View Vacancy -- Infrastructure Support Analyst LMS 2679

Open Date
01/08/2025, 09:00
Close Date
14/09/2025, 23:55
MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences

The LMS is a world-class research laboratory where scientists and clinicians collaborate to advance the understanding of biology and its application to medicine. Funded by the MRC as part of UK Research and Innovation, the LMS has a collaborative working culture and new state-of-the-art building based in the heart of West London in the Hammersmith Hospital Campus (W12).

The LMS aims to deliver transdisciplinary team science, in synergistic interaction with Imperial College and the wider national research environment. Part of achieving this, is to recruit new talent and support postdoctoral scientists to become world leaders in their area of science.

UK Research and Innovation is a new entity that brings together nine partners to create an independent organisation with a strong voice for research and innovation, more information can be found at www.ukri.org

MRC - 4
London
£40,832 - £45,589 plus London Allowance £5,385 per annum
Permanent
Technical & Scientific Professionals
Full Time

Overview:

The MRC’s Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) is a scientific institute with a unique computing environment using Windows, Linux and Macs. Supporting world class scientific research, the post-holder will be part of a team that delivers ICT services that enable pioneering science to take place.

  • Be part of a team that delivers ICT services that support world class scientific research and enables ground-breaking science to take place
  • Support and work within a small team of IT colleagues in the LMS’s Computing Facility
  • Based at the LMS at Hammersmith Hospital, the role collaborates closely with Imperial College London (ICL) and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; stakeholders in the work that takes place at the LMS
  • Work within the Cyber Essentials, ITIL and PRINCE2 principles particularly to support change management; planning and implementing changes to the IT infrastructure, leading and assisting projects and providing support to the team
  • Assist and support the Head of IT in the delivery and improvements of all IT Services
  • Maintain the core infrastructure; HPC, network, storage and server infrastructure
  • Support client devices; desktops, laptops tablets and smartphones
  • Adhere to legislative and MRC ICT security policies
  • To use a professional helpdesk solution for all operational work, task prioritisation, handling support requests and incidents

Main Duties:

Supporting and working in a small multiskilled team dealing with range of tasks supporting day-to-day IT activities, and working on projects associated with IT infrastructure including:

  • Demonstrate an in-depth expertise in 1st - 3rd line support across multiple hardware and operating system stacks and providing ownership in specialist areas when necessary and resolve Helpdesk tickets within agreed SLAs
  • Contribute to the IT strategy, plans, policies, processes and infrastructure and strategic debate
  • Identify technical solutions for continuous improvement and to assist in the review of proposed IT infrastructure changes and their implementation
  • Resolve incidents and requests reported to the IT Support Desk and deal with escalations
  • Support and enhance the server, desktop and network estate to ensure maximum practical availability and efficiency
  • Focus on customer satisfaction providing professional, efficient and effective service
  • Balance the needs of clinical and research staff and their equipment and the associated computational infrastructure
  • Complete project tasks to agreed timescales, quality and risk
  • Detail IT processes and infrastructure within agreed timescales
  • Continue personal development and training across all IT infrastructure and services and keeping abreast of latest developments, particularly the areas of in-depth expertise
  • Support teams and encourage inter-team working with stakeholders and colleagues
  • Coach and mentor team members through sharing of knowledge and experience
  • Be a point of reference and lead in specialist areas and assist in the day-to-day activities of the IT Support Analyst’s
  • Support the Head of IT as Information Security Officer covering ICT security and MRC security policy
  • Have current knowledge of IT industry developments & standards
  • Undertake any duties and tasks as required and agreed with the Head of IT

Team Activities:

  • Support inter-team working with stakeholders and colleagues
  • Desire to understand and ability to balance the needs of clinical and research staff and their equipment and the associated computational infrastructure
  • Support sharing of knowledge and experience
  • Be up to date on current knowledge of IT industry developments & standards
  • Contribute to team debate through the Head of IT, supporting the review of proposed IT infrastructure changes and their implementation
  • Reviewing and implementing MRC IT security policies
  • Any duties and tasks as required and agreed with the Head of IT

Key Responsibilities:

  • 1st- 3rd line IT support across the entire IT estate, with main focus on IT infrastructure 3rd line duties
  • Managing, creating, triaging and responding to IT requests to agreed SAL timelines via the IT ticketing system, IT helpdesk email and occasionally over the phone
  • Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops and laptop management
  • Windows and Linux infrastructure server deployment and management
  • File sharing management using CIFS, SAMBA and NFS
  • VMWare Virtualisation technologies management and maintenance
  • Network infrastructure management and maintenance including; CISCO network administration, security and monitoring of the LAN and WAN connectivity including configuration and monitoring of switches, routers and wireless access points
  • Large scale data storage (NetApp, ISILON, Dell) solution management including NAS, direct-attached and backup storage platforms
  • Security including administration and monitoring of firewall, remote access solutions, anti-virus and various encryption methods
  • Installing new operating systems, updates and releases, specifically for Linux, Windows and Mac
  • Follow me printing infrastructure management
  • Racking, fibre optic and Cat5/6A cable patching
  • HPC clusters configuration and administration
  • Contribution to the response to cyber security incidents, detection, mitigation and recovery
  • Ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of all data used by applications across information systems
  • Make sure that the processes needed for applications to function are running smoothly
  • Providing instructions and training to staff when necessary
  • Analysing error trends aimed at reducing/minimising down time
  • Backup solution management and maintenance
  • Preparing and maintaining documentation of all systems and databases and applications linked to them
  • Contributing to projects to agreed timescales, quality and risk with the support of the Head of IT

