Senior IT Service Desk Technician

About the role

• Own day-to-day IT Operations and service reliability 
• Ensure secure, resilient IT infrastructure  
• Drive standardisation, automation and operational maturity 

What you'll do

• Own day-to-day IT operations across sites, ensuring service availability and effective incident, request, problem and change management. 

• Operate and continually improve the virtualised infrastructure, including high availability and disaster recovery capabilities, in line with business growth. 

• Oversee all network connectivity (LAN, WAN, Wi‑Fi, SD-WAN  and SASE), from individual user connectivity through to inter-site traffic, including performance and resilience. 

• Manage security operations for IT infrastructure and endpoints, including firewalls, endpoint protection/EDR, encryption, vulnerability and patch management, monitoring and secure remote/BYOD access controls (where applicable). 

• Manage, maintain and upgrade the company’s server estate (predominantly Microsoft), including standard builds, configuration, documentation and lifecycle management. 

• Own operational tooling and documentation (monitoring, alerting, backup reporting, asset/configuration records) and drive standardisation and automation where beneficial. 
• Lead and coordinate end-user support and escalations, ensuring timely resolution and clear communication (working with internal colleagues and third parties as required). 

• Maintain service KPIs and provide timely reporting to management, highlighting risks, trends and improvement actions. 

• Manage key IT suppliers and support contracts (e.g., connectivity, security, support partners), including service reviews and escalation management. 

• Any other duties as required

Specification

• Microsoft server infrastructure (e.g., Windows Server/Active Directory and related services), including lifecycle management, high availability, backup and disaster recovery
• Microsoft 365 administration experience (e.g., Entra ID/Azure AD, Exchange Online, SharePoint/Teams and related services), where applicable to the environment. 
• Strong hands-on experience of enterprise virtualisation platforms (e.g., VMware vSphere and/or Nutanix AHV), including operational support and performance/resilience considerations. 

• Strong understanding of LAN, WAN, Wi‑Fi and VPN connectivity, including troubleshooting and supplier engagement. 

• Security operations experience, including next-generation firewalls (e.g., Sophos/Check Point or equivalent), endpoint protection/EDR, encryption, patching and vulnerability management. 

Desirable

• ITIL Foundation (or equivalent operational service management experience). 

• Relevant formal certification and/or advanced administration experience in an Enterprise virtualisation platform e.g., VMware or Nutanix. 

• Cloud and SaaS administration experience (e.g., Microsoft 365 and related services), where applicable to the environment. 

Key Interfaces

• Internal: Head of IT and IT colleagues; all employees (service users); key business system owners; Facilities/Operations (site connectivity and comms rooms); HR (joiner/mover/leaver); Finance/Procurement (licensing and renewals). 
• External: Technology suppliers and support partners (network, security, hosting/cloud, software); telecoms and ISP providers; auditors/regulators where applicable.

Dimensions

• Budgets managed: Responsible for controlling day-to-day operational IT spend (e.g., suppliers, support contracts, connectivity, licensing and renewals) within agreed budgets; prepares forecasts and supports procurement/approval processes in line with company policy. 
• Direct reports: N/A (works closely with third-party suppliers and support partners)