Infrastructure Specialist

Great Places Housing Association; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A housing association in Manchester is seeking an Infrastructure Network Specialist responsible for monitoring and improving IT systems. This role demands strong technical skills in networking and cloud services, with a focus on delivering new infrastructure projects. Candidates should have a degree or equivalent experience, along with relevant certifications and a commitment to continuous improvement. The position offers a competitive salary, flexible working, and various employee benefits.

Benefits

Pension DC scheme

Healthcare scheme

Annual leave increasing over time

Discount programs

Flexible working

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of networking including DNS and DHCP.
• Experience with Cloud services and ITIL framework.
• Professional certifications such as CCNA or AZ-104.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and administer cloud-based systems like Azure.
• Drive continuous improvements in infrastructure performance.
• Assist in the development of disaster recovery plans.

Skills

Network troubleshooting

Azure Services

Network Security

PowerShell

Wireshark

Education

Degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Cisco

FortiGate

CrowdStrike

Mimecast

Veeam

Job description

As our Infrastructure (Network) Specialist you will be responsible for monitoring maintaining and improving IT systems within Great Places Housing Group. Working as part of the Infrastructure team the role will require strong technical skills with a focus on networks to enable the delivery of new infrastructure projects alongside proven diagnostic skills to enable prompt investigation and resolution of any system issues.

What you’ll be doing

• Help drive continuous system improvements across the infrastructure space including continuously improve performance and the delivery of SD-WAN ZTNA networking Teams Telephony and network design and topology.
• Day to day monitoring and administration Cloud based systems such as Azure and Office 365 Intune as well some on premises virtualisation.
• Take ownership of any system issues escalated from the service desk. Help mentor service desk colleagues and document solutions to help improve responses across the support function.
• Work with the internal teams external partners and the project management team to deliver new applications and system projects.
• Work with colleagues engineers and consultants to resolve complex on going technical issues and provide input into root cause analysis reports as requested.
• Assist with the development and implementation of disaster recovery (DR) plans including testing and documentation of the network infrastructure.
• Familiarise yourself with GPHG systems and structure to proactively develop system improvements resiliency and work withing GPHGs security framework to deliver security improvement and mitigation.
• Contribute and develop GPHGs cloud first strategy working towards the delivery of all key business functions via cloud services.

What you’ll need

• Strong Understanding and experience of networking including DNS DHCP Network Switches (Cisco preferred) Firewalls (FortiGate preferred) and WAN connectivity using VPNs SD-WAN Meraki and ZTNA remote access solutions such as Netskope private access
• Understanding and experience of Azure Services such as Virtual Machines VNETs / subnets Route Tables Virtual network gateways WAF Application load balancers NDRs and PaaS services.
• Understanding of Network Security particularly in regards to preventing lateral movement
• A strong diagnostic mindset and the ability to work within the ITL framework.
• Experience of the following or similar CrowdStrike Netskope Mimecast Veeam
• Strong diagnostic skills from basic IT principals using tools such as PowerShell and Wireshark.
• A strong security mindset ensuring any delivered solution is fully remediated.
• Professional certifications such as CCNA AZ-700 AZ-104 or relevant experience

What we need from you

• Educated to degree level or equivalent or work experience demonstrating graduate level ability.
• Driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• A commitment to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in the communities in which we work. We particularly value lived experience in social housing
• A passion to advocate on behalf of people and communities
• Commitment to work in partnership with others for the benefit of Great Places
• A commitment to continuous learning and improvement
• Ability to work flexibly and when needed outside normal working hours to ensure service continuity

What we give you in return for your hard work and commitment

• Pension DC scheme (up to 10% contribution from both colleagues and Great Places)
• WPA Healthcare scheme starts at no contribution level with 1250 of savings available per year (option to increase & add family members)
• Ways of Working We offer some hybrid and flexible working
• Annual leave Start at 26 days annual leave increasing up to 30 days within 5 years Bank Holidays
• Reward & Recognition You Count Rewards are individual rewards for going above & beyond
• Professional fees The business pays the cost of one professional role related membership fee for each colleague
• The Market Place high street restaurant & supermarket discounts gym memberships cycle to work smart tech loans and much more
• Wage Stream You can access savings opportunities and early access to wages
• Health and Wellbeing Initiatives Our colleagues enjoy wellbeing campaigns throughout the year with activities designed around our four pillars of wellbeing these include career wellbeing mental wellbeing physical wellbeing and financial wellbeing

At Great Places we believe the wellbeing of our colleagues is vital to enable them to deliver to great services all your benefits can be used inside and outside of work.

The Company

Great Places Housing Group exists to improve the lives of the people living in our 25000 homes across the North West and Yorkshire. We are much more than just a landlord providing a wide-range of services and promoting partnership work to create vibrant sustainable communities.

You can find details of our story our vision and our values here .

At Great Places we are committed to using inclusive hiring embracing diversity and difference we enrich our teams with varied perspectives drive and innovation to create an environment in which everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from people of all identities backgrounds and cultures and are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone can be their authentic self; building a workforce that truly reflects the diverse communities we serve.

We want to create a recruitment process that allows you to perform at your best! Should you need any support or information throughout the process please reach out to our recruitment team at .

Benefits Summary

• Flexible working
• Smarttech loans
• Pension DC Scheme (up to 10% contribution from both colleague and Great Places)
• WPA Healthcare auto enrolled at no contribution level with 1250 of savings available- option to increase & add on family members
• The Market Place high street restaurant & supermarket discounts gym memberships cycle to work smart tech loans and much more
• Annual Leave Start at 26 days annual leave increasing up to 30 days within 5 years Bank Holidays
• Reward & Recognition You Count Rewards are individual rewards for going above & beyond
• Help with transport We offer season ticket loans an affordable way to purchase season tickets for public transport at discounted rates .

For more information about our benefits and rewards visitour careers page .

Employment Information

Employment Type : Full-Time

Experience : years

Vacancy : 1

Yearly Salary Salary : 35001 - 50000

Required Experience : IC

Key Skills : Disaster Recovery,Active Directory,Production Environment,OS,Windows,AIX,Asset Management,ITIL,Linux,Perl,Java,Business Units,Uat,UNIX,Architecture