Principal Service Desk Analyst

Methods Business and Digital Technology Limited

Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.

Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet.

We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.

Predominantly focused on the public-sector, Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio.

Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022.

Requirements

This is a senior, hands-on technical position requiring strong experience across Microsoft cloud, infrastructure, identity, endpoint management and networking technologies.

The successful candidate will be expected to take ownership of complex 3rd-line incidents, troubleshoot issues through to root cause, implement technical changes within production environments, and act as a technical escalation point for other engineers.

Applicants must have demonstrable hands-on experience across the majority of the technologies listed within the Essential Requirements. Experience limited primarily to 1st/2nd-line support, basic user administration, hardware support or escalating complex technical issues to other teams will not meet the requirements of this position.

Requirements

Essential Requirements

• Microsoft 365: Strong hands-on administration and troubleshooting experience across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Microsoft Entra ID.
• Microsoft Azure: Strong hands-on administration and troubleshooting experience across Azure services, including Virtual Machines, storage, networking, identity and access management.
• Microsoft Entra ID: Strong knowledge of identity and authentication, including Conditional Access, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), authentication methods, user and group management, and troubleshooting complex identity and sign-in issues.
• Microsoft Intune: Hands-on experience managing endpoints through Intune, including device enrolment, configuration profiles, compliance policies, application deployment and troubleshooting device configuration and compliance issues.
• Windows Server: Strong administration and troubleshooting experience across Windows Server environments, including Active Directory Domain Services, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP and file/print services.
• Azure Monitor: Experience configuring, administering and troubleshooting Azure Monitor, including alerts, action groups, Log Analytics workspaces and monitoring queries.
• Networking: Strong practical understanding of networking technologies and troubleshooting, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, routing, NAT and VPN technologies.
• Azure Networking: Hands-on experience administering and troubleshooting Azure networking components, including Virtual Networks, subnets, Network Security Groups (NSGs), Route Tables and Azure Firewall.
• PowerShell: Ability to write, understand, modify and troubleshoot PowerShell scripts for administration, troubleshooting and automation. Candidates should be comfortable using PowerShell as an administration tool rather than solely executing pre-existing scripts.
• Advanced Troubleshooting: Proven ability to methodically investigate, diagnose and resolve complex infrastructure, networking, identity, endpoint and cloud issues through to root cause.
• Hybrid Infrastructure: Experience supporting environments incorporating both traditional on-premises infrastructure and Microsoft cloud services, including troubleshooting issues that span multiple technologies.
• 3rd Line Engineering Experience: Proven experience working within a 3rd Line, Infrastructure, Systems or Cloud Engineering role, taking ownership of escalated technical incidents from initial investigation through to resolution.
• Technical Ownership: Ability to independently investigate unfamiliar or complex technical problems using diagnostic tools, logs, monitoring platforms and vendor documentation rather than relying solely on established support procedures.
• Production Change: Experience planning and implementing technical changes within production environments, including impact and risk assessment, testing, implementation, validation and rollback planning.
• Technical Escalation: Ability to operate as a senior technical escalation point for 1st and 2nd-line engineers and take ownership of incidents where standard troubleshooting processes have been exhausted.
• Mentoring and Knowledge Sharing: Ability to mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, share expertise and contribute towards improving the technical capability of the wider support team.
• Technical Documentation: Ability to produce clear and accurate technical documentation, including implementation documentation, troubleshooting guides, support procedures, knowledge articles and technical handover documentation.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical information clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Customer Service: Demonstrable experience delivering a high standard of customer service while managing technically complex incidents, priorities and customer expectations.
• Workload Management: Ability to manage multiple technical incidents and priorities independently while working effectively as part of a wider technical team.
• Continuous Development: Demonstrable commitment to continuous professional development and maintaining knowledge of evolving Microsoft cloud, infrastructure, security and networking technologies.

Desirable Requirements

Experience in one or more of the following areas would be advantageous.

Microsoft Azure and Cloud

• Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD): Administration, configuration and troubleshooting experience.
• Azure App Service: Experience administering and troubleshooting Azure-hosted applications and associated services.
• Azure Key Vault: Experience administering Key Vaults, secrets, certificates and access permissions.
• Microsoft Global Secure Access: Experience configuring, administering and troubleshooting Global Secure Access.
• Infrastructure as Code: Experience using Bicep and/or Terraform for the deployment and management of Azure infrastructure.
• Azure DevOps: Experience using Azure DevOps, including repositories, pipelines and infrastructure deployment.

Microsoft Identity and Security

• Azure Enterprise Applications: Experience in administering new app registrations, enterprise apps, client secrets and certificates and Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Certificate Management: Experience administering and troubleshooting certificates, including certificate deployment, renewal, expiry and certificate-related authentication issues.
• Microsoft Defender XDR: Experience administering Microsoft Defender technologies and investigating security alerts and incidents.

Networking

• Advanced Networking: Strong knowledge of routing, NAT, site-to-site VPNs, remote-access VPNs, firewall technologies and complex network troubleshooting.
• Cisco ASA: Administration and troubleshooting experience.
• Cisco Meraki: Administration and troubleshooting experience across Meraki networking technologies.
• Ubiquiti UniFi: Administration and troubleshooting experience across UniFi networking technologies.

Infrastructure and Virtualisation

• VMware: Administration and troubleshooting experience within VMware virtualised environments.
• Microsoft Hyper-V: Administration and troubleshooting experience within Hyper-V environments.

Operating Systems and Data

• Linux: Administration and troubleshooting experience within Linux server environments.
• SQL: Working knowledge of SQL and experience investigating or troubleshooting database-related issues.

Service Management and Professional Development

• ITIL: Knowledge of ITIL principles and experience working within structured Incident, Problem, Change and Service Management processes.
• Microsoft Certifications: Relevant Microsoft certifications across Azure, Microsoft 365, Security, Identity or Endpoint Management.

Benefits

Methods is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.

By joining us you can expect:

· Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience

· Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society

· Strong, inspiring, and thought-provoking leadership

· A supportive and collaborative environment

As well as this we offer:

Development - access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme, and training

Wellness - 24/7 confidential employee assistance programme

Flexible Working - including home working and part time

Social - office parties, breakfast Tuesdays, monthly pizza Thursdays, Thirsty Thursdays, and commitment to charitable causes

Time Off - 25 days of annual leave a year, plus bank holidays, with the option to buy 5 extra days each year

Volunteering - 2 paid days per year to volunteer in our local communities or within a charity organisation

Pension - Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution

Life Assurance - of 4 times base salary

Private Medical Insurance - which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)

Worldwide Travel Insurance - which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)

Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay

Travel - season ticket loan, cycle to work scheme

For a full list of benefits please visit our website (www.methods.co.uk/careers/benefits)