Incident Manager

The Incident Manager (L1 Support Manager) is responsible for owning and leading Level 1 incident operations for a mission-critical financial services platform. This role serves as the Incident Commander for P1 and P2 incidents, ensuring rapid response, effective coordination, clear communication, and strict adherence to SLAs.

While deep technical fixes are handled by Level 2 and Engineering teams, the Incident Manager owns execution, control, and communication during incidents and acts as the single source of truth throughout the incident lifecycle.

This role is critical to maintaining system reliability, customer trust, and operational excellence.

Incident Management

• Own and manage the full incident lifecycle, from detection and logging through resolution and closure.
• Serve as the Incident Lead during major (P1/P2) incidents, leading live incident calls, bridges, and war rooms.
• Lead and direct incident calls by assigning roles, controlling discussion flow, enforcing update cadence, and driving real-time decisions.
• Act as the main point of coordination during major incidents, ensuring clear, timely communication with internal teams and clients.
• Classify, prioritize, and escalate incidents based on impact and urgency.
• Ensure rapid acknowledgment, escalation, and recovery in line with defined SLAs.
• Ensure incidents are resolved within agreed SLAs and document incident timelines, post-incident reports, and preliminary root cause analyses.
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying recurring issues and recommending preventive actions.

Client Support Team Management

• Lead, coach, and supervise Client Support Analysts (Level 1 support).
• Ensure proper triage, assignment, and escalation of tickets handled by the support team.
• Review ticket quality, documentation, and customer communications to maintain support standards.
• Support onboarding, training, and ongoing development of Client Support Analysts.
• Act as the highest Level 1 escalation point during high-impact or sensitive incidents.

Client & Stakeholder Communication

• Own all incident communications during active incidents, including executive- and client-facing updates.
• Provide timely, clear, and professional updates to clients during incidents and service disruptions.
• Work closely with internal technical teams, operations, and stakeholders to coordinate resolutions.
• Translate technical updates into clear business-impact language for non-technical stakeholders.
• Ensure client expectations are managed clearly during incidents and service disruptions.

Process & Reporting

• Maintain and continuously improve incident management processes and workflows.
• Monitor incident trends, KPIs, SLAs, and team performance metrics.
• Prepare regular incident reports, post-incident reviews, and service review materials for management and clients.
• Ensure accurate and disciplined use of ITSM tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Zendesk).

• 5–8 years of experience in IT support, service desk, or incident management roles.
• Proven hands-on experience leading major incident calls or bridges in a production environment.
• Proven experience managing or leading a support or service desk team.
• Strong understanding of ITIL or incident management best practices.
• Hands-on experience with ITSM/ticketing tools (ServiceNow, Jira, Zendesk, or similar).
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly and confidently address both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders during live incidents.
• Strong organizational, prioritization, and decision-making skills.
• Calm, authoritative, and decisive under pressure, especially during high-impact incidents.
• Customer-focused mindset with experience in client-facing or service-driven environments.

Nice to Have

• ITIL Foundation certification or equivalent.
• Experience supporting fintech, banking, payments, or regulated environments.
• Experience managing SLAs, incident KPIs, and client service reviews.
• Experience working in a 24x7 or follow-the-sun support model.