IT Engineering and Support Lead

ATS Client; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Commission & bonus opportunities

Annual leave + buy more

Wellbeing days + reward program

Office attendance 3 days/week

Job summary

Dotdigital seeks a senior IT automation lead to elevate the IT support team in Cape Town, guiding engineers and a back-office team. You will implement automation, self-service, and tooling improvements to reduce tickets while enabling more complex work.

You will design and deliver projects (MDM rollouts, migrations) and mentor staff. Candidates should speak API interfaces (Entra, Graph, ZenDesk) and work well in a remote-first, globally distributed setup.

Qualifications

• Experience leading an IT or helpdesk team, coaching and escalation management.
• Track record of reducing ticket volume through automation and self-service.
• Strong scripting skills and ability to talk to APIs (Entra, Graph, ZenDesk).
• Experience delivering engineering projects (MDM rollouts, tooling migrations).
• Comfortable working in a global, remote-first environment and across time zones.

Responsibilities

• Lead the IT support team, provide coaching, escalation point, and shift coverage.
• Identify and reduce ticket volume via self-service, onboarding automation, and policy hardening.
• Own automation pipeline from problem to solution using PowerShell, Python, Bash.
• Deliver discrete engineering projects and guide cross-functional stakeholders.

Skills

Team leadership

Automation & scripting

API integration

Project delivery

Mentoring

Tools

ZenDesk

PowerShell

Python

Bash

Entra ID

Active Directory

Azure

M365

Intune

Cisco Meraki

Job description

About the role

Dotdigital has a smart, capable IT team -- we want to keep it that way. This role is about making that team more powerful: automating the repetitive so that the humans on the team are freed up for the complex, interesting work. We believe in excellent human support for the hard problems (and you'll be a part of providing that support), but we don't think humans should be spending their days on password resets.

You'll be a senior technical voice in the team - managing experienced helpdesk engineers and working alongside a small back office team, reporting into the Head of IT. Your job is to raise the floor of what the whole team can do, through better tooling, automation of repetitive tasks, and a culture of continuous improvement.

What you'll own

• Team leadership: day‑to‑day coaching of our support team, being the escalation point, shift coverage, rota management. The team needs an experienced manager.
• Ticket volume reduction: identify the top contributors to helpdesk load and systematically close them: self‑service portals, better onboarding automation, Intune policy hardening, runbook coverage. We expect a measurable decline in per‑capita ticket rate within 12 months.
• Automation and scripting: own the pipeline from “this keeps coming up” to “this no longer needs a human touch.” The goal isn’t fewer people; it’s people working on harder things. PowerShell, Python, Bash, or whatever gets it done. Familiarity with APIs (Entra, Graph, ZenDesk) is essential.
• Project delivery: take on discrete engineering projects (MDM rollouts, major tooling migrations) and help see them through.

What good looks like

• You've reduced a team's ticket volume before, and you can describe exactly how.
• You're comfortable writing scripts that talk to APIs – Entra/Graph, ZenDesk, Intune, or similar – not just running them.
• You've led a team before, and know when to mentor vs when to just fix the thing.
• You can scope a project, communicate a timeline, and deliver it without hand‑holding.
• You've worked in a global, remote‑first environment and can support colleagues across time zones without burning yourself out.

What you'll work with

• Identity: Entra ID, Active Directory
• MDM: Intune
• Collaboration: M365, Zoom, Dropbox
• Ticketing: ZenDesk
• Scripting: PowerShell
• Hardware stack: mostly Dell today, moving towards Mac
• Cloud: Azure
• Backoffice: Cisco, Meraki

What else

• Working hours are 9‑5:30 or 10‑6:30 depending on daylight saving. Occasional out‑of‑hours work may be required.
• The team is in a period of growth and change – there's real scope to influence how things are done. Ambiguity is part of the job.
• Cape Town office attendance 3 days/week is required.

Some of Our Global Benefits

• Commission & bonus opportunities
• Annual leave that increases with service + option to buy more
• Additional paid wellbeing days + annual wellbeing reward
• Christmas office shutdown (extra time off)
• Enhanced parental leave & family support policies
• Employee recognition & reward schemes
• Referral bonuses & long‑service rewards