Field Service Engineer / Hardware Engineer - SC Cleared

Xcede Limited; Southampton; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Xcede Limited is recruiting an experienced SC Cleared Hardware Engineer to support critical infrastructure onsite at a major customer site in Southampton. The role is a 12-month FTC and requires onsite work five days a week.

This is a practical L2/L3 engineering role focused on diagnosing, repairing and maintaining a diverse estate of enterprise, legacy and bespoke hardware. You will help maintain the reliability and availability of systems essential to operations.

Qualifications

• Active SC clearance.
• Strong L2/L3 hardware repair and maintenance experience.
• Proven break/fix, fault‑finding and diagnostic skills.
• Experience supporting enterprise or legacy infrastructure.
• Experience working within critical, secure or high‑availability environments.

Responsibilities

• Provide onsite L2/L3 hardware support across enterprise and bespoke infrastructure.
• Diagnose, repair, test and maintain servers, storage, tape systems, PCs and peripheral equipment.
• Support IBM mainframes, IBM tape systems and enterprise storage platforms.
• Investigate and resolve complex hardware faults within a critical operational environment.
• Apply electro–mechanical repair, soldering and component‑level fault‑finding skills where required.
• Install, replace, configure and test hardware components.
• Carry out preventative maintenance and help improve equipment reliability.
• Maintain technical documentation, processes and repair records.
• Build strong relationships with customer stakeholders and attend technical meetings.
• Work independently while collaborating with wider engineering and support teams.

Skills

SC clearance

L2/L3 hardware repair

fault‑finding

on-site support

enterprise/legacy infra

communication

Job description

We are recruiting an experienced SC Cleared Hardware Engineer to support critical infrastructure at a major customer site in Southampton.12-month FTC, and this role requires someone onsite 5 days a week.

This is a practical L2/L3 engineering role focused on diagnosing, repairing and maintaining a diverse estate of enterprise, legacy and bespoke hardware. Working from the onsite engineering workshop and across multiple machine rooms, you will help maintain the reliability and availability of systems that are essential to the customer’s operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide onsite L2/L3 hardware support across enterprise and bespoke infrastructure.
• Diagnose, repair, test and maintain servers, storage, tape systems, PCs and peripheral equipment.
• Support IBM mainframes, IBM tape systems and enterprise storage platforms.
• Investigate and resolve complex hardware faults within a critical operational environment.
• Apply electro–mechanical repair, soldering and component‑level fault‑finding skills where required.
• Install, replace, configure and test hardware components.
• Carry out preventative maintenance and help improve equipment reliability.
• Maintain technical documentation, processes and repair records.
• Build strong relationships with customer stakeholders and attend technical meetings.
• Work independently while collaborating with wider engineering and support teams.

Essential Experience

• Active SC clearance.
• Strong L2/L3 hardware repair and maintenance experience.
• Proven break/fix, fault‑finding and diagnostic skills.
• Experience supporting enterprise or legacy infrastructure.
• Knowledge of at least one of the following:
  • IBM mainframes
  • IBM tape systems or tape libraries
  • EMC DASD storage
  • STK or StorageTek DASD storage
• Experience working within critical, secure or high‑availability environments.
• Strong communication and customer‑facing skills.
• Ability to work fully onsite in Southampton.

Desirable Experience

• IBM Mainframes: 9672, 2003, 2066 or 2096.
• IBM Tape Systems: 3490, VTS or 3590.
• IBM pSeries or xSeries servers.
• HP ProLiant servers.
• Dell or Sun server platforms.
• EMC, STK or StorageTek storage.
• PC hardware repair and custom system builds.
• Dot matrix and laser printer support.
• Electro–mechanical repair experience.
• Soldering or component‑level repair skills.
• AIX, HP‑UX or related infrastructure knowledge.

Technology Environment

The estate includes a combination of enterprise, legacy and end‑user equipment:

• IBM mainframes and tape systems
• EMC and STK DASD storage
• IBM pSeries servers
• HP ProLiant servers
• Dell and Sun servers
• Lenovo ThinkStation and IBM PS/2 devices
• Dell, HP, Compaq and Sun PCs
• Custom-built systems
• Dot matrix and laser printers

This opportunity would suit an experienced, security-cleared Hardware Engineer or Field Service Engineer who enjoys hands‑on fault diagnosis and repairing both modern and legacy technology within a highly critical environment.