The Company

Usborne is an independent, family business. With over 285 staff based across our London, Oxford, Wolverhampton and German offices we publish over 300 distinctive, engaging, accessible new books each year, and have nearly 3000 titles in print. These range from books for babies such as the bestselling That’s not my… series to YA fiction from acclaimed authors such as Holly Bourne – with everything from Magic Painting to Politics for Beginners in between.

The Department

Usborne’s IT Department is essential to the operation and growth of the company and is responsible for designing and maintaining the company’s IT Business system and infrastructure and for providing efficient support to our internal clients at all our sites. You will be joining the team at an important time as we are in the midst of a digital transformation programme, implementing digital solutions that will drive our business forward.

The Role

Working as part of a small team of technology professionals and reporting to the IT Manager, the IT Systems Engineer is responsible for the smooth running of the IT, network, cloud and in-house infrastructure, business systems, cyber-security and the timely provision of support to all of our users.

Responsibilities

• Provide end-user support, managing and responding to IT requests from staff via our ServiceDesk system
• Perform system installation, configuration and monitoring of hardware and software (cloud, on-premise, SaaS)
• Responsible for the day-to-day maintenance and operation of nominated business systems including updating, patching and cyber-security
• Manage and monitor business systems, applications & related environments to identify and proactively resolve issues
• Administration and monitoring of all company infrastructure, including Cloud, Networks, Wi-Fi, storage, endpoints, AV equipment, applications, event logs, etc
• Monitor system performance and capacity to ensure the highest levels of system infrastructure availability and security
• Advise on infrastructure, data security, integration, and technical processes to support development of business systems projects
• Produce and maintain operational and technical documentation for systems and software
• Ensure security, backup, and redundancy processes are always fully operational
• Liaise with vendors, 3rd parties, and other IT personnel for problem resolution
• Be able to travel to and work from any of our other sites (currently Oxford and Wolverhampton) when required and to work flexibly outside of core work hours when needed

Skills

Teamwork and good communication are essential for this role as well as being a fast learner and adaptable team member. You should have at least 3 years’ experience working in an enterprise IT environment and must have excellent practical experience managing and supporting Cloud environments and infrastructures (Azure & AWS).

• Self-motivated person with the ability to work with tickets and triage support cases with external partners.
• Hands on experience with root cause analysis of technical issues and capable to problem solve whilst managing multiple tasks in a busy IT department
• Expert level experience in managing and supporting Cloud environments & Infrastructures, networks, Windows Operating Systems, SaaS applications including deployment and configuration.
• Experience using and supporting: MS O365, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, MS Intune
• Experience and knowledge of IT infrastructure (Azure & AWS, Network, Wireless, Cyber-security)
• Experience and working knowledge of MS Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, SSO
• Adept in Windows 10 deployment, configuration, Patching and Trouble shooting
• In depth experience of network security, security tools and best practices
• Experience creating run books and documentation
• Working Knowledge of networks, TCP/IP, VPN, DNS, DHCP including LAN, WAN and Wireless networks
• Ability to demonstrate working knowledge of the ITIL framework

Desirable skills

The skills below are not essential for the role, however, they would be an advantage for the candidate

• Good working knowledge of any of the following: SharePoint, PowerApps, Power Automate, PowerBI, Adobe Creative Cloud, Windows AutoPilot, Mimecast, Auth0, Cloudflare or Zscaler
• Experience supporting integrations between platforms SSO/SAML, AzureAD/Amazon IAM
• Good working knowledge of managing network monitoring tools (i.e PRTG, Nagios or similar)
• Relevant Microsoft certifications MCP/MCSA/MCSE
• Prior Implementation experience of ERP (SAP B1/MS Dynamics), CRM, Digital Asset Management systems would be an advantage
• Prior experience of ISO 27001 or Cyber-Essentials plus

Location and Benefits

We offer a 35-hour working week from our Farringdon offices in London with flexibility on some working from home after a successful induction period.

In addition to our transparent salary grading structure, for this role we also offer a range of benefits including:

• 25 days paid holiday entitlement plus bank holidays increasing with service
• Healthcare Scheme for you and your dependents
• Comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• 50% Discount on Company Books
• Industry leading Pension Scheme and Life Assurance