IT Technician

Hopwood Hall College; Middleton; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

Hopwood Hall College in Middleton is seeking a dynamic IT Technician to join the IT Services Team. The role involves 1st/2nd line support for staff and students, hands-on IT service delivery, and contributing to large IT capital projects.

A major focus will be the Windows 11 upgrade across Rochdale and Middleton campuses, ensuring reliable access to learning and business systems. The successful candidate will have experience in IT support within a virtualised environment, familiarity with

Qualifications

• Educated to a minimum of a Level 3 qualification.
• Experience in a large virtualised environment with Microsoft servers and Windows clients is essential.

Responsibilities

• Provide 1st/2nd line technical support for networked hardware and software.
• Support IT services delivery and assist with capital projects, including Windows 11 upgrade.
• Maintain system availability and backups; assist in disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
• Collaborate with the IT Services team to meet department objectives and service levels.

Education

Level 3 qualification

Tools

Microsoft Windows Server

Virtualised environment

Active Directory

Group Policy

Backup and disaster recovery

Microsoft 365 / Office 365

Job description

Application Deadline

17 November 2026

Department

IT Services

Location

Middleton

Compensation

£31,265 - £34,132 / year

Description

We are seeking a dynamic, energetic and knowledgeable IT Technician to join our IT Services Team. The ideal candidate will demonstrate good working knowledge of various IT disciplines and will have a passion for IT and supporting others. The role entails Helpdesk and in-person support to College stakeholders across the breadth of the IT Service offer. This is a hands‑on role which is varied and includes supporting large IT capital projects and ensuring stakeholders have access to functioning IT, resolving IT incidents (software and hardware) and supporting staff in their everyday IT use, in order to promote an excellent standard of IT for both teaching and learning and business support functions. A key focus of this position will be assisting the College's IT Services team with a major upgrade project to Windows 11 across both Rochdale and Middleton Campuses. Experience in an IT Support and/or an IT Service Delivery role is essential.

Description

We are seeking a dynamic, energetic and knowledgeable IT Technician to join our IT Services Team. The ideal candidate will demonstrate good working knowledge of various IT disciplines and will have a passion for IT and supporting others. The role entails Helpdesk and in-person support to College stakeholders across the breadth of the IT Service offer. This is a hands‑on role which is varied and includes supporting large IT capital projects and ensuring stakeholders have access to functioning IT, resolving IT incidents (software and hardware) and supporting staff in their everyday IT use, in order to promote an excellent standard of IT for both teaching and learning and business support functions. A key focus of this position will be assisting the College's IT Services team with a major upgrade project to Windows 11 across both Rochdale and Middleton Campuses. Experience in an IT Support and/or an IT Service Delivery role is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• To provide 1st / 2nd line technical support for all network connected hardware and software including:
• Supporting an infrastructure including: VDI, Desktop PC / Thin Clients, Backups, Wi‑Fi, Switches, Routers, Firewalls, Servers and other IT peripherals.
• Deliver an outstanding IT service that is highly customer focused, responding to requests for support in line with department service level agreement.
• To continually improve through self‑development; researching existing and new technologies to ensure current and future provision meets the needs of the College.
• Provide a consistent and highly responsive customer centered service to all College IT users, and manage the timely execution of customer requests, taking a systematic approach to achieving department standards and targets.
• Maintain effective communication with customers ensuring their needs are fully understood and they are kept informed of progress when completing tasks.
• Work as a team to provide support to colleagues in IT services and the wider college community, to carry out department objectives and work plans, in particular when providing cover, planning network improvements, maintenance, upgrades and capital projects, in and out of term time.
• Strong commitment to maintaining business continuity and implementing capital projects.
• Under the direction of the Head of IT, maintain network availability to all system users and perform all necessary maintenance.
• Install, configure, and support College IT hardware and software. Manage the hardware and software environment to ensure 24 * 7 *365 availability to both Staff and Students.
• Perform daily management of the College backups and file archives stored on the network to assist with disaster recovery and business continuity.
• Assist in maintaining the operating system and security software utilised on the network, including the addition of new users to the network and establishment of rights and privileges.
• Manage the change control process following College guidelines to minimise downtime to end users.
• Strong and regular commitment to CPD and maintaining up to date technical knowledge and expertise, to effectively deliver the role and meet department and organisational objectives.
• Any other duties of a similar level of responsibility as may be required.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Qualifications

Essential Criteria

Educated to a minimum of a Level 3 qualification.

How Identified: Application

Desirable Criteria

Professional IT related qualification i.e. Cisco, Microsoft, ITIL or PRINCE2

How Identified: Application

Experience

Essential Criteria

Minimum of 1 years providing 1st / 2nd line support in a large virtualised environment using Microsoft Servers and Windows clients.

How Identified: Application

Specialist Knowledge

Essential Criteria

• Large, complex virtual server infrastructure
• Large, complex virtual desktop infrastructure
• Enterprise server & storage (SAN) Solutions
• Backup and disaster management solutions
• Microsoft server infrastructure: - E.g. Active directory, Group policy, re-directed documents
• Microsoft Cloud: Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Teams
• Local and wireless network switching, patching and cabling
• OS support including Windows desktops / Microsoft Office

How Identified: Application/ interview

Desirable Criteria

• Virtual Server Environment
• Virtual Desktop Environment
• Thin client deployment
• Network Storage Solutions
• Enterprise Firewall solutions
• Microsoft server infrastructure: - Forefront Identity Manager, SCCM
• Cisco LAN switching and programming/DNS/IPv4 and v6, PoE, etc.
• Wireless Technology
• IP Telephony

How Identified: Application