Research Support Officer

Salary range: £42,159 - £47,071 per annum plus London Allowance £5,560 per annum. Permanent | Full time | Location: Hammersmith, London. Closing date: 30 June 2026.

Overview

The MRC’s Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) is a scientific institute with a unique computing environment using Windows, Mac and Linux. In supporting world‑class scientific research, the post‑holder will contribute to an IT team responsible for delivering services that underpin pioneering scientific research.

Key Responsibilities

• IT infrastructure focused (3rd line) duties including maintaining and delivering solutions and support to the core IT infrastructure consisting of network, firewalls, storage, HPC, and physical/virtual servers.
• Assist and support the Head of IT in the delivery and improvements of all IT Services.
• Contribute to a team that delivers IT services supporting world‑class scientific research and enabling breakthrough discoveries.
• Support client devices ranging from desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets.
• Support a wide range of operating systems such as Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Work within the Cyber Essentials, ITIL and PRINCE2 principles particularly to support change management; planning and implementing changes to the IT infrastructure, leading and assisting projects and providing support to the team.
• Adhere to and promote legislative and LMS IT policies.
• Utilise a professional helpdesk solution for all operational work, task prioritisation, handling support requests and incidents.

Main Duties

• Supporting and working in a small multiskilled team dealing with a range of tasks supporting day‑to‑day IT activities, and working on projects associated with IT infrastructure.
• Provide expert 3rd line IT support across a broad range of hardware platforms and operating systems, taking ownership of specialist technical areas as required and ensuring Helpdesk tickets are resolved within agreed SLAs.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of IT strategy, infrastructure, projects, policies, and operational processes.
• Identify technical solutions for continuous improvement and to assist in the review of proposed IT infrastructure changes and their implementation.
• Undertake tasks and projects required and agreed with the Head of IT.
• Support IT team members by providing support at 2nd line when required and encourage inter‑team working with stakeholders and colleagues.
• Resolve incidents and requests reported to the IT Support Desk and deal with escalations.
• Support and enhance the server, desktop and network estate to ensure maximum practical availability and efficiency.
• Deliver a professional, responsive, and customer‑focused IT service ensuring high levels of efficient service.
• Balance the needs of clinical and research staff and their equipment and the associated computational infrastructure.
• Successfully deliver projects to agreed deadlines with a strong focus on quality and risk control.
• Actively develop skills and knowledge across IT infrastructure and services, staying informed of the latest innovations and best practices particularly within areas of deep technical expertise.
• Coach and mentor team members through sharing of knowledge and experience.
• Be a point of reference and lead in specialist areas and assist in the day‑to‑day activities of the IT Support Analyst’s.
• Maintain IT security standards and ensure compliance with relevant security policies and requirements.
• Have current knowledge of IT industry developments & standards including IT security.

Team Activities

• Foster effective collaboration across teams, working closely with stakeholders and colleagues.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of, and ability to balance, the requirements of clinical and research staff, their equipment and the supporting computational infrastructure.
• Promote the sharing of knowledge, expertise, and best practices across the IT team.
• Maintain awareness of current IT developments, emerging technologies, and relevant standards.
• Contribute to technical discussions and decision‑making through the Head of IT, supporting the evaluation, planning and implementation of proposed IT infrastructure changes.
• Review, support, and implement IT security policies in line with LMS requirements.
• Undertake additional duties and responsibilities as required and agreed with the Head of IT.

Working Relationships

The role reports directly to the Head of IT and involves carrying out all assigned tasks and projects as allocated by the Head of IT. They will work as part of the LMS IT Support team and, on occasion, liaise with Imperial College IT personnel regarding specific shared resources and cyber matters. The post‑holder will collaborate with LMS research and administrative staff to provide IT support and contribute to project‑related activities. Task allocation across the IT team will be managed by the Head of IT, who will assess priorities and reassign responsibilities as needed.

Education and Qualifications

Essential

• Degree level qualification in Computing/related field or equivalent professional experience.
• ITIL v4 Foundation or equivalent professional experience.
• Formal Windows training/Member of Windows Professional Inst. of equivalent professional experience.
• Formal Linux training/Member of Linux Professional Inst. or equivalent professional experience.
• Formal VMWare training/Member of VMWare Professional Inst. or equivalent professional experience.

Desirable

• Formal training in networking (CISCO CCNA).
• Formal training in storage technologies (NetApp, EMC) or equivalent professional experience.
• PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent project management experience.

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Expertise and experience of working in and supporting an IT Support Helpdesk at a 3rd line and infrastructure level.
• In-depth understanding and experience of managing Virtualised infrastructure i.e VMWare.
• Expertise and advanced management of IT network infrastructure and switch management (CISCO).
• Ability to manage and implement projects effectively and efficiently with minimal supervision, a finite pool of resource, and against deadlines.
• Hands‑on experience of server racking, and patching of fibre optic and Cat5/6 cabling.
• Expertise and in managing and configuring network firewalls.
• Expertise and in‑depth knowledge Windows, Linux, and Mac desktop environments and the use and administration of device management solutions, specifically JAMF and ManageEngine.
• In depth expertise with Windows Server stack and Linux server environments including shell scripting within mixed‑platform systems.
• Advanced capability in designing and managing a variety of storage technologies, with strong expertise in file sharing and authentication across Windows, macOS, and Linux environments (e.g. NFS, SAMBA, LDAP).
• Experience with administering and maintaining backup technology solutions.
• Experience in managing and maintaining HPC clusters and queuing systems (i.e SLURM).
• A high level of awareness of security matters in IT.
• Excellent written communication skills with a good command of the English Language.

Desirable

• Experience in resolving customer complaints and conflict resolution.
• Knowledge of Cyber Essentials standard.
• Experience of optimisation of applications such as R, Matlab, Nagios, SLURM, Docker, Cognos, Open Stack, Cuda, Sigmaplot, Graphpad, Shiny Apps.

Personal Skills, Behaviours and Qualities

Essential

• Excellent verbal communication skills in English.
• Effectively plans, multitasks, and prioritises workload to achieve results, adapting quickly while maintaining control in challenging situations.
• Able to organise and prioritise resources to ensure short‑ and long‑term targets are met.
• Be highly motivated, flexible and innovative in their approach to work.
• Capable of remaining productive and focused when working under pressure.
• Ensures appropriate engagement of colleagues with relevant stakeholders and issues.
• Able to self‑motivate when working independently, on projects, and collaboratively within a team.
• Able to develop and encourage cross‑boundary working relationships.
• Values diversity and demonstrates respect for other team members.
• Contribute positively to IT and cross‑functional teams and shares knowledge and skills.

Desirable

• Experience of contributing to team debate to help identify future opportunities and team development.
• Displays ability to build appropriate networks and manage a range of stakeholder interests.