Working Relationships:

  • The post-holder will report to the Head of IT and be responsible for performing all tasks and projects allocated by the Head of IT
  • The post-holder will work with all LMS research and administrative staff in their IT support and project activities as well as ICL and NHS Trust stakeholders
  • The post-holder will work as part of a team with the other IT Support Analysts and other IT team members.  They will occasionally work with Imperial College IT staff for IT Imperial for shared infrastructure and cyber issues or queries
  • The Head of IT will oversee the allocation of tasks across the team, when necessary assessing prioritisation over the team and reassigning duties where appropriate

Education / Qualifications / Training required (will be assessed from application form):

Essential:

  • Degree level qualification in Computing/related field or equivalent professional experience
  • ITIL v4 Foundation or equivalent professional experience
  • Formal Linux training/Member of Linux Professional Inst or equivalent professional experience
  • Formal Windows training/Member of Windows Professional Inst of equivalent professional experience

Desirable:

  • Formal training in networking (CCNA) and/or storage technologies (NetApp, EMC) or equivalent professional experience
  • PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent project management experience

Knowledge and experience (will be assessed from application form and at interview):

Essential:

  • Experience of working in and supporting an IT Support Helpdesk
  • Expertise of file sharing and authentication within a mixed Linux & Windows environment e.g. PAM, NIS, NFS, SAMBA, LDAP
  • In depth understanding and experience of Virtualised infrastructure i.e VMWare ESXi
  • Advanced management and architecting a range of storage technologies and the advanced management of network infrastructure, firewalls and backup technologies
  • Expert in handling Linux, Windows and Mac server and desktop OS including shell scripting in a mixed computing environment
  • Device management software experience and expertise, specifically Jamf and ManageEngine
  • Experience in running HPC clusters
  • Experience with backup technologies
  • Direct and hands-on experience of server racking, fibre optic and Cat5/6 cabling and patching
  • Knowledge and support of ICT security matters
  • Excellent written communication skills with a good command of the English Language

Desirable:

  • Experience in resolving customer complaints and conflict resolution
  • Knowledge of Cyber Essentials standard
  • Supporting IT projects using project management techniques             
  • Experience of optimisation of applications such as R, Matlab, Nagios, SLURM, Open Stack, Cuda, Sigmaplot, Exceed, Graphpad, Cognos, Shiny Apps, Docker, experience of shell scripting

 

Personal skills / Behaviours / Qualities (will be assessed at interview):

Essential:

  • Excellent verbal communication skills in English
  • Plans, multi-tasks & prioritises own time effectively and efficiently to achieve results and to switch between tasks quickly staying in control of problematic situations 
  • Able to organise and prioritise resources to ensure short- and long-term targets are met        
  • Be highly motivated, flexible and innovative in their approach to work    
  • Capable of working under pressure
  • Ensures appropriate engagement of colleagues with relevant stakeholders and issues   
  • Able to self-motivate when working independently, as well as part of a team
  • Able to develop and encourage cross-boundary working relationships            
  • Values diversity and demonstrates respect for other team members
  • Contribute positively to IT and cross-functional teams and shares knowledge and skills

Desirable:

  • Experience of contributing to team debate to help identify future opportunities and team development
  • Displays ability to build appropriate networks and manage a range of stakeholder interests      

Please upload your CV, the names and contacts of two references, along with a cover letter stating why you are applying for this post (showing evidence against the requirements as per the Job Description and Person Specification). Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

Please quote reference number LMS 2679.

Please note that applications may be reviewed by both LMS and Imperial staff

The MRC is a unique working environment where scientific researchers and professional support staff can actively partake in world class innovation and collaboration opportunities and their skills and knowledge through accessing a wide catalogue of  training & development, including professional registration with the Science Council.

In addition, MRC (part of UKRI) provides its community of employees access to a whole host of useful benefits, including a defined benefit pension scheme and excellent holiday entitlement (30 days plus 2.5 privilege days & 8 bank holidays), family friendly policies (6 months full pay maternity & adoption leave),  a range of shopping/travel discounts, access to our Employee Assistant Programme Scheme, Health and Wellbeing Support and a salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme.  Please follow this link to find out more - Benefits

Our success is dependent upon our ability to embrace diversity and draw on the skills, understanding and experience of all our people. We warmly invite people from diverse backgrounds and heritage, including people who identify as having a disability, to apply for a role that excites them.   As "Disability Confident" employers, any candidate who opts into the scheme and best meets the essential criteria, will be shortlisted for interview. 

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider whether this conflicts with your personal values or beliefs.

We will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as an essential part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.  The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

This opportunity is closed to applications.