Sparx Hiring for IT Systems & Support Lead Engineer at Exeter Full Time

Location: Sparx head office in Exeter, hybrid working with minimum 3 days in the office per week

Term: Permanent, Full Time (part time hours will be considered)

Salary: Competitive (dependent on qualifications and experience)

Closing date: 20th June 2022 9am 

About Sparx Learning

Sparx Learning is on a mission to improve the numeracy, and therefore life opportunities, of five million learners worldwide by 2030. We are committed to driving positive change through the effective use of education technology, with a razor sharp focus on making a real difference to teachers, learners and families.

“Our products and internal services run on the Google ecosystem, supporting over 2,000 schools, 1.8 million learners and 3,500 teachers, so ensuring the security of our customers’ data is of the utmost importance.”

??The perks of working at Sparx Learning

We’re about living life, not putting it on hold. Sparx employees have the opportunity to enjoy a whole range of benefits, a few of which include:

• 25 days annual leave, rising each year with length of service, to a maximum of 30 days, plus the opportunity to buy an additional 5 days leave.
• Comprehensive private medical and dental insurance, life assurance, virtual GP and an employee assistance programme.
• The chance to join our company pension.
• Enhanced family leave and pay.
• Sustainability is something we are keen on, so we have a range of environmentally friendly benefits including green travel incentives, an electric car lease scheme and cycle to work scheme.

When we are working from our Exeter office, we have a range of on-site facilities including:

• A netball court.
• A five-a-side football pitch, a pool table and an Olympic table tennis table.
• An on-site gym.
• Our café serves delicious, local, and organic food. Did we mention it’s all free?

Plus, we’re constantly organising events and activities to support our charities, and to socialise. Our work is serious but we’re all about having fun while we do it!

About the Role

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced IT Engineer to become a key member of the IT team, ensuring effective two-way service delivery and customer support to our staff, suppliers, and the Sparx management team.

• You’ll use your excellent organisational and communication skills to manage and prioritise the day-to-day IT support required internally both in and out of the office.

• Drawing on your project management experience, you will be responsible for the research, organisation, management and review of assigned IT projects.

• Over time you will become an expert in the internal IT systems which support delivering the Sparx business plan, providing a go to resource for staff and providing guidance and support to the rest of the IT team.

Things move quickly at Sparx so you’ll need to be able to work well under pressure, multitask, prioritise and feel comfortable with rapid change. Being proactive and using your initiative to undertake your responsibilities. 

This is a great opportunity for someone who is keen to progress within their IT career. If you feel you may not match all the criteria below, we would still love to hear from you. We are looking for someone who has a passion for education and is driven to learn new skills, with Sparx supporting you in being able to reach your full potential.

Requirements

Key responsibilities

• Provide excellent IT customer service to all stakeholders, including the acknowledgement, escalation and communication of progress on tasks and issues to resolution, ensuring they are completed efficiently.

• Develop and lead on new starter onboarding sessions.

• Purchasing and overseeing ongoing maintenance of macs and iOS devices for Sparx employees and all related software and licences.

• Administration of all cloud admin tools.

• Dealing with network issues, wifi, AV and meeting room setups.

• Assist the IT team with the day to day office based and remote IT support work, dealing with requests directly and receiving escalations of tickets requiring your experience.

• Being responsible for all aspects of day-to-day people management for one member of the IT team.

• Over the next year develop a solid understanding in the technical aspects of cyber security in terms of the office network, device and identity management, and key collaboration tools in use.

• Work closely with our cyber security partner to resolve issues raised by our logging, monitoring and internal vulnerability scanning services.

• Stay abreast of relevant tech developments and security news, being an active participant of IT communities highlighting important changes and new features to the team.

Essential Skills & experience

• Ability to effectively analyse and diagnose technical problems in a methodical manner, finding the root cause where possible.

• Able to multitask, organise and provide excellent customer service in a fast-paced agile environment.

• Managing and troubleshooting laptops and mobile devices and related software packages.

• Experience in organisational directory administration such as managing users, groups, email accounts, security settings and policies.

• Supporting staff using cloud based collaboration / office tools.

• Experience of managing security aspects of internal IT provision including authentication, SSO, password management, automating patch updates, security best practices.

• Have the aptitude and desire to learn new technologies, systems, concepts and procedures.

Desirable skills & experience

• Experience of supporting staff using Google Workplace – Gmail, Docs, Meet, Groups.

• Experience in administration and optimisation of Google Workplace and / or related certifications.

• Experience managing Jamf MDM for macs and iOS devices.

• Effective use of collaborative task / project management tools to organise work and projects.

• Some people management experience would be advantageous.

• Relevant cyber security qualifications.