IT Solutions Engineer - Basingstoke area
Department: Technical Operations
Employment Type: Permanent
Location: Basingstoke
Compensation: £40,000 - £45,000 / year
Description
IT Solutions Engineer
Location: Home-based in the Basingstoke area, with 3-4 days a week visiting customers
Salary: Up to £45,000
Focus Group is a £300m-revenue, 1,500-person technology services company backed by Hg Capital. Following our $1bn valuation in 2024, we're scaling rapidly and investing in AI (artificial intelligence) to transform how we operate and how we serve our 30,000 SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) customers.
As we continue to expand our portfolio and grow through acquisition, we're committed to setting new industry standards in managed service excellence. We want to redefine what world-class technical support means in today's fast-moving technology landscape.
As a Solutions Engineer, you'll be the go-to technical expert for our valued customers and for colleagues across the business. You'll support and install ICT (information and communications technology) solutions for companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. You'll work from home and spend 3-4 days a week on site with valued customers across the Surrey/Berkshire/Hampshire area. You'll be a subject matter expert in at least one specialist area, and you'll lead projects within it.
Key Responsibilities
- Give valued customers a high-quality experience when installing or maintaining their ICT solutions, either on site or remotely.
- Act as the escalation point for your area of expertise, taking on complex faults and escalations.
- Work regularly with project management teams, 3rd Line Engineers (our most senior technical support engineers) and Service Desk Agents.
- Lead the delivery of small, medium and large projects as part of a team, and support other engineers on the more complex ones, including projects that bring together several technologies.
- Join valued customer calls to talk through technical needs, scoping (agreeing what a project will cover) and design.
- Carry out and document site surveys and audits, and record valued customers’ IT (information technology) infrastructure to a high standard.
- Design best-practice solutions that meet valued customers’ needs, and document them clearly.
- Work closely with our account management and service teams, as well as colleagues, managers and vendors, to deliver what each project needs.
- Lead best practice in your specialist area, including training, documentation, our knowledge base and keeping up with industry changes.
- Mentor and advise colleagues, offering technical leadership.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
Essential
- Previous experience in an IT support or delivery role.
- Demonstrable subject matter expert-level experience in at least one of these areas:
- Networking: VLANs (virtual local area networks, which split a network into separate sections), routing, wireless, Ekahau (wireless survey software), Meraki, SonicWall, Cisco and Aruba.
- Server and storage: Windows Server, storage, Hyper-V, VMware, Microsoft 365 and Azure (Microsoft’s cloud platform).
- Cloud: Microsoft 365, Azure, Intune (Microsoft’s tool for managing devices) and SharePoint.
- Specialist or expert knowledge in one technology or service above, plus a good general technical understanding.
- The confidence to design solutions within your area of expertise.
- Excellent troubleshooting skills.
- A strong desire to grow your technical knowledge and customer service skills.
- Flexibility to adjust your working hours or stay overnight on some larger projects.
- A full, valid UK driving licence.
- Curiosity and creativity when finding technical solutions.
- Technical leadership: you share knowledge and inspire others.
- The ability to lead medium-sized projects and technically complex challenges, and to be accountable for the results.
- Strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to influence people inside and outside the business.
Desirable
- Previous experience in an IT managed service environment.
- Relevant vendor or industry qualifications (Microsoft, Meraki, SonicWall, Aruba or Cisco).
- An active Microsoft certification, such as MS-101, MS-100, AZ-104 or AZ-140.
Internal Job Level Reference: Specialist Team Leader
Benefits
- Holiday Allowance - 24 days + bank holidays + birthday leave.
- Hybrid working options - performance depending.
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
- Paid volunteering day * regular charity events.
- Wider company benefits across health, financial wellbeing, Pension etc.