Sr. Manager, Service Desk & IT Automation (Hybrid, Bangalore) at Smartsheet

Job description

For over 20 years, Smartsheet has empowered teams to manage work seamlessly and scale solutions smarter. Now, in our most ambitious chapter yet, we are uniting human teams with AI agents. By orchestrating the work agents do best, automating manual tasks and uncovering insights at scale, we create the space for people to focus on what truly matters: judgment, creativity, and big thinking. That is magic at work, and it’s what we show up for every day. Smartsheet is looking for a highly technical Sr. Manager to lead our India-based Service Desk and IT Automation operations. This is a working-manager role: you'll personally execute technical work — scripting, automation builds, escalated ticket resolution — while also leading a team. If you're looking for a purely strategic or delegation-only leadership role, this isn't it. You'll manage a team spanning Service Desk, Tier 1 SOC support, and IT Automation Engineering, driving the technical maturity of our global support infrastructure through automation, scripting, deep systems integration, and increasingly, AI-augmented workflows. This role reports to the Director of End User Systems, with close, day-to-day partnership across US-based Desktop Support managers. For the right candidate, this role has a clear path to Director as we continue scaling our India GCC — with growth into that level anticipated within 12–18 months. This is also a strong fit for a Director-level leader currently at a SaaS startup who's looking to move into a larger, enterprise SaaS organization — and who is open to a step down in title now in exchange for a step up in scale, platform, and long-term trajectory. You Will IT Automation & Architecture Drive the IT automation function, identifying repetitive Tier 1 tasks and owning their automation end-to-end — from scoping through build, testing, and measurement Evaluate and build AI-augmented automation where it meaningfully reduces toil (e.g. intelligent ticket triage, SOC alert summarisation, AI-assisted knowledge base drafting) Review technical designs before deployment and mentor the team on automation best practices Team Leadership & Execution Manage the India-based Service Desk team, coordinating daily with US counterparts Set clear direction, track progress, remove blockers, and escalate capacity constraints to the Director Monitor team performance against SLAs, quality standards, and service desk metrics Lead onboarding sessions for new team members Hands-On Technical Contribution Resolve tickets across hardware, software, network, and user access — including overflow and critical issues Perform desktop administration: software deployment, system configuration, user provisioning, and hardware lifecycle management Create and maintain knowledge base articles and process documentation Security & People Development Oversee Tier 1 SOC operations: triage, alert response, and adherence to incident response playbooks Coach and mentor India-based engineers, supporting their career growth; hire and develop top technical talent You Have Experience 8+ years in IT engineering or Service Desk operations, including hands-on automation engineering (scripting, API integrations, or workflow orchestration) 4+ years managing or leading technical support teams in matrixed or distributed organizations A track record of delivering cross-functional projects through technical ambiguity Technical Skills Deep proficiency in PowerShell or Python, with experience building scalable IT automation workflows Strong hands-on experience with Freshservice (or a similar ITSM platform), including workflow orchestration and API integrations Experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into IT workflows via API, SDK, or prompt engineering Experience with Active Directory, M365, and endpoint management via Intune and/or Jamf Working knowledge of EDR platforms, firewalls, and incident response; familiarity with ITIL or equivalent frameworks Work Style Excellent English communication skills, with s