Technical Support Advisor 3rd Line in Birmingham

Technical Support Advisor 3rd Line

Department: Service Operations

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Birmingham

Compensation: £30,000 - £40,000 / year

Description

3rd Line Support Engineer – Azure & Microsoft Technologies

Location: Birmingham

Salary: £30,000 - £40,000

Hours: 37.5 hours per week over 5 days, on a rota basis. Our desk runs from 7am to 7pm, so early and late shifts are shared across the team.

(Internal Job Level Reference: Specialist / Team Leader)

Focus Group is a £300m-revenue, 1,500-person technology services company backed by Hg Capital. Following our $1bn valuation in 2024, we’re scaling rapidly and investing in AI (artificial intelligence) to transform how we operate and how we serve our 30,000 SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) customers. As we continue to expand our portfolio and grow through acquisition, we’re committed to setting new industry standards in managed service excellence. We want to redefine what world-class technical support means.

We’re looking for a 3rd Line Support Engineer to join our dedicated service desk in Birmingham. 3rd Line is the most senior technical support level on the desk. It’s a hands-on specialist role, built around complex Microsoft 365 and Azure problems. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. You’ll own your own caseload from start to finish, and you’ll also be the go-to technical expert for our 2nd Line engineers (the team who pick up issues that are more involved than first-line support). You’ll support the Team Leader on cases that need deeper platform knowledge but don’t need to go to our wider specialist teams.

You’ll work closely with our valued customers’ internal IT teams, our 2nd Line engineers, our Project Transition team and Microsoft support where needed. We want someone who brings sound technical judgement to platform design and problem solving, not someone who just works through a checklist.

The desk is open from 7am to 7pm. You’ll work 37.5 hours a week across 5 days, with early and late shifts allocated on a rota.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage your own caseload of complex Microsoft 365 and Azure incidents and requests, working through them in priority order and to a proper technical conclusion
• Take ownership of complex cases escalated from 2nd Line and see them through to resolution
• Act as an internal technical escalation point on the desk, supporting the Team Leader on cases that need deeper platform knowledge
• Diagnose and resolve complex Azure infrastructure issues, including virtual networking, virtual machines (VMs), storage, backup and connections between on-premises systems and Azure
• Resolve complex identity issues across Active Directory (Microsoft’s system for managing users and access), Entra ID (Microsoft’s cloud identity service, previously called Azure AD), hybrid identity using AD Connect, Conditional Access and multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Handle complex Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Teams issues that need more platform knowledge than 2nd Line diagnostics can provide
• Design and implement changes across the Microsoft 365 and Azure estate, following Focus Group’s Change Management process
• Use PowerShell (Microsoft’s scripting language) and other tools to automate diagnostics, fixes and repetitive admin tasks
• Raise and manage cases with Microsoft support where a fix needs vendor involvement
• Investigate the root cause of recurring or high-impact issues and complete Problem Management investigations, finding a permanent fix rather than a workaround
• Work with our Project Transition team to hand over new tenant configurations, migrations and Azure deployments into business as usual (BAU) support
• Mentor and guide 2nd Line engineers, sharing what you learn from resolving complex cases
• Follow and help improve the company’s quality system and technical processes

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Essential

• Deep, demonstrable experience administering Azure infrastructure in a live, production environment, including virtual networking, VMs, storage and backup
• Advanced Microsoft 365 administration experience across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams and Intune (Microsoft’s tool for managing devices and apps)
• Strong working knowledge of Entra ID, hybrid identity and Conditional Access
• Practical PowerShell scripting experience for Microsoft 365 and Azure administration, and the confidence to write and adapt scripts to fix issues at scale
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate, or equivalent demonstrable experience
• A confident engineer-to-engineer communicator who is credible with our valued customers’ internal IT teams
• The ability to explain complex technical detail clearly to both technical and non-technical people
• An analytical, inquisitive and tenacious approach, with the determination to explore an issue fully rather than settle for a quick workaround
• Accountability for your own workload, managing outcomes and updates on complex cases with minimal oversight

Desirable

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Experience with Microsoft security tools such as Defender, Sentinel or Purview
• Experience with Power Automate or Logic Apps for workflow automation
• Exposure to Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery or Veeam for Azure
• ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Foundation certification or Problem Management experience
• Experience supporting Windows Server and on-premises infrastructure alongside Azure

Benefits

• Holiday Allowance - 24 days + bank holidays + birthday leave.
• Hybrid working options - performance depending.
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
• Paid volunteering day * regular charity events.
• Wider company benefits across health, financial wellbeing, Pension etc.

#J-18808-Ljbffr