The University of Salford

IT Manager at University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education

Managing a team of Technology Support Officers, providing IT and AV support to staff and students on the Holyrood Campus of The University of Edinburgh. As part of the wider Holyrood Digital Services team, we provide technology support for all elements of teaching, learning and research in both Moray House School of Education & Sport, The Centre for Open Learning and, since August 2022, The School of Divinity.

University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education

IT Manager

Managing a team of Technology Support Officers, providing IT and AV support to staff and students on the Holyrood Campus of The University of Edinburgh.  As part of the wider Holyrood Digital Services team, we provide technology support for all elements of teaching, learning and research in both Moray House School of Education & Sport, and The Centre for Open Learning.

University of Edinburgh Centre for Open Learning

Senior Technology Support Officer

A temporary fixed term contract with The University, working remotely from home in the Scottish Borders, primarily assisting with clearing helpdesk case backlog.

Data Centre Officer (3 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Following a lifestyle change relocation to the Scottish Borders.

Job Seeking

Line managed a small team of administrators, along with helpdesk case workload using ITIL for the wider IT operations team, ensuring correct prioritisation and meeting SLAs, reporting on team performance against targets, writing and implementing case quality standards. I was the role model for stack management in IT Services. I have been heavily involved in Change Management.

Acted as a liaison point between the helpdesk and the operations teams, translating technical information into a form that could be understood by all. Requiring a calm and collected attitude providing re-assurance while allowing staff to concentrate on resolving the issue.

Managed physical assets in the University datacentres, ensuring facilities are maintained appropriately. Implementing process changes to improve efficiency and reliability. Responsible for strategic management and SME for the centralised backup system (NetBackup). Liaising with project teams, I instilled in Project Managers the importance of including backup and recovery processes in their plans.

Managed the IT side of the print infrastructure and central print room. Involving regular liaison with The Library service manager, providing advice and technical support.

Responsible for provisioning personal and shared filestore using EMC VNX and Isilon NAS systems, including capacity management. I successfully negotiated, planned and executed increases to, and reorganisations of data to maximise space available to staff and students.  

Performed technical support for Windows, VMWare, Exchange, etc.  Undertaking fault finding, root cause analysis and defining processes and procedures to prevent future occurrences.

Through liaison with University Governance around privacy, data protection and GDPR elements of IT services, I have gained a solid understanding of these concepts. I was also closely involved with disaster recovery & business continuity planning and execution.

In October 2018 we relocated to the Scottish Borders

Data Centre Officer (Team Manager)

Line managed a small team of administrators, along with helpdesk case workload using ITIL for the wider IT operations team, ensuring correct prioritisation and meeting SLAs, reporting on team performance against targets.

Managing the IT elements of the central printing infrastructure, reducing print costs by migrating the University from individual desktop printers to a core fleet of multi-function devices, and providing refreshes and upgrades to the service as necessary.

Responsible for provisioning personal and shared filestore using Xiotech Magnitude, HP EVA, and EMC VNX SAN & NAS systems, including capacity management. Successfully planning and executing the first SAN based infrastructure at the University.  

I performed technical support for Windows, VMWare, Exchange, etc.  Undertaking fault finding, root cause analysis and defining processes and procedures to prevent future occurrences.  This role was also performed with the University Novell infrastructure until its decommissioning.

Member of University Senate, including sitting on Disciplinary Appeals Committee, chairing on a number of occasions.

Co-ordinated departmental social team, planning and running events both on and off campus.
Health & Safety representative, identifying and addressing H&S issues within the department.

Computer/Platform Officer (Including Team Management)

Assisting the Network Manager and Computer Officers with the administration and management of the University's Novell NetWare infrastructure, as well as the central University print management system.

Alex McKay