Systems Engineer

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Lead Systems Engineer to oversee day-to-day IT support operations and lead a team of L1/L2 support professionals. The ideal candidate will be responsible for driving operational excellence across Incident, Change, Problem, and Request Management processes while ensuring service quality, SLA compliance, customer satisfaction, and continuous process improvement.

This role requires strong leadership capabilities, operational management expertise, excellent stakeholder communication skills, and hands-on experience with ITIL processes, service delivery reporting, automation initiatives, and AI-enabled operational improvements.

In this role, you will

• Lead and coordinate the day-to-day operations of L1 and L2 support teams by managing work allocation, resource planning, workload balancing, and priority assignments to ensure efficient service delivery.
• Oversee Incident, Change, Problem, and Request Management processes, ensuring adherence to ITIL best practices, governance standards, operational procedures, and SLA commitments.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex technical issues, operational challenges, and service disruptions that cannot be resolved by frontline support teams.
• Collaborate closely with support teams, infrastructure teams, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure timely resolution of incidents and effective restoration of services.
• Drive continuous service improvement by identifying recurring issues, operational bottlenecks, technology gaps, and process inefficiencies, implementing corrective and preventive measures to enhance service quality.
• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), operational runbooks, knowledge articles, technical documentation, and process guides to support consistent service delivery.
• Support the implementation of operational controls, compliance measures, monitoring solutions, and governance frameworks to improve system reliability, operational visibility, and risk mitigation.
• Manage operational reporting requirements by creating KPI dashboards, SLA measurements, performance scorecards, benchmarks, executive reports, and service review presentations for weekly, monthly, and quarterly stakeholder meetings.
• Conduct regular quality audits of incidents, requests, and support activities to ensure compliance with established processes, documentation standards, customer service expectations, and contractual obligations.
• Leverage AI tools, automation technologies, and modern operational practices to improve team productivity, reduce manual effort, enhance reporting capabilities, and optimize service delivery outcomes.

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in IT Operations, Service Desk, End User Computing, Infrastructure Support, or Managed Services environments.
• 3-4 years of experience leading or managing technical support teams.
• Strong understanding of ITIL Service Management processes, including Incident, Problem, Change, and Request Management.
• Experience managing operational escalations and driving issue resolution across cross-functional teams.
• Proven experience in operational reporting, KPI tracking, SLA management, and customer service delivery.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a focus on operational excellence.
• Experience developing SOPs, process documentation, runbooks, and knowledge management assets.

Preferred Skills

• Tableau and Power BI Reporting
• Advanced Microsoft Excel Analytics & Reporting
• AI Tools and Automation Platforms
• Process Improvement Methodologies (Lean/Six Sigma)
• ServiceNow or Enterprise ITSM Tools

• Audio Visual (AV) and Collaboration Technologies
• Managed Services and Enterprise Service Delivery Experience

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Work model:

At Cognizant, we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible, and we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is an onsite role requiring 5 days a week at client site in New Albany, OH, USA.

The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you’re engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.