Application and Infrastructure Specialist (Service Desk)
- Employer
- DURHAM UNIVERSITY
- Location
- Durham, United Kingdom
- Salary
- £34,304 - £40,927 per annum
- Closing date
- 25 Aug 2022
View more
- Job Type
- Professional Services, IT Services
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
Computing and Information Services
Grade 7: - £34,304 - £40,927 per annum
Open-Ended/Permanent - Full Time
Contracted Hours per Week: 35
Closing Date : 25-Aug-2022, 6:59:00 AM
When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.
Please note, applications will be reviewed as they are received therefore early applications are strongly encouraged. The advert will be removed once the post is filled.
Introduction
A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a collegiate community of extraordinary people, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other. We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world.
We find it easy to be proud of the extraordinary people we have at Durham. We offer the inspiration, they achieve the outstanding. We invite you to join our fantastic team.
Durham University is committed to promoting equality and diversity
At Durham University, our aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where everyone can reach their full potential and we believe our staff should reflect the diversity of the global community in which we work. We welcome and encourage applications from members of groups who are under-represented in our work force including people with disabilities, women and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
As a University we foster a collegiate community of extraordinary people aligned to the University’s values. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) are a key part of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do. At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all of our colleagues are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.
Durham University’s Athena Swan institutional award recognises and celebrates good practice in recruiting and supporting the development of women. We have also signed up to the Race Equality Charter, a national framework for improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.
If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.
The Department purpose:
The Computing and Information Services Department (CIS) has an annual operational budget in the order of £10m, multi-million pound programmes of change within year, and approximately 140 staff who are predominately based at the Durham University campus. The Senior Leadership Team report directly to the Chief Information Officer with the following portfolios: Strategy and Change; Operations; and Information Systems. CIS provides academic, teaching and administrative services across the organisation that underpin the day-to-day activities of the whole organisation.
Recent infrastructure improvements include investment in a new network backbone, including new cabling which runs throughout the city to all of the Universities core buildings, new scalable user facing storage, and a new hosting environment. Corresponding business led investment also continues to be made with a new Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning suite, investment in research administration, and maximising the breadth of opportunities available to the University through Microsoft 365, alongside numerous other important initiatives.
CIS is a friendly, but demanding department, where much is expected and can be achieved by competent, self-motivated individuals who are demonstrable in their team work ability.
The Role purpose:
The purpose of the post is to support and enable University staff and students to use their IT effectively in teaching, research and operations. As a member of the Computing and Information Services (CIS) Service Desk team the post holder will be expected to provide effective and customer focused support to all users of University IT in a timely and professional manner.
The role requires a passion for customer service delivery, problem solving and communication skill and a high level of IT knowledge.
You will be expected to show leadership skills where appropriate. This may include technical, team and project leadership or the drive to implement a proposed service improvement.
You will be working very closely with all teams across Computing and Information Services supporting professional support services, Durham University students, academic departments, and research institutes.
Core responsibilities:
- Recognised professional practitioner and service specialist.
- Implement changes to the design and development of service processes, techniques and deliverables for one or more service strands or project streams.
- Provide specialist expertise and support with complexity of data and information sources, interpretation and analysis.
- Contribute to development of operational service activities to ensure excellence in the stakeholder experience.
- Collect and analyse stakeholder feedback to help define needs and requirements and the design and planning of services.
- Internal and external relationship development and partnership working, networking and participation to engage and influence future services and the University reputation.
- Identify and design activities to meet learning objectives and outcomes.
- Deliver training, teaching and/or development delivery for stakeholders.
- Maintain an awareness of current policy for University business goals such as widening participation and access, and provision of advice using specialist knowledge.
- Contribute to and lead business meetings, working groups and sub-committees at departmental and operational service levels.
- Responsible for managing small budgets for consumables and some capital items, keeping records and processing invoices.
Role responsibilities:
- Deliver specialist services as an expert technologist with a good understanding of operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux and network technologies.
