How to hire a senior service manager

How to hire a senior service manager, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior service manager hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior service manager job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior service manager
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior service manager do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a senior service manager, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect senior service manager also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   Here's a comparison of senior service manager salaries for various roles:

   Type of Senior Service Manager	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Service Manager	Computer and information systems managers, often called information technology (IT) managers or IT project managers, plan, coordinate, and direct computer-related activities in an organization. They help determine the information technology goals of an organization and are responsible for implementing computer systems to meet those goals.	$44-86
   Manager Of Business Services	Business Service Managers are administrative professionals who oversee different service-related functions in the company. They manage the teams involved in serving various functions... Show more	$32-67
   Director Of Managed Services	A director of managed services is in charge of overseeing the business processes in an organization, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities typically revolve around setting goals and objectives, managing the workforce, spearheading projects and campaigns, devising strategies to optimize services, and coordinating with analysts to identify new business opportunities... Show more	$38-87

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Project Management
   • Client Relationships
   • Business Development
   • Cloud
   • Email Marketing
   • Customer Service
   • Client Facing
   • Financial Services
   • Professional Services
   • Due Diligence
   • Service Delivery
   • Oversight
   • Digital Marketing
   • CRM

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage revenue and expenses for budget to meet shareholder KPI metrics.
   • Ensure SLA compliance, manage escalations and build solutions to respond to new requirements.
   • Develop a robust PMO framework and manage the responsibilities for the SunGard project team.
   • Identify investment opportunities and manage investment product fund to ensure excess ROI and minimize carryover losses.
   • Manage agile development scrums teams through sprint development, hardening, integration and QA testing (standard SDLC).
   • Manage relationship and services provisioning with off-shore partners in India that develop a portfolio of tools which are deployed globally.

   More senior service manager duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the senior service manager job description is a good way to get more applicants. A senior service manager salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a senior service manager in Kansas may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level senior service manager. Additionally, a senior service manager with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average senior service manager salary

   $129,065yearly

   $62.05 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior service manager salary

   $92,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average senior service manager salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$165,025	$79
   2	Washington	$155,959	$75
   3	Arizona	$136,459	$66
   4	New York	$135,280	$65
   5	Pennsylvania	$129,769	$62
   6	Connecticut	$129,167	$62
   7	Massachusetts	$128,786	$62
   8	District of Columbia	$125,000	$60
   9	Texas	$124,732	$60
   10	Maryland	$123,548	$59
   11	Virginia	$123,312	$59
   12	New Jersey	$123,275	$59
   13	Ohio	$122,886	$59
   14	Michigan	$121,760	$59
   15	Kentucky	$121,516	$58
   16	Missouri	$118,943	$57
   17	Utah	$118,615	$57
   18	North Carolina	$117,642	$57
   19	Wisconsin	$117,504	$56
   20	Oklahoma	$116,622	$56

   Average senior service manager salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	NVIDIA	$178,329	$85.74	80
   2	VMware	$173,523	$83.42
   3	Boston Consulting Group	$173,306	$83.32	53
   4	Pure Storage	$170,938	$82.18	15
   5	Bain & Company	$169,805	$81.64	2
   6	Emergent BioSolutions	$164,855	$79.26	2
   7	F5	$161,742	$77.76	11
   8	Citi	$161,665	$77.72	20
   9	Acorda Therapeutics	$161,081	$77.44
   10	Twitter	$160,427	$77.13	2
   11	eBay	$159,698	$76.78	20
   12	Databricks	$158,041	$75.98	14
   13	Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison	$157,537	$75.74
   14	Medallia	$156,291	$75.14	2
   15	SAP	$155,902	$74.95	60
   16	Rivian	$155,651	$74.83	33
   17	Ernst & Young	$154,815	$74.43	1,443
   18	Genentech	$153,880	$73.98	37
   19	DoorDash	$153,587	$73.84	26
   20	The Walt Disney Company	$151,330	$72.75	58

4. Writing a senior service manager job description

   A good senior service manager job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a senior service manager job description:

   Senior service manager job description example

   This is a remote position that could be based anywhere in the United States or Canada.
   
   Reporting to the Area Vice President, Commercial Strategy Managed Services Operations, this role will be the focal point for all aspects of market readiness for a set of new Calix Managed Service solutions. Calix has invested over $1Bn building out its Intelligent Access Edge and Revenue Edge platforms - these software-centered platforms allow Calix to develop or partner to bring new services to market. Recent examples of these services include Arlo, Bark and Servify; where Calix has brought industry-leading services to market that our Broadband Service Provider (BSPs) customers can easily bring to market and to integrate these services into their offerings. These Managed Services are truly differentiating for our customers and are just the beginning - we launched these example services over the last couple of quarters - a pace of innovation that is light-years ahead of the industry let alone any competitors.
   
   This person will bring together teams from across Calix and Partner to ensure these Managed Services are ready across Sales, Marketing, Support /Customer Success Services and Operations. The ideal candidate will need to have a deep understanding of the Subscriber value proposition for these Managed Services to ensure BSPs and their Subscribers are delighted.
   
   Responsibilities and Duties:
   Oversee and guide overall process for bringing a set of new Managed Services to market.Partner with Product team and Third-Party Partner providers, if needed, to develop deep understanding of the Managed Services value proposition to the Subscriber and the BSP.Collaborate with Sales and Marketing teams to ensure readiness to bring these Managed Services to market successfully. Work with Calix Services teams across Support, Customer Success, and Professional Services to ensure we have proper services to support BSPs upon implementation.Work with Operations, Legal and Finance to ensure these Managed Services are seamlessly integrated into Calix systems/processes including contracts and billing.For Third-Party Managed Services, work with those Partner teams to ensure all of the above are ready and aligned with the respective Partner teams.Work with Operations team to build, document and improve the processes to bring Managed Services to market.
   
   Qualifications:
   Experience managing complex, fast-paced projects successfully to deadlines.Ability to work in a highly matrixed environment.Strong collaboration skills.Strong business acumen - examples of using a solid understanding of the customer requirements to drive toward solutions overcoming obstacles and challenges in a compelling manner.A proven track record of structuring and solving complex issues with input from multiple audiences across organizations.Experience bringing products/solutions/services to market.Excellent presentation and written communication skills.Bachelor's degree in a technical field or comparable work experience, MBA preferred.Consulting experience preferred, but not required.Flexibility with a can-do attitude, and an ability to react quickly to identified opportunities.
   
   Preferred Qualifications:
   Experience in B2B sales and marketing in high-growth environments.Experience working closely with customers and field sales teams.Experience with Broadband Service Provider operations.
   
   Location:
   Remote-based position located in the United States or Canada.
   
   #LI-Remote

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find senior service managers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any senior service managers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level senior service managers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior service manager job on Zippia to find and recruit senior service manager candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with senior service manager candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior service manager

   Once you've found the senior service manager candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new senior service manager. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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