It Manager

Location: Stoke-on-Trent

IT Manager, Manufacturing, Stoke to £55,000
A leading Engineering and manufacturing outfit are looking for an experienced, practical minded IT Manager to take ownership of their day-to-day technology environment.

This is a broad, hands-on position covering cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365, networking, cyber security, telephony, remote-working technology and technical support. You will be responsible for ensuring that systems remain secure, reliable, well documented and capable of supporting a growing workforce.

Key Responsibilities

IT Operations

* Take day-to-day ownership of the company’s IT systems, infrastructure and technology services.

* Ensure that systems are reliable, secure, appropriately monitored and available to users during operating hours.

* Manage incidents from initial diagnosis through to resolution, including communication with senior stakeholders and third-party suppliers.

* Establish appropriate service levels, escalation procedures and incident-management processes.

* Provide senior-level technical support for complex or business-critical issues.

* Maintain accurate system documentation, asset records, network diagrams, administrator-access records and operating procedures.

* Manage user onboarding, role changes and offboarding, ensuring access is granted and removed securely.

* Identify recurring support issues and implement permanent technical or process improvements.

* Microsoft 365, Cyber Security and Compliance

* Networking, Firewalls and Remote Access

* Telephony and Contact-Centre Technology

* Endpoint and Remote Monitoring

* Suppliers, Projects and Continuous Improvement

Experience and Skills Essential

* Strong practical experience managing a Microsoft-based IT environment.

* Strong experience administering Azure Virtual Desktop and FSLogix.

* Strong Microsoft 365 administration experience, including SharePoint and One Drive.

* Experience managing networks, firewalls, VPNs and secure remote access.

* Experience supporting business telephony platform.

* Experience with remote monitoring and management software.

* Experience supporting Cyber Essentials, penetration testing or similar compliance programmes.

* Strong troubleshooting and root-cause-analysis skills.

* Ability to manage suppliers and resolve escalated technical incidents.

* Strong documentation, communication and organisational skills.

Desirable

* Microsoft certifications.

* Cyber Essentials assessor, CISSP, CISM, CompTIA Security+ or similar security knowledge.

* Experience with Microsoft Intune, Entra , Conditional Access and Microsoft Defender.

* Experience with Power Shell or other automation tools.

* Experience managing IT services for a geographically distributed workforce.

* Experience producing disaster-recovery and business-continuity plans.

* ITIL knowledge or experience working within a structured service-management environment