Jobs.hscni.net

Breandan is a Technical Support Engineer working in the Business services Organisation Information Technology Services (BSO ITS) in Belfast. We've asked Brendan to talk to us about his role.

Hi Breandan, Can you tell us how about your job and what you do from day to day

As a Technical Support Engineer within BSO ITS, I am responsible for maintaining and developing the virtual infrastructure that BSO provides as a managed service to its stakeholders. I am responsible for the upkeep of servers and applications through proactive and, where necessary, reactive measures. I work with various customers and suppliers to develop and troubleshoot issues with their applications.

As a support engineer I’m responsible for developing tasks, policies and procedures for support services. These lead to improved service delivery as well as better management of service requests and incidents.

The team may be tasked to develop a solution for a new application. Projects such as this involves collaborative work across teams at ITS as well as dealing with external stakeholders and suppliers.

How long have you been in your current role?

I have been in my current role for over two years, but have worked for BSO ITS for in excess of three years.

What experience/education is required in order to preform this role?

A support engineer will have a strong technical background in Windows Server technologies. They will have knowledge of networking and security fundamentals. You need a methodical and logical approach to troubleshooting. Ideally this is combined with excellent communication skills to compile documentation and keep stakeholders and suppliers/vendors well informed.

The role is situated within a large team, so being able to work effectively both as part of it as well as independently is crucial to achieve the service delivery BSO ITS offers. The team uses the ITIL framework for problem management and Prince 2 methodology for project management so having qualifications or a working knowledge of these would be beneficial.

What is the biggest challenge in your role?

The sheer number of applications and systems we have to support. This would include not only the infrastructure they operate from (and all the technical elements associated with those environments) but the wide range of stakeholders involved with those systems and the varying degrees of technical skill they would possess.

What advice would you give to others looking for a job in your field?

Support Engineers should have a broad base of experience in, for example, virtualization, Windows Server, and Windows Server application technologies such as SQL and Exchange. They should have an understanding of ITIL approach to delivery of the service lifecycle and be able to follow Prince 2 project framework. Both the support and project aspect of the role will see you interact with customers and suppliers of differing technical abilities, who you need to be able to communicate with and influence effectively.

In this role you should be able work on your own, but also contribute effectively as part of a team.

What do you like best about your role and working in HSC?

My role within BSO has given me a wealth of experience in not only providing service delivery and support to end users, but also to large scale projects. The exposure to server technologies and project management allow you see all aspects of a project development life cycle. I myself have contributed to some of the largest health care IT projects in Northern Ireland, as well as undertaking my own projects which would meet the needs of BSO customers and Health & Social Care Trusts.

I feel that these are experiences that few other places could offer.