Senior Collaboration Engineer ITS

Senior Collaboration Engineer (ITS)

Information Technology Services University of Southern California

Shape How USC Collaborates

The University of Southern California's Information Technology Services organization is seeking a Senior Collaboration Engineer to support the enterprise collaboration platforms that connect USC's academic and administrative communities.

This is a hands-on senior systems engineering role in a small, highly collaborative team that partners with local IT teams, ITS technical staff, Cybersecurity, vendors, and stakeholders across USC. The ideal candidate brings strong collaboration platform administration experience, particularly with Microsoft 365, along with sound technical judgment, a customer-service mindset, and the ability to work independently in a remote, self-directed team environment.

About the Team

The Collaboration Technologies team supports a broad portfolio of tools and services used across USC, working closely with schools, administrative units, local IT teams, the Service Desk, Cybersecurity, and other ITS teams to resolve escalated issues, improve services, and help departments use collaboration tools effectively.

This is a small team where accountability, clear communication, and customer service matter. Team members are expected to monitor service queues, take ownership of work and contribute to a team culture built on trust and shared knowledge.

Key Responsibilities

In this role, you will:

• Integrate and support a broad range of collaboration tools and services to optimize customer and stakeholder productivity across USC. Work with customers, vendors, and stakeholders in academic and administrative units, and share subject-matter expertise with co-workers and management.
• Set strategies and establish priorities and department-university alignment for collaboration projects and tasks. Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of existing tools, make recommendations for improvement, and proactively experiment with new or updated products. Engage with customers to gather feedback, identify opportunities for improvement.
• Apply industry knowledge and best practices to support innovation and continuous improvement. Analyze complex and/or conflicting data to identify root causes and develop effective troubleshooting protocols. Create and maintain knowledge base articles, tutorials, and training resources.
• Aid the cultivation of a welcoming environment and a culture of trust and transparency, sharing information broadly, openly, and deliberately. Build and maintain collaborative relationships with team members, peers, and leaders. Actively embody ITS values and behaviors, including accountability, ethics, and best-in-class customer service.
• Collaborate with team members and management to implement effective solutions that support Collaboration Technologies' vision. Maintain currency with existing, developing, and disruptive collaboration technologies, standards, and best practices. Support process improvement efforts within the team and across the ITS organization.

What We're Looking For

The strongest candidates will bring a blend of technical depth, customer service, communication, and practical systems administration experience. This role is best suited for someone who enjoys hands-on operational work, can manage competing priorities, and is comfortable working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Successful candidates will be self-motivated, collaborative, solutions-focused, and able to work independently while knowing when to ask for help or involve the broader team.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.
• 5 years of experience.
• Combined experience/education as substitute for minimum education.
• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and troubleshooting various collaboration software applications, (e.g., Office 365, Google Suite, Confluence, JIRA, Dropbox, Qualtrics, and/or other similar tools).
• Experience with Active Directory, LDAP, DNS, email routing, and/or other similar system tools.
• Demonstrated ability to create and maintain technical documentation, establish documentation standards and influence adoption, and use automation tools (Power Shell, Unix shell, APIs, etc.).
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to translate large quantities of complex input into actionable outcomes and present ideas and solutions in non-technical, business-friendly terms.
• Exemplary interpersonal skills, developing positive working relationships and strong rapport with a multifaceted community of team members and stakeholders.
• Excellent organizational skills with proven ability to set priorities and manage multiple projects at once, based on importance, urgency, and alignment to the university's strategic objectives.
• Ability to enforce alignment with activities to pertinent service level agreements, policies, procedures, regulations, and other requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8 years of experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Information…