Microsoft Engineer

Forfusion Ltd; Manchester, Cheltenham, Greater London; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Forfusion Ltd is seeking a DV-cleared Microsoft Support Engineer to provide day-to-day support and operational management of Microsoft server, identity, and application services within a managed service environment.

Based on-site in Manchester, Cheltenham or London, you will resolve incidents, monitor systems, apply patches and support change, release and governance activities alongside senior engineers and customer teams.

Qualifications

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills required.
• Excellent attention to detail and written/verbal communication.
• Ability to work independently within a secure operational environment.

Responsibilities

• Investigate, diagnose and resolve incidents affecting authentication, federation and device registration services.
• Support service requests, MACDs and operational change activities.
• Participate in major incident management and technical escalation activities.
• Maintain operational documentation, support procedures and knowledge articles.
• Ensure adherence to agreed service levels and operational processes.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Troubleshooting

Attention to detail

Written and verbal communication

Independence

Customer-focused

Pressure handling

Continual improvement

Tools

PowerShell scripting

SQL Server administration

Job description

We are looking for a DV cleared (or happy to be DV cleared) Microsoft Support Engineer to provide day-to-day support and operational management of Microsoft server, identity, and application services within a managed service environment. You will be responsible for incident resolution, monitoring, maintenance, patching, service requests, and operational changes across a range of Microsoft technologies.

Location: Manchester, Cheltenham or London Full Time On Site

Working within established processes and procedures, you will act as an escalation point for Service Desk teams and collaborate with senior engineers, vendors and customer technical teams to maintain service availability and performance.

Key Responsibilities

Service Operations

• Investigate, diagnose and resolve incidents affecting authentication, federation and device registration services.
• Support service requests, MACDs and operational change activities.
• Participate in major incident management and technical escalation activities.
• Maintain operational documentation, support procedures and knowledge articles.
• Ensure adherence to agreed service levels and operational processes.

Monitoring & Platform Health

• Monitor service availability, health and performance across all solution components.
• Analyse event logs, audit logs, performance counters and telemetry to identify service degradation.
• Proactively identify trends, capacity concerns and potential service risks.
• Support root cause analysis and problem management activities.
• Maintain monitoring thresholds and alerting configurations.

Microsoft Identity Services Administration

• Administer Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).
• Manage Device Registration Services (DRS) and device identity lifecycle.
• Support OAuth, OpenID Connect and claims-based authentication services.
• Maintain claims issuance policies and federation configurations.
• Resolve authentication, certificate and trust relationship issues.
• Support onboarding of new relying parties and federation integrations.

Security, Patching & Vulnerability Management

• Implement monthly Microsoft security updates and platform maintenance activities.
• Assess vulnerabilities and coordinate remediation activities.
• Support security hardening in accordance with Zero Trust principles.
• Manage certificate lifecycle activities including renewal and replacement.
• Participate in security reviews, audits and compliance activities.

Change & Release Management

• Prepare technical implementation plans and backout procedures.
• Execute approved changes in accordance with CAB processes.
• Perform testing and validation of platform changes.
• Support release management and service transition activities.
• Contribute to continual service improvement initiatives.

Service Improvement & Governance

• Participate in monthly and quarterly service reviews.
• Provide technical recommendations to improve reliability, resilience and security.
• Produce operational reports and service metrics.
• Support risk identification and mitigation activities.
• Work collaboratively with customer stakeholders, Microsoft SMEs and Forfusion service management teams.

Technical Skills & Experience

• Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).
• Windows Server administration (2016/2019/2022).
• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).
• Device Registration Services (DRS).
• Web Application Proxy (WAP).
• Load balancers.
• Certificate Services, PKI and certificate lifecycle management.
• SQL Server administration and troubleshooting.
• PowerShell scripting and automation.
• Enterprise monitoring and event log analysis.
• ITIL-aligned service management processes.
• Incident, Problem and Change Management.
• Zero Trust architecture experience.
• High assurance or government environments.
• Microsoft Identity and Access Management solutions.
• SQL Always-On Availability Groups.
• Security vulnerability management.
• SIEM and log management platforms.
• Understanding of secure, federated identity architectures.

Personal Attributes

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently within a secure operational environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Customer-focused approach to service delivery.
• Ability to perform under pressure during major incidents.
• Commitment to continual improvement and knowledge sharing.

Security & Clearance Requirements

• Applicants must hold current Developed Vetting (DV) clearance (or be happy to undergo clearance).
• Ability to work within secure government and defence environments.

Why This Role?

• Work on genuinely critical systems where your contribution matters
• Develop deep expertise in Cisco enterprise and security platforms
• Be part of a team focused on modern lifecycle delivery, not just reactive support
• Operate in a high-trust, high-impact environment