Job Description

About CATS Global Schools

CATS Global Schools is a leading education group committed to inspiring the next generation of world shapers. With a history dating back to 1899, but a focus on the future, our group brings together 16 institutions comprising independent boarding schools, an Arts school, English language schools and a variety of summer programmes in the UK, US, Canada and China. Each year, we provide 18,000 students around the globe with the education they need to develop real-life skills for the future. We are dedicated to academic excellence and our students benefit from our well-developed links to over 40 top global universities. We create a positive learning environment where every student is empowered to make a contribution to shape their world. This is made possible because of the commitment of our


pioneering, persevering people who do the very best for our students.

OVERVIEW OF THE JOB

Working as part of a small Infrastructure and Applications team, this hands-on role whereby the primary objective of this role is to design, implement, deliver, document and support a resilient, secure, well managed and highly available IT infrastructure and applications environment to meet the business needs. Primarily located in Cambridge, this role will support the IT service, its underlying infrastructure & our users located across multiple sites in the UK, along with locations in

the Far East, Europe and the USA. Therefore, some international travel may be required although it will be minimal.





Periodic out of hours working and provision of remote support will also be required to meet the needs of a rapidly growing international organisation spread across multiple time zones.

REPORTS TO

You will be directly responsible to the Group Head of IT Delivery.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technology and Service Management

Implement & support the Group's IT infrastructure, including servers & desktops, storage, firewalls, networks, WANs, virtual hosts, data centres and external hosting environments

Complete regular IT operations such as backups, proactive monitoring, patching and other reactive/proactive support and maintenance tasks necessary to ensure stability, security and performance of the infrastructure

Service planning, including capacity, security, high availability, disaster recovery, upgrades and migrations

Implement major service changes if necessary out of normal working hours.

Ensure systems documentation (including build, administration, support, recovery, rebuild, problem solving and diagnostic documentation). Is maintained to the highest standard

Ensure the digital security and safety of staff, students, systems and data at all times

Technical architecture and design activities for all infrastructure and business systems within specific areas of expertise, including resilience, redundancy, security, scalability, performance, administration and documentation

Management of external suppliers, including production of specifications, escalations, BAU and supervision of the implementation

Ensure CATS Colleges' systems and environment are managed to the highest demands of industry best practice



Service Support

Provide escalation support to less senior IT staff and CATS Colleges users

Monitor, prioritise and resolve support calls and service requests escalated by other IT staff, liaising directly with users as required

Provide Out of hours support (if necessary) on a routine rota basis, to cover non- UK time zones and users

Provide out of hours emergency response (possibly at short notice) in the event of emergency responses to system outages



Project Activities

Provide technical support, design, delivery, implementation and support to CATS Colleges' IT projects, to tight deadlines and specified quality criteria

Support the specification and implementation of new systems and services; including new applications, new/upgraded hardware and software, system upgrades and rollouts and (on occasion) complete Greenfield implementations as the business expands to new locations

Work in partnership with Project teams composed of users and IT staff from various sites and teams to deliver successful projects to time and budget targets



Technical Leadership and Strategic functions

Work closely with the Group Head of IT Delivery on all technical queries for CATS Colleges

Foster excellence and technical capability and information dissemination within the appropriate technology group

Train and mentor BAU IT staff to improve their technical capabilities

Disseminate expertise in the specific technology area and the affected CATS Colleges

Actively contribute to the Group's IT strategy

Through research, training, seminar attendance and other means maintain a future perspective on changes within the appropriate technology areas. Contribute to future planning of future IT recommendations



Essential:

Excellent understanding of Windows Server to 2019 and current Microsoft client platforms Virtualisation (Hyper-V, including clustering) Strong understanding of Active Directory best practices, Group Policy configuration and optimisation Cloud services: especially Azure and Office 365 (Specifically Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, licensing, account management) Good PowerShell Scripting knowledge Strong understanding of network principals and troubleshooting skills: eg, TCP/IP, IP addressing & subnetting, routing, Wi-Fi Microsoft services: Failover clustering, RdWeb, Network Policy Server, ADFS, DNS, DHCP, WAP, WSUS, NLB, VPN
Desirable

Understanding of SQL Server configuration principals, backups, maintenance, database structures, AlwaysOn and SQL query. Exposure to Microsoft Dynamics 2016 Operational Monitoring applications

Hardware:

Servers: Dell, HP Storage: NAS: Nimble, Dell Firewalls: Fortigate Networking: Cisco, HP, Aruba, Fortinet Wi-Fi: Meru, Fortinet, Meraki, Unify

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Ability to consult and communicate effectively with both written and verbal skills

Excellent people skills

Pragmatic and flexible in approach

Attention to detail

Honest, open and inclusive personal style

Professional, mentally resilient and calm under pressure

Takes ownership

Looks for a solution

Goes the extra mile

Follows-up & follows through

'Can-do' Attitude

BENEFITS

Cycle to work Scheme

Tech Scheme


Car Scheme

Free flu vaccine through Healthshield


Free eye tests


Financial wellbeing support via WageStream

Employee Assistance Programme

Group income protection


GP24: GP Access for all


Health Cash Plan

Death in Service

Long service awards

Employee referral scheme


Enhanced Maternity and Paternity pay

OUR COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

We are committed to diversity, inclusion and belonging. Building on our core values Pioneering, Persevering, People We pledge to deliver a series of events, guest speakers and focus groups to make CATS Global Schools and employer of choice for all.

SAFEGUARDING

CGS is dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and well-being of children and young people. As such, appointment is subject to the satisfactory completion of safer recruitment employment checks in line with KCSIE guidelines. This will include satisfactory references, enhanced DBS from the Disclosures and Barring Service and, where applicable, any international equivalent being obtained. Shortlisted candidates will be subject to online checks which may include social media.


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