- Proven ability of supporting corporate applications e.g. Microsoft office 365 suite, oracle (hr & finance systems), bespoke applications etc.
- Proactively working with 2nd and 3rd line CIS colleagues to investigate, triage and implement solutions, whilst identifying trends and persistent incidents.
- As required, provide management for the delivery of high-quality IT infrastructure and application support across the University.
- Promote and foster positive and highly collaborative approaches to problem solving and incident prevention whilst motivating, mentoring, and coaching team members.
- Creating and maintaining internal service documentation, liaising with relevant service owners where appropriate ensuring accuracy. This includes the development of FAQs, collating existing support documentation and providing training where necessary.
- Being a point of contact for the IT service desk and the wider department to interpret, analyse and resolve complex infrastructure, application, and technical information.
- Contribute to the design and development of intelligent applications, AI solutions and innovation within the service desk function.
- Make decisions about the nature and level of problem solving, physical and analytical tools, techniques, and protocols to deliver project and service objectives, providing advice and making recommendations for resolution as appropriate.
- Collaborate with other specialists within CIS and across the University, regarding the use of modelling and analytical tools, methods, and standards to deliver integrity and consistency with service delivery.
- Schedule and monitor CIS projects and work streams across the University.
- Provide regular status reports and identify risk management and contingency planning to other service staff, specialists, users and managers.
- Liaise with internal and external agencies, local authorities, industries and visitors where appropriate.
- Take responsibility for monitoring and updating risk assessments and safety procedures, including cyber security for the service, providing guidance to others where necessary and promoting best practice within the team and wider university.
- Develop, modify, and optimise protocols and methodologies, including authoring clear business cases where required.
- Any other reasonable duties.
Specific role requirements
- Able to work flexibly to cover 8am-8pm.
- Work out of hours if this is determined to be necessary.
Person specification - skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience required
Criteria
- Excellent oral and written communication skills and the ability to develop excellent working relationships both internally and externally.
- Proven IT skills, including use of Microsoft Office. Proven IT skills, including the advanced use of Microsoft Office.Post-16 qualification (or equivalent experience).
- Educated to degree level (or equivalent experience/professional qualification).
- Experience of supporting services in a customer-focused and structured approach.
- Demonstrable technical problem-solving skills.
- Experience in developing excellent working relationships across a range of specialists and with external partners
- Continuing professional development required to maintain professional recognition.
- Experience of being able to network effectively and develop strong and productive working relationships.
- Knowledge of and experience in Application and Infrastructure support.
- Ability to solve problems and resolve issues, plan solutions and make pragmatic decisions.
- Knowledge and experience of ensuring compliance with regulatory and organisational policy and guidelines.
- Ability to manage workload and prioritise effectively, working under own initiative or collaboratively in a small team within a pressurised environment.
- Good interpersonal skills with the ability to work with customers to understand end-user requirements, explain solution capabilities and translate these into effective technical solutions.
- Regulatory, local, and national professional knowledge and experience of compliance.
- Experience of being able to network effectively and develop strong and productive working relationships
Desirable Criteria
- ITIL 3 or 4 Foundation.
- Experience of intelligent applications and AI solutions within the service desk function.
- Knowledge and experience of ensuring compliance with regulatory and organisational policy and guidelines.
- Continuing professional development required to maintain professional recognition.
Recruiting to this post
In order to progress to the assessment stage of the recruitment process, candidates must evidence each of the essential criteria required for the role in the person specification above. It will be at the discretion of the recruiting panel as to whether they will also consider the desirable criteria, but we would urge candidates to provide evidence for all criteria.
Please note that some criteria will only be considered for those candidates who proceed to the assessment stage.
How to Apply
We prefer to receive applications online.
Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/ which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.
What you are required to submit
- A CV, which evidences your experience, strengths and potential against the criteria set out above.
Contact Information
Andy Scott, Senior Manager (Service Desk)
DBS Requirement: Not Applicable.
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