Platforms & Services Analyst

We are a world-class, research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

Salary: Salary in the region of £38,000 per annum.

Closing Date: This opportunity will close when we identify a suitable candidate. We will contact you within five working days of your application to advise you of the shortlisting outcome.

The Role

Over the last two years, we have reimagined the way we deliver our University IT Services, building a world-class IT department responsive to the needs of our global community. We’re growing significantly and we’ve created new opportunities and made changes to how we work.

Our people have been at the centre of this change, with a particular focus on development and opportunities to learn new skills.

We are looking to employ an individual who has experience and background in file store and backup infrastructure. We are expanding our storage solution which covers staff, students, teaching, learning and research. We are also improving and adding to our current backup solution.

The successful candidate would have a key role in preparing and installing the required solution and implementing the roadmap of the service.

The University is an exciting and dynamic place to work, dedicated to world-leading education and research. Benefits include excellent pension; flexible working options; a minimum of 37 days holiday (including public holidays); discounted travel for the Metro and local bus services; and discounts for national retailers. You can find out more on our benefits web page.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended working.

Informal enquiries may be made to David Wall, Platforms and Services Manager (Interim), at David.wall@newcastle.ac.uk 

Key Accountabilities

• Design, implement and maintain the University server infrastructure to host multiple virtual servers which underpin all University IT services – Windows and UNIX/UNIX-like
• Manage critical infrastructure elements including our file store, UNIX/UNIX-like services, the Microsoft software stack, PKI, database services, backup infrastructure, remote access, identity management, IT monitoring etc.
• Gather requirements from stakeholders and design, implement and maintain IT solutions to meet those requirements. Ensure all systems are resilient and highly available. Perform regular disaster recovery testing of critical systems and report to University audit committee
• Maintain working knowledge of all systems and services provided by the infrastructure systems team to perform incident management, root cause analysis of problems, and continual service improvement
• Maintain awareness of current cyber security threats and implement technologies to strengthen the University’s cyber security position
• Enforce and monitor the security and patch compliance of 1,500+ Windows Servers and 15,000 Windows Desktops to protect against malicious cyber attack and mitigate risk
• Create and keep service documentation up to date
• Operate all necessary proactive and reactive measures to ensure service continuity and effectiveness
• Ensure any issues are escalated efficiently and ensure management is aware of any issues and the consequences
• Act as a platforms and services subject matter expert and use this knowledge to deliver excellence in operational support, project and change delivery and help in defining the future strategy
• Understand the technology roadmap and assist in its implementation as directed
• Deliver any project or change-related activity as part of wider IT Service or Newcastle University project teams as required
• Ensure that policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines are followed
• Any other reasonable duties that fall within the scope of the post, as allocated by the line manager

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Extensive technical background in our core technologies including physical and virtualised server management, Windows, UNIX/UNIX-like, Azure cloud services, SQL database management, Windows and UNIX/UNIX-like user administration
• Experience of supporting and delivering platforms and services in a complex and geographically diverse organisation
• Experience of working with third party vendors and delivering an effective platforms and services service using their services
• Interest in identifying and implementing new and innovative technologies to support customer needs, drive up quality and improve value
• A working knowledge of cybersecurity processes and practices is essential
• Experience of working with multiple support and resolver groups across a wide variety of technologies
• Able to demonstrate focus on customer needs

Attributes and Behaviour Team Working

• Encourages and facilitates collaboration, cooperation, and results
• Inspires, motivates and guides more junior team members
• Supports organizational change agents to improve maturity and practices, in support of University goals and strategy
• Mobilizes themselves to support and enable change efforts
• Analyses situations quickly and effectively to determine the best way to deliver the required result
• Keeps their technical knowledge up to date and has a wider understanding of the technology landscape inside and outside their area
• Sets and accomplishes challenging goals
• Defines standards in terms of doing what is appropriate and doing it well
• Leads by example in delivering high quality outcomes that they take responsibility for
   

Newcastle University is committed to being a fully inclusive Global University which actively recruits, supports, and retains staff from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support, and thrive on the contributions of all our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices.

The University holds a silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. The University also holds the HR Excellence in Research award for our work to support the career development of our researchers, and is a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.