IT Lead, Service Desk Operations at Certara in Budapest

Job description

Overview Certara accelerates the potential of bringing medicines to market and to patients using biosimulation software, technology, and services to transform traditional drug discovery and development. Our clients include more than 2,400 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and regulatory agencies across 70 countries. Our goal is to enable the life sciences industry’s use of data, modeling, and analytics to make better decisions across the various phases of discovery and drug development. Our software and scientists incorporate modern advances in scientific understanding, drug development experience, data analysis, and AI resulting in significant opportunities to decrease the cost and increase the probability of success for new drug approval and commercialization. As a Service Desk Team Lead at Certara, you play a critical leadership role within a global, fast-paced IT organization whose mission is to deliver capable, resilient, and world-class IT services to professional services, software, and corporate business teams. Your work ensures Certara team members have the tools, access, and support required to operate at the highest level in service of our customers. The Information Technology function at Certara relies on experience, sound judgment, and best-practice methodologies to plan, execute, and continuously improve service delivery. The Service Desk Team Lead supports the day-to-day management, operational excellence, and strategic alignment of Service Desk operations, working closely with IT leadership, cross-functional technology teams, and business stakeholders. This role requires a strong understanding of services and software organizations, as well as internal corporate functions. While this is a leadership position, the successful candidate is expected to be hands-on, capable of taking ownership of issues, and comfortable collaborating across teams to drive timely, high-quality outcomes. Responsibilities Service Desk Operations & Daily Management Monitor Service Desk queues to ensure timely intake, assignment, progression, and resolution of tickets. Maintain operational visibility across the Hungary L2 queue and balance workload, priorities, and coverage across the team. Ensure adherence to defined ticket standards, processes, documentation requirements, and service expectations. Act as the management and technical escalation point for complex issues and service challenges. Ensure clear, timely communication during incidents, outages, escalations, and planned roll-outs. Hungary L2 Team Leadership & People Management Serve as the day-to-day people leader for the L2 Service Desk team based in Hungary, providing direct operational leadership, guidance, and oversight. Manage team performance, workload, priorities, coverage, and resource allocation to ensure consistent delivery of Service Desk services. Establish clear performance expectations and hold team members accountable for service quality, responsiveness, documentation, customer experience, and adherence to established processes. Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with team members to review performance, workload, development objectives, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. Provide ongoing coaching, mentoring, and actionable feedback to strengthen technical capability, customer service, ownership, and professional development. Participate in formal performance management activities, including goal setting, performance reviews, development planning, recognition, and corrective performance discussions as appropriate. Identify individual and team training needs and establish development plans that improve technical capability, operational maturity, and career progression. Support employee onboarding, training, knowledge transfer, and integration of new Service Desk team members. Coordinate team schedules, availability, planned leave, and operational coverage to maintain appropriate support levels for Hungary, EMEA, and the broader global o