Support & Technology Consultant

Our client is a technology services provider; supporting its customers through the complex lifecycle of their assets from acquisition through to retirement, including supply of all the resources required to consult, support and project manage throughout the journey. Resource Services is the provision of a comprehensive range of skilled and experienced personnel, covering short term tactical engagements through to long term strategic managed resource services.

Combining core permanent staff with a mix of contractor skills, every customer engagement is underpinned with a professional Service Delivery Manager or Project Manager responsible for the delivery of predictable outcomes within a flexible commercial framework.

The job role is within the financial services sector, working as part of a small, agile, multi-disciplined technical team as part of a multi-vendor managed services environment providing technical support and technical project services to a user base of 3000 located EU wide.

Based from both Offices in London and at Paddington as required.

• The position entails operational support of a range of new generation infrastructure services based on engineered systems (converged infrastructure), thin-client delivery (HBC and VDI) and extensive use of virtualisation technologies. Support services will include 2nd/3rd line ticket response as well as vendor and service provider escalations as necessary.
• In addition to the support element, the team will also be responsible for the ongoing development of the new infrastructure components, to achieve the best value from the investment; this will include design, proof of concept, testing and delivery of new services and automation processes across the new technology estate.
   
• Providing 2nd/3rd Line Technical Support services against back-end infrastructure and platform services, via an automated helpdesk system delivered by a separate supplier who handles 1st Contact/1st Line support.
• Working with Bell Architects and technology vendors to determine the most appropriate configurations and designs for the components in play. Working on collaborative solution design initiatives with other team resources and SME’s as required.
• Leveraging newly implemented toolsets (vRealize, UCS Director) to identify, design and deliver enhanced orchestration and automation capabilities around management and deployment to support common processes and standardisation of operations across the infrastructure.
• Defining and implementing an extensive monitoring capability using the provisioned toolsets to ensure high levels of responsiveness in the event of component failure or service degradation and the ability to gather long-haul usage and performance statistics in support of capacity and performance management reporting.
• Carrying out piloting/prototype activities to ensure correct function/integration of solutions prior to implementation into production. Working with the client’s business units to undertake functional and acceptance testing exercises for new capability releases.
• Creating documentation in support of design work, processes, procedures and change management. Working with Bell Architects in the creation of architecture and design artefacts and associated supporting material.
• Undertaking delivery activities as part of specific project initiatives. Working as part of a matrix project delivery function bringing designs and initiatives into production using standard best practices.
• Reporting (automated or ad-hoc) system health through key indicators using either written outputs or dashboards using standard toolsets.

Qualifications/Skills: 

The successful candidate will be an infrastructure generalist who has worked in large corporate IT environments delivering support and project services to a diverse user base. They will be familiar with the flow of IT support and service functions using automated helpdesk management systems in a multi-vendor, managed service environment.

They will have significant experience of integrated Microsoft, VMware and Citrix components hosted in secure datacentre environments, using the latest converged Cisco and NetApp components. Extensive virtualisation experience is a must as is a clear understanding of infrastructure and application monitoring using mainstream toolsets in a virtualised environment.

Candidates must be pragmatic and flexible in their approach, and a team player. They must be able to recognise and leverage the skills around them and be ready and willing to assist the team however possible. The ability to self-start and work unattended are traits for this role.

Infrastructure Skills by Product –

Cisco/NetApp
FlexPod Engineered Systems
Cisco UCS Chassis’ & Blades
Cisco Fabric Extenders
Cisco Fabric Interconnects (Nexus)
Cisco UCS Rackmount Servers
NetApp Filer (UCS/DOT)

VMware
ESXi V5+
vSphere
vRealize
NSX

Citrix
XenApp
XenDesktop
NetScaler
Worx

Microsoft
Windows 2012R2
Active Directory 2008R2+
Exchange 2010+
SQL Server 2008+
Skype (for Business)
SharePoint

IBM
SKLM (Security Key Lifecycle Manager)


Cisco UCS Platform Operations – System software support level only, no hands on hardware, specialist remote hands available for hardware.

Ideally DCUCI/DCUCT Qualified
UCS Director and associated management applications
FlexPod & Standalone UCS instance management
NetApp Management through UCS
Nexus (FEX & FIC) Management through UCS
UCS statistics and platform capacity management, usage & exception monitoring

VMware vCloud/vRealize Enterprise Suite Components – Software support, diagnosis and solution design in a vSphere managed ESXi deployment using the latest vRealise toolset –

Ideally VCP-DCV/VCP-NV/VCP-Cloud Qualified
Infrastructure and Virtualised applications monitoring and alerting (vROps/Hyperic)
Virtualised Infrastructure automation & orchestration (vRAE)
Virtualised Infrastructure usage analysis & reporting (vROps/vRCA/vRLA)
SDN (Software Defined Networking) design, testing & deployment (NSX)

Citrix Xen Suite – XenApp (HBC), XenDesktop (VDI), Worx (Mobile Computing) – Software support, diagnosis and solution design of Host Based Computing, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and thin-client supported mobile computing capabilities –

Ideally CCA for XenDesktop/XenApp Qualified
Operational Support of Citrix end to end client infrastructure based on XenDesktop
Application streaming from XenApp to VDI, persistent & non-persistent desktops
Desktop build/gold image development and maintenance
User profile management
Published application management

Microsoft OS and Platform Solutions – W2K12R2, Exchange, ADS, Networking (DHCP/DNS etc.), SQL, Skype, SharePoint –

Ideally MCP/MCSE Certified
Operational management of MS Windows (virtualised) server estate based on W2K12R2

Ongoing development of the OS platform leveraging new generation capabilities
Windows VM management and monitoring using VMware platform capabilities
VM Backup and restore operations (intra VM and external image/snapshot)
Exchange Server management and support (including migration support)
SQL Server platform management
Patching, AV and Security activities and considerations
Skype for Business and SharePoint support experience is beneficial