Desktop Support Lead

The Global Desktop Support Team at Brevan Howard is a critical component of the firm’s technology platform, ensuring uninterrupted performance for portfolio managers, executives, and global users operating within a highly distributed, latency-sensitive hedge fund environment. This London based role sits at the intersection of portfolio manager partnership, hands-on desktop support leadership, and strategic EUC contribution. Its primary purpose is the provision of high-class technical desktop support to portfolio managers, underpinned by day-to-day leadership of the London support engineers. It requires a highly credible, technically authoritative professional with a strong technical background gained specifically within the hedge fund industry, who understands the pace, pressure, and risk sensitivity of a hedge fund. Being credible in front of the C-suite is critical to the success of the candidate, who will interact daily with the Chief of Staff for Trading in both London and New York, alongside other senior stakeholders across the global business. The individual must appreciate the direct relationship between technology performance and P&L, operate with urgency during market hours, and always maintain absolute discretion. The role demands someone who earns trust through competence, sound judgment, and consistent delivery. They must be a dependable and trusted source of technology support for senior leadership and portfolio managers, someone whose presence inspires confidence, and who is recognised as a trusted go-to member of the global Desktop Support team. The primary mandate is to safeguard trading and leadership productivity. The role owns rapid response and resolution of issues impacting revenue-generating teams, delivering white-glove deskside and remote support with strict adherence to the 30-minute response SLA. Calm execution under pressure, proactive endpoint health management, and disciplined ServiceNow ticket hygiene are essential to minimizing downtime and eliminating operational friction. Beyond operational support, this position carries strategic ownership of Enterprise User Computing (EUC) initiatives. The individual will be accountable for delivering key transformation programs across the firm’s in-house managed Windows 11 platform—ensuring structured execution, stakeholder alignment, risk mitigation, and zero trading disruption. The role serves as the senior escalation point for complex end-user and desktop issues, driving root cause analysis and permanent remediation to eliminate repeat incidents. Success requires close coordination with infrastructure, networking, and security teams, alongside disciplined lifecycle ownership of incidents and continuous improvement initiatives. A critical responsibility is the direct leadership of the London desktop support engineers. The successful candidate will lead, coach, and mentor the support engineer team on an ongoing basis, developing individual capability, addressing performance gaps, and elevating technical standards to ensure the team is resilient, skilled, and aligned to business demand. The role also provides autonomy to contribute across broader infrastructure initiatives, influencing platform stability, automation, performance optimization, and service resilience beyond traditional desktop support. This individual must be a visible, credible, and trusted presence in the London office—representing Technology with authority, integrity, and reliability, and acting as a trusted go-to member of the global Desktop Support team. Success will be measured not only by technical execution, but by the confidence senior leadership places in their judgment, discretion, and ability to consistently deliver in a high-performance hedge fund environment. Main Duties/Responsibilities of the Role Tier 1: Executive & Portfolio Manager Technology Partnership (Priority Focus) Mandate: Protect P&L, preserve trading continuity, and operate as a trusted technology