IT Principal Officer – Technical Infrastructure

Core to the functional area of the Technical Infrastructure team is the responsibility for the provision of advanced technical expertise in core infrastructure and systems architecture. This includes hosting platforms - physical & virtual servers, storage infrastructure (SAN), cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 suite, network connectivity (voice, data and unified comms), endpoint management including software deployment and automation, and managing cyber security to protect the Councils systems and data from cyber threats. 

This area is also responsible for database administration, UNIX platforms, enterprise backup services, disaster recovery and business continuity and the core Microsoft stack such as AD-DS, AD-FS, AD-CS [PKI], SQL, IIS, System Centre suite (SCCM,SCOM)

The functional area will own all the infrastructure and the operational supplier/contract management as well as acting as 3rd line support for infrastructure and supplier contacts. It owns the overall technical infrastructure architecture, blueprints and standards.

Specifically, for the IT Principal Officer role, we are looking for applicants with skills and experience in the following areas:

• Leading and managing an IT Technical specialism team.
• Communication and management skills.
• Technical management and oversight of complex IT projects and changes.
• Technical lead for incident and problem management.
• Data Centre management.
• Hosting platforms: (VMware) virtualised server environment.
• Enterprise storage solutions: (SAN).
• Enterprise backups.
• Disaster recovery and business continuity solutions.
• Server operating systems.
• Cloud based systems such as Microsoft Office365, Skype for Business, Teams and Azure.
• Active Directory and associated technologies.
• Promoting good IT and Informational Security practices.
• Managing large contracts and 3rd party suppliers.  
• Licensing – Microsoft or other vendor license management e.g. Vmware.

Types of activities a Principal Officer in the team will undertake include, but not limited to:

• Day to day management of an IT technical specialism team.
• Provide guidance to technical staff for complex problems.           
• Leading on the design, development, testing and implementation of innovative infrastructure solutions, aligned to the IT and Corporate strategies.
• Responsibility for ensuring operational support of Infrastructure systems, maintain their availability, capacity, and performance.
• Act as the technical lead for escalations of IT incidents or problems.
• Lead on major IT projects and implementations assigned to the team.
• Leading the team and participate in, providing technical input and advice based on own knowledge and expertise, to other functional areas within IT and the wider Council.
• Engage and collaborate with external suppliers, including contract management and performance reviews of existing contracts.
• Procurement lead on behalf of the team, to ensure the right services are procured, in line with Council and legal requirements.
• Identify opportunities for on-going improvement of IT infrastructure systems, for example through automation or the refinement of current working practices or processes.
• Implementing processes and technologies to deliver IT security measures to protect the Councils assets.
• Continue to develop the team’s and your own technical specialism to meet new challenges.
• Setting team goals and priorities in line with the IT strategy, including working through competing priorities and demands.
• Manage resource allocation based on upcoming workloads to ensure business priorities and demands are met.
• Complete staff appraisals, including one to one meetings.

Interview dates will be confirmed during the process.