Position Details

IT Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £28,397 to £30,210, with potential progression once in post to £33,938

Grade: 5

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 25th August 2024

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Role Summary

The post holder will form part of a team providing predominantly 2nd line remote computing support to academic, administrative and support staff, as well as students of the University.

The Service Desk is the primary point of contact for all users with computing issues, receiving enquiries in person, by telephone, and by a variety of web-based contact points. The post holder will be expected to resolve a high percentage of queries without referral, to utilise remote support software as and when required and to liaise with 3rd level technical teams to restore service as soon as possible.

Main Duties

Second Line Support

• Providing second line IT support to staff, students and visitors, via all of the Service Desk’s supported contact methods.
• Connecting to University and personally owned PCs and Macs using remote assistance software, and resolving any issues that do not require a personal visit.
• Troubleshooting and installation of software packages, including site licensed, commercial, free and centrally accessed software.
• Using call-logging software to refer appropriate calls to specialist staff, ensuring that users receive responses within acceptable timescales by taking ownership, monitoring and tracking calls through to resolution within the ITIL framework.
• Developing a thorough knowledge of the organisational structure and IT infrastructure of the University, so as to be best placed to triage calls appropriately and understand the organisational impact of reported faults.
• Participating in Incident Management and Problem Management in line with ITIL methodologies.
• Liaising with members of other technical teams to aid in the timely resolution of IT faults.
• Updating the IT Services Status Page and social media feeds both reactively in response to service outages and proactively to advertise new services and information that would be of interest to staff and students at the University.
• To undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time in furtherance of the work of IT Services.

First Line Support

• Covering for colleagues in First Line Support by answering phones, dealing with live chats, triaging new calls and working on the front desk in the Main Library.

Laptop Clinic

• Managing daily bookings, including scheduling appointments and securely storing student computers that have been referred to the Laptop Clinic in the Main Library.
• Troubleshooting, diagnosing and resolving a wide range of software issues on desktops and laptops that belong to students at the University.
• Recovering data from laptops, and external devices.
• Reinstalling Windows, macOS and (occasionally) Linux on student machines.

Knowledge Management and Training

• Writing articles for the IT Service Desk Knowledge Base, and ensuring that all job-related knowledge is documented and available to all colleagues at the Service Desk.
• Contributing to the collective knowledge of the team by staying up to date with new technology, and maintaining an up to date overview of hardware and software related to teaching and learning at the University.
• Acting as a Service Desk expert in one or more area, and coaching and training colleagues in subjects related to that expertise. Areas of expertise could include Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, mobile devices, Microsoft Office or specific processes or software applications unique to the University.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Skills and Knowledge

• A high level of expertise gained over two or more years, and backed up with appropriate certification and qualifications in one of the following (with working knowledge of the other):
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Mac OS X

OR

• Working knowledge of all of the following:
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Mac OS X
  • Linux
  • iOS
  • Android
• Knowledge of email and email protocols
• Knowledge of wired and wireless networking protocols
• Knowledge of security solutions for the protection against and removal of viruses and malware
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to tailor responses to specific technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent personal organisation
• Up to date general knowledge on current trends in IT
• Good troubleshooting and problem solving skills.
• Some exposure to Linux (specifically Debian derivatives such as Ubuntu and RHEL derivatives such as Scientific Linux and CentOS).
• Experience of writing knowledge base articles or other relevant content authoring experience.
• Knowledge of mobile devices including tablets and smartphones
• Basic hardware skills
• Exposure to desktop and server administration
• Knowledge of ITIL methodology, ideally backed up with a foundation qualification
• Experience of utilising social media in a professional environment

Attitude

• Calm under pressure
• Excellent customer service
• Motivated to complete tasks on time and to the required level of quality
• Excellent personal organisation
• A positive demeanour
• A willingness to adopt and champion new ways of working
• A willingness to coach and train colleagues in their own areas of expertise
• A willingness to take on board both positive and negative feedback from colleagues and managers.

Qualifications and experience

• 5 GCSEs at grade C or above, including Mathematics and English (or equivalent vocational qualifications, including demonstrable examples of the required level of literacy).
• Significant experience and expertise (ideally backed up with professional qualifications) in working on a Service Desk or in a related customer-focused IT Support role involving user support and triaging of calls.
• Some exposure to an educational environment, either through attending University or working in a University, FE college or School.
• Experience of working in a team

Informal enquiries to Joseph Townsend email: j.townsend.1@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .