to submit up to a LEVEL II background and/or security investigation with a fingerprint.  Job offers are contingent on background/security investigation results.
  • Must be willing to submit to drug screening.  Job offers are contingent on drug screening results. (Does not apply in Canada)

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

This job operates in a professional office environment. While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be largely sedentary and will be required to sit/stand for long periods while using a computer and telephone headset. The employee will be regularly required to operate a computer and other office equipment, including a phone, copier, and printer. The employee may occasionally be required to move about the office to accomplish tasks; reach in any direction; raise or lower objects, move objects from place to place, hold onto objects, and move or exert force up to forty (40) pounds.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is the policy of MCI and its affiliates to provide reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless such accommodations would cause undue hardship. The policy regarding requests for reasonable accommodation applies to all aspects of employment. If reasonable accommodations are needed, please contact Human Resources.

DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY

At MCI and its subsidiaries, we embrace differences and believe diversity is a benefit to our employees, our company, our customers, and our community.  All aspects of employment at MCI are based solely on a person's merit and qualifications.  MCI maintains a work environment free from discrimination, one where employees are treated with dignity and respect. All employees share in the responsibility for fulfilling MCI's commitment to a diverse and equal opportunity work environment.

 

MCI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances.  MCI will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with local and federal requirements.

 

MCI will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics.  We adhere to these principles in all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, benefits, social and recreational programs, and discipline. In addition, it is the policy of MCI to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees who have protected disabilities to the extent required by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances where an employee works.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

This job operates in a professional office environment. While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be largely sedentary and will be required to sit/stand for long periods while using a computer and telephone headset. The employee will be regularly required to operate a computer and other office equipment, including a phone, copier, and printer. The employee may occasionally be required to move about the office to accomplish tasks; reach in any direction; raise or lower objects, move objects from place to place, hold onto objects, and move or exert force up to forty (40) pounds.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is the policy of MCI and its affiliates to provide reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless such accommodations would cause undue hardship. The policy regarding requests for reasonable accommodation applies to all aspects of employment. If reasonable accommodations are needed, please contact Human Resources.

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