Senior IT Support Specialist

Senior IT Support Specialist University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn''s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning.

As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America''s Best Large Employers in 2023. Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities.

With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

• The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Summary Working within the Libraries'' Client Services unit, the Senior IT Support Specialist coordinates support in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center and assists with a portfolio of campus departmental libraries. This role focuses on ensuring positive customer support experiences for staff and patrons, building strong collaborative relationships with colleagues to support library services, planning and executing complex IT projects, and managing systems and services to ensure maximum availability and security.

This position provides 2nd Tier support for Windows and Mac computer hardware, mobile devices, emerging technologies including 3D printers, scanners, and VR/XR equipment, software, and networking issues. The Senior IT Support Specialist is expected to proactively identify ongoing problems and trends, assessing, addressing, or escalating as appropriate, routinely liaise with department leadership, ensuring that technical services meet evolving needs, write and maintain documentation for non-technical end-users and internal use, and assist with ensuring IT security, privacy of user data, and enforcement of acceptable use and other technology policies.

The Senior IT Support Specialist is expected to be able to work independently but will frequently work as part of a team of IT professionals. As part of a systems administration group, this role works with the IT Systems Manager in managing endpoint management platforms including Active Directory, Big Fix, Jamf, and Crowd Strike as well as email and collaboration services used throughout the Libraries.

Additional areas of focus include testing and deploying software and OS updates, deploying new systems and services, generating reports and analyzing trends, and participating in campus-wide projects and teams. The successful candidate will stay current on new technology and trends, work effectively with people of varying levels of technical expertise including subject matter experts, be able to communicate effectively in person and in writing, and exercise independent judgment to determine how best to meet customer needs.

• Coordinate IT Support for the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center while ensuring positive customer support experiences.
• Provide 2nd Tier support services to 1st Tier support and general staff, monitor the ticketing system, lead response efforts during major incidents, and maintain internal documentation.
• Administer servers, server-based applications, and services.
• Work with Library system administrators to manage Active Directory users, computers, and group policies used to manage hundreds of Windows computers throughout all libraries.
• Plan and execute complex IT projects.
• Work independently with leadership within departments to plan new services and upgrades to existing services.
• Research technical options, develop project plans, coordinate and execute work, identify key metrics, and document work.
• Act as a primary administrator for endpoint management applications including Jamf, Big Fix, and Crowd Strike, used to deploy, update, and secure library hardware systems.

• Bachelor''s degree and 2-3 years of experience supporting a variety of computing systems and software or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 2+ years of experience providing support for a variety of desktop operating systems, including Windows and macOS, mobile operating systems, and