IT Team Lead (APAC / Australia)

Role Summary

Work Location in Melbourne. Reporting to the Global IT Director and based in Australia, the IT Team Lead is accountable for the day-to-day delivery of IT services across the APAC region, covering end-user support, infrastructure and security operations for APAC-based users, with support provided globally as required. The role leads a small distributed team - currently one Taiwan-based IT Systems Administrator as a direct report - setting priorities, quality standards and coverage, while remaining hands-on for second- and third-line escalation. The Team Lead is the regional escalation point for major incidents and works with the business and peers within Global IT to develop, agree and maintain structured IT Service Level Agreements (SLAs), including the continued development and increased use of the Global Service Desk system. The role carries no delegated budget or purchasing authority: requirements are specified and recommended by the Team Lead, and approved by the Global IT Director.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Team leadership

• Line-manage one IT Systems Administrator (Taiwan-based): set objectives, hold regular 1:1s, complete performance reviews, approve leave and manage the regional coverage rota.
• Allocate and prioritise the team’s workload across incidents, service requests and project tasks, balancing regional demand against global initiatives.
• Act as first point of escalation for the System Administrator on technical and customer issues, coaching to build capability.
• Onboard, train and develop team members; identify skills gaps and agree development plans with the Global IT Director.
• Maintain effective handover and coverage across the Australia-Taiwan time difference, including documented arrangements for leave, absence and public holidays.

Service delivery and SLA management

• Ensure that service requests and incidents are addressed in a timely manner, adhering to pre-defined SLAs and prioritisation.
• Own the regional service desk queue (ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus): monitor volumes, ageing and breach risk, and take corrective action.
• Provide prompt resolution of fix-for-fail issues raised via the service desk system, escalating within Global IT as and when required.
• Work with the business and IT peers to develop, agree and maintain structured SLAs, and report performance against them to the Global IT Director.
• Drive adoption of the Global Service Desk system across the region, including self-service and knowledge base use.
• Act as regional major incident coordinator: communication, escalation and post-incident review.

Technical delivery (hands-on)

• Maintain, support and secure servers, desktops and laptops across the region.
• Administer Active Directory: user-ID and account creation, and joiner / mover / leaver processing in line with documented process and HR requirements.
• Ensure leavers are processed within the documented timeframe and all access is removed.
• Maintain the Microsoft 365 environment including Teams and licence allocation.
• Administer and maintain switches, routers, firewalls, servers and other network equipment at regional sites.
• Maintain security solutions, in line with global standards.
• Administer hardware and software upgrades, and support backup, recovery and disaster recovery testing for regional systems.
• Maintain an up-to-date asset register for all IT equipment and services including service contracts, ensuring Active Directory hardware records are aligned for the allocated region and locations.

Documentation and continuous improvement

• Create and maintain documentation to provide information for IT incidents and services.
• Review IT documents and procedures with the team to ensure documented information is current and accurate.
• Ensure that defined procedures for setting up IT equipment and users are adhered to, and identify process improvements on an ongoing basis.
• Keep abreast of current technologies and innovations, and recommend where these could improve company performance.

Supplier coordination (no budget authority)

• Manage day-to-day operational relationships with regional suppliers and third-party support partners, holding them to agreed service levels.
• Prepare specifications, obtain quotations and make written recommendations for regional IT spend; approval sits with the Global IT Director.
• Track regional consumption against the global IT plan and flag variances early.
• No authority to commit expenditure, raise purchase orders above locally delegated limits, sign contracts or vary supplier agreements.

Compliance, security and risk

• Support corporate compliance standards to de-risk any potential issues and minimise impact or potential degradation to business operations: finance audits, data protection audits, security and disaster recovery.
• Support to ensure regional handling of personal data meets applicable requirements, including GDPR where EU data is involved, the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles, and Taiwan’s Personal Data Protection Act.
• Ensure privileged changes (Active Directory, firewall, administrative rights) are logged and reviewed; where the Team Lead has made the change, review sits with the Global IT Cyber Security Team

Skills & Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience leading or supervising IT staff - one or more direct reports, or as a technical lead - ideally in a distributed or multi-country team.
• Five or more years’ experience in IT support or infrastructure, including at least one to two years at senior or lead level.
• Good understanding of service desk processes and operations (ideally ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus).
• Working knowledge of the ITIL service management process; certification desirable.
• In-depth knowledge of Microsoft products, with hands-on experience of Windows Server and network administration, Microsoft 365, and backup and recovery applications.
• Experience of maintaining security tooling including firewall, anti-virus / EDR and intrusion detection.
• Experience of all elements of front-line and escalated service desk activity, with the ability to resolve complex functional and technical issues on a daily basis.
• Understanding of general business practices, specifically within a construction, service management or manufacturing environment.
• Business-fluent written and spoken English; additional regional languages an advantage.
• Excellent customer focus and customer service skills, with the ability to present information and respond to questions from users at all levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work to tight deadlines and defined scope.
• Bachelor’s degree (B.A. or B.S.) in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent training and experience.

Operational

• Maintain working relationships within the team and with our suppliers to ensure that all deployed services are supported and maintained effectively and efficiently.
• Ability to read, analyse, apply and improve technical procedures.
• Ability to read and interpret documents such as procedure manuals, business periodicals, professional journals, operating and maintenance instructions and safety rules.
• Connect with the industry at forums and attend conferences relevant to the region.

Scope

• Location: Melbourne, primarily Office based working in line with local policy. Region supported: APAC, with support provided globally as required.
• Direct reports: one (IT Systems Administrator, Taiwan-based). No indirect reports.
• Budget authority: none. No delegated expenditure approval; the role specifies and recommends.
• Service window: Australian business hours as the core window, with APAC time-zone coverage delivered through the team rota. Willingness to flex, to suit business needs for planned out of hours activities
• Travel: Some travel within Australia to our other locations, (Sydney / Newcastle and Perth). occasional travel to globally, and to APAC sites.
• Primary Systems in scope: Microsoft 365, Windows Server, Active Directory, LAN / WAN and network security appliances, the regional endpoint fleet, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, and backup and disaster recovery tooling for regional sites.

Essentials:

• Experience of leading or supervising IT staff, including remote or cross-border team members
• Business-fluent written and spoken English, with additional regional languages an advantage
• International, multi-site service delivery exposure with a high degree of customer focus and communication skill
• Hands-on Microsoft infrastructure and network administration capability at second and third-line level.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• University degree in computing.
• ITIL Foundation (or higher) certification.
• Supplier / partner operational management experience in outsourced / 3rd party support.
• Experience of Citrix, backup and recovery applications, and supporting multi-country compliance and audit activity