Senior IT Systems Engineer

Job Description:

Uppingham School, founded in 1584, is a leading co-educational independent boarding school which runs 24/7 in term-time.  It has a strong academic profile and excellent pastoral care with an international reputation, and state-of-the-art science, sports and music facilities.  

The IT department comprises a team of ten, with responsibility for maintaining and developing the School’s: end user devices, server and storage infrastructure, networks, audio-visual systems, cybersecurity and software applications.

Uppingham is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and welcomes applications from anyone who feels they could fulfil the role.

Job purpose

This is an entirely technical post, with no managerial duties, offering the opportunity to apply and develop expertise in Microsoft Cloud services, Cybersecurity, and Device Management.

Your accountabilities
Third-Line technical support

• Deliver third-line technical support for the School’s IT infrastructure.
• Serve as the lead technical specialist, taking full responsibility for infrastructure-related issues, researching solutions, escalating to relevant third-party suppliers where necessary, and providing timely workarounds and resolutions for the wider team.
• Consistently deliver outstanding, proactive, and approachable customer service, maintaining excellent communication with both users and IT colleagues.

Operations service

• Carry out daily monitoring of the School’s infrastructure to ensure high standards and error-free operation, recording and resolving issues efficiently.
• Develop, automate, and document operational procedures for the IT team, providing training and sharing expertise as appropriate.
• Collaborate with the development team to specify complex coding automations that facilitate seamless delivery of services.
• Undertake regular, technically demanding maintenance and safe operational changes to the IT estate.
• Act as the primary technical contact for external suppliers of relevant services.
• Installation, commissioning and security of end user hardware and software
• Use Microsoft Intune to maintain a standard operating environment for staff and pupil devices, ensuring software is deployed according to defined procedures. Delegate repeatable tasks (such as software packaging and device set-up) to the technician team and respond to their feedback on user environment issues.
• Ensure all end user devices (Windows, Mac, IOS and Android) are properly identified, managed, and recorded.
• Design and manage the security of user devices by implementing encryption, patching, malware detection, strong authentication, and other best-practice security measures.

Infrastructure project technical lead

• Support the Support and Infrastructure Manager in assisting the Director of Information Systems with the annual programme of projects.
• Take the technical lead in the installation of new IT systems, under the oversight of the Support and Infrastructure Manager.
• Oversee the implementation, upgrade, and decommissioning of systems and contribute to broader school infrastructure projects.
• Minimise risk and downtime associated with project work through careful planning, staged rollouts, and comprehensive testing.
• Lead security projects to achieve standards such as Cyber Essentials+.
• Advance cloud migration projects with the objective of removing reliance on on-premises servers.

Skills and experience:

The School is looking for a deeply technically skilled individual.  We expect demonstratable skills in most of the following areas:

• Education to A level standard (computing degree desirable)
• PowerShell and Automation
• Microsoft Cloud services – 365, Security, Intune, Identity, Azure, Exchange, SharePoint  
• Advanced Microsoft Intune capabilities
• Windows operating systems and servers
• Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS/DHCP
• Layer 2/3 networking, including Aruba and Dell switches (VLANs, routing, security, patching), Fortinet firewalls, Extreme WiFi
• Virtualisation, Microsoft Hyper-V, Veeam
• PC and Laptop Lifecycle, Imaging, Application packaging and deployment
• Security – encryption, antivirus (Sophos and Defender), Microsoft security suite, SOC event coordination
• RMM – patch management and security posture monitoring

Salary: £35,000 per annum

Benefits                                      

• 50% contribution to premiums for the School’s private health scheme
• Free Westfield Healthcare and membership of dual-use Sports Centre (£25 annual joining fee)
• Free staff lunches in term-time
• School fee discount for children of Uppingham staff (pro-rated for part-time staff)
• Retail, gym, supermarket, cinema and restaurant discounts
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Occupational Health Services
• Free annual flu jabs
• Recognised as a “Disability Confident” employer
• Recognised as a “Mindful” employer
• Favourable rates and terms with local nursery
• Complimentary staff ticket to selected School performances
• Discount at local coffee shop for Uppingham staff.

Safeguarding

The post-holder’s responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young persons for whom s/he is responsible, or with whom s/he comes into contact, will be to adhere to and ensure compliance with the School’s Safeguarding (Child Protection) Policy at all times. 

You may have experience of the following:3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer, Senior Infrastructure Specialist, IT Infrastructure Engineer, Systems Administrator (Senior), Cloud & Systems Engineer, Intune Engineer, Azure Infrastructure Engineer, Cybersecurity & Systems Specialist, Senior Technical Support Engineer, Virtualisation Engineer.

REF-227 729