Senior IT Operations Engineer

Perceptive is seeking a skilled Senior IT Operations Engineer to join our dynamic team supporting Azure Cloud SRE, Network Operations Center and End User Compute Service Desk functions. The successful candidate will be responsible for leading their shift and providing 2nd line team technical support and ensuring the smooth operation of our network, end-user computing environments, and Microsoft Azure server environments. This role requires a proactive individual with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment. The position is shift-based, supporting a 24x7 rota to ensure continuous coverage and support. Additionally, the role involves major incident management to swiftly address and resolve critical issues. This position also has some team lead responsibilities for a small shift of IT Operations engineers.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Coordination and support

• Provide day to day team lead support to the shift of engineers on rotation
• Being point of escalation from both a people perspective and a technical perspective

Monitor and manage network environments

• Lead the team to ensure optimal performance and update of critical network infrastructure
• Linux and Windows Administration.

Provide technical support to end users

• Lead the team to resolve issues relating to hardware, software and mobile telephony across our end userbase

Perform routine maintenance and updates

• Lead the team to maintain and update network and compute environments
• Deploying monthly updates to Infrastructure components

Collaborate with other functions and teams within IT and the wider business unit

• Lead the team to troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues
• Be the point of technical escalation and guidance
• Provides technical expertise to enable the automation/configuration of software, other system components and equipment for systems testing.
• Collaborates with Business and technical teams to develop and agree system integration plans and report on progress.

Maintain knowledge documentation

• Lead the team to document network configurations, procedures and known issues

Assist in the implementation of new technologies

• Lead the team to implement and upgrade new services and platforms, adhering to appropriate change controls

Ensure compliance with company policies

• Lead the team to ensure they adhere to company and industry standards for security, data protection and all Standard Operating Procedures

Respond to and manage incidents and service requests

• Lead the team to respond and resolve incidents and requests within SLA/OLA

Manage and support Microsoft Azure environments

• Lead the team to monitor performance, troubleshoot issues and ensure security and compliance

Implement and maintain Azure based solutions

• Azure IaaS, VM setup, configuration
• Good hands-on experience on Azure networks, NSG, Firewall, Load balancers, app gateways etc.,
• PaaS, with a variety of different Azure PaaS services
• Writing infrastructure as code (IAC) to build new cloud infrastructure
• Writing and amending DevOps Pipelines for integration, build and/ or deployment
• Able to configure Azure alerting and Monitoring setup.
• Excellent in Automation scripts/runbooks.

Major Incident Management

• Working with Service Management, coordinate and document major incidents through to resolution
• Be the primary ‘major incident manager’ role on shift, leading the coordination of incidents to efficient resolution

Problem Management

• Working with Service Management, coordinate and document post incident reviews and root cause information, as well as preventative information

Change Management

• Working with Service Management ensure all changes to our environments are documented and approved through appropriate processes

Other

Carryout any other reasonable duties as requested.

Functional Competencies (Technical knowledge/Skills)

• Team leadership experience, preferential.
• Strong knowledge of network protocols, hardware, and software to a 2nd line level.
• Linux and Windows Administration.
• Good hands-on knowledge on Azure Active Directory, Enterprise application and SCIM registry.
• Experience of general Active Directory
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, including setup - managing virtual machines, storage, and networking components to a 2nd line level.
• Azure networking (NSG/ WAF/ Firewall/ AppGW, load balancers, Traffic manager configuration, etc.)
• PaaS, with a variety of different Azure PaaS services
• Experience DR design and configuration.
• Securing Azure infrastructure services in a corporate and regulated environment
• Experience with network monitoring tools and troubleshooting techniques to a 2nd line level.
• Familiarity with end-user computing environments, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices to a 2nd line level.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Core knowledge of ITIL processes, including but not limited to Major Incident, Problem and Change Management, including the ability to confidently ‘command & control’ major incident scenarios.

Experience, Education, and Certifications

• Proven 2nd line experience in a similar role within a Network Operations Center or IT Service Desk environment.
• Team lead experience preference or a willingness to step into a lead role and grow.
• Bachelor's Degree in a technical discipline or equivalent project-related experience.
• Willingness to work in a shift-based role supporting a 24x7 rota.
• Microsoft Azure Certifications and ITIL V4 Certifications are preferential but not essential.
• English: Fluent.