Job Description

Job Title: Infrastructure Manager

About SLC
Student Loans Company is a non-profit making Government-owned organisation set up in 1989 to provide loans and grants to students in universities and colleges in the UK. We are responsiblefor student support delivery in the UK.
Company Mission
We enable our customers to invest in their futures by delivering secure, accurate and efficient assessment, payment and repayment services.
Company Vision
Our vision is to be valued as a digital, customer-focused, centre of excellence.
Job Details
Overview of department:
Technology Group is one of 5 core functions within SLC the others are Software Delivery, Architecture, Security, Service Delivery and Vendor Management. The role of the Infrastructure Manager is to manage the teams within the Server Storage, (Unix-Wintel) Messaging and Collaboration team and Data Centres ensuring that the systems provided are available, performant. Secure and meet the business and operational requirements of SLC.

Grade: G6

Reporting to:Head of Infrastructure and Services

Budget Responsibility: £15 m

Line Management Responsibility: circa 40 personnel

Job Purpose:
  • To ensure the underlying technical infrastructure and its associated technologies operate efficiently, performs within agreed targets, and delivers a secure platform on which SLC can efficiently carry out its business. ( Physical, Virtual and Cloud based)
  • To proactively develop, support and strategically manage the ICT environment including servers, storage, databases and operating systems. The focus being to ensure that the ICT Support function acts as the liaison between customer organisations and suppliers and also as a supplier of services in its own right. This will include strategically selecting those services best provided in-house and those best provided by third parties including Cloud providers.
  • To provide leadership, direction and motivation to managers and Team leads and Infrastructure support teams within the area, in order to ensure that they maintain their customer focus and are kept abreast of new technology developments
  • Assess key skills requirements, develop skills training plans and ensure that SLC has the appropriate skills available to support its ICT infrastructure through appropriate in-house, computer based and external training
  • To support the strategic service delivery of ICT
  • To act as the 3rd line ICT specialist, delivering solutions to complex technical issues
  • Manage and coordinate all Backup /Restore, Patching and AI resolution (BAU) of the Server Storage, Messaging and Collaboration and Data Centres.
  • Liaise with other SLC departments including:
  • Networks, Database and Mid Tier
  • Configuration Management
  • Change Management
  • Programme and Project offices
  • Procurement
  • Vendors and 3rd party support organisations
Assess the implications for:-
  • IT Disaster Recovery taking or coordinating actions in conjunction with the DR Manager or Major Incident teams
  • Changes to the threat landscape.
  • Business Continuity
Key responsibilities:
  • To contribute to the Head of Operations and Infrastructure Architecture function in development of ICT departmental strategies to align with the overall organisational strategy including Cloud adoption.
  • Develop and implement service management standards, monitoring and performance reporting across all infrastructure services, Server Storage, Messaging and Collaboration, Data Centres.
  • Develop and implement continual service improvement processes, actions and reporting based on root cause analysis of incidents, problems and issues
  • Develop and implement hardware and software standards for servers, storage and databases
  • Develop and maintain overall backup and recovery strategy of the Server Storage environments and Disaster Recovery.
  • Establish and implement ‘best practice’ standards as well as departmental policies and procedures
  • Determine, recommend and implement hardware and software upgrades for business applications, Server and Storage hardware etc
  • Responsible and accountable for changes affecting the ICT infrastructure and that such changes take place in a controlled and auditable manner
  • Ensures high availability, backup and recoverability of all corporate systems
  • Owns and maintains strict controls on data/system backups and recoverability
  • Manage team leads comprising; Unix and Storage, Wintel, Messaging /collaboration team and Data Centre teams, in their daily activities and conduct performance development activities as required
  • Manage the infrastructure teams through team leads to deliver a stable and high performing infrastructure in safe and secure data centres
  • Develop and manage relationships with vendors in support of staff augmentation and systems support
  • To negotiate between ICT application development and support areas, other directorates and external suppliers to resolve often highly technical or contentious issues and conflicts to ensure that projects and work packages are delivered on time and within budget
  • Advise on the technical specification relating to the development or procurement of new information systems or ICT infrastructure, developing of Business Cases if appropriate
  • Monitor and resolve Problem Management for instances where the underlying cause of an incident is not clear or requires further investigation
  • Close liaison with Design Authority and application platform owners to develop strategic direction of infrastructure platforms, implementation roadmaps and planning for refresh cycles
  • Maintain and enforce security and access controls
  • Schedule planned preventative maintenance
  • Ensuring subject matter awareness of colleagues as appropriate to their roles.
  • Development and facilitation of ICT Disaster Recovery tests.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science/Information technology or equivalent
  • Extensive experience working in an ICT infrastructure support environment, with management experience
  • ITIL or PMI Certification
  • Quality and service level driven service delivery experience
  • Extensive experience of developing, introducing and stabilising ITIL based service management across all infrastructure areas of networking, storage and server
  • Developing and implementing service metrics and performance reporting
  • Must have strong hands-on /technical knowledge of server, storage and Cloud technologies
  • Must have good familiarity with IT Infrastructure technologies like Storage Area Networks (SAN, WAN acceleration, virtualisation )
  • Must have proven management skills with the ability to mentor staff members
  • Excellent communication and facilitation skills
  • Highly organised /Methodical.
  • Able to work on own initiative.
  • Comfortable working with senior management across the business with the ability to influence others.
  • Able to present technical concepts to a non-technical audience.
  • Prepared to work extended hours and travel to other sites/regions as required

Desirable Skills:-

  • Infrastructure transition to the Cloud
  • Awareness of developments in IT infrastructure
  • Strong customer orientation
  • Exhibits flexibility, initiative and self-reliance, and willingness to act as go to person when it comes to the infrastructure technologies supporting both project and operations
  • Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Strong organisational, time management and prioritisation skills
  • Excellent influencing skills
  • Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interact and communicate effectively across all levels of the organisation

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