Director Of IT - St Edward's School, Oxford

Prestigious Role

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The Director of IT reports to the Bursar and is responsible for planning, directing and managing the School’s IT and communications infrastructure as well as managing the work of the IT Services Team to ensure that the School’s IT requirements are fulfilled.

Role Dimensions and Scope for Impact

St. Edward’s realises how important its information and technology systems are to its business and so, over the last few years, has made significant investment in its infrastructure to provide secure and resilient IT and communications services to meet the needs of all users.

The IT Services Team currently consists of eight employees who support over 1,000 users across the 40 buildings that make up the School’s estate. A number of the users are residents in School accommodation. The IT Services Team also supports the School’s Health Centre which operates 24 hours a day in term time and the North Wall Arts Centre.

The School operates a clustered virtualised server environment with over 50 virtual machines hosted across a server farm located in two data centres and supported by a high performance asynchronously replicated storage area network.

The School currently has some 400 client workstations with a move to a more flexible and mobile environment seeing the introduction of over 150 Microsoft Surface Pro and SurfaceBook devices for staff and the implementation of a full BYOD environment for pupils.

Supporting this infrastructure is the School’s network which is HP Procurve/Aruba based and consists of some 80 edge switches with one 10Gbit Connection and one 1Gbit connection to the internet.

The network is segmented by the use of multiple VLANs with traffic routed and managed to provide a stable and resilient service. The School network also employs solutions such as Network Access Control Solutions. Firewalls also protect the infrastructure from external threats.

The School’s primary management information system is iSAMS and its external Parent Portal and other key systems include our virtual learning environment Firefly, Microsoft Sharepoint, SOCS, Evolve, Microsoft 365 and associated applications, and Flow360.

Principal Accountabilities

Core Responsibilities

Managing all resources with the IT Services Team, including staff and budgets.
Being accountable for the management, development and use of all School IT systems
Working with the senior management team to further develop the School’s IT Strategy
Promoting good professional relationships between the IT Services Team and all other School departments.
Providing weekly IT helpdesk statistics to the wider IT team and for inclusion in departmental reports to the IT Steering Group.
To ensure technical compliance and governance across all systems in line with published guidelines and in conjunction with other departments.

Technical Leadership

To maintain the integrity of the School’s network, implementing and maintaining agreed IT security policies, advising upon and monitoring IT related policies and managing IT related projects; ensuring compliance with policy and legal and statutory requirements.
Provide technical advice on IT requirements for all areas of the School, including implementation and operation of appropriate management software to ensure the safe and efficient operation of networking and systems. Ensuring, that data is effectively backed up and recoverable and subject to a regular testing regime.
Maintaining hardware, software and network infrastructure in accordance with the agreed replacement policy.
Ensuring effective antiviral protection for all School networked and standalone systems
Maintaining a central database of hardware and software assets and ensuring compliance with software licensing laws. To support the School’s audio-visual systems.
Monitoring and reporting on Internet, Email and network contraventions in accordance with School policies.
To manage and maintain the department schedule ensuring department availability when required.

Procurement

To manage all department procurement as well as devising and maintaining multiple cost centre budgets.

Projects

To manage with the wider IT Services Team project implementation as required.
To liaise and co-ordinate with other School departments on wider institution projects with a technology implementation component.

Other Duties

To keep up to date with professional knowledge and training and ensure sufficient knowledge of and training in, the School’s systems (network, systems and storage infrastructure and applications) to undertake duties required as part of the on-call emergency rota.
To assist other members of the team during periods of heavy workload or staff absence.

Whilst every effort has been made to explain the main duties and responsibilities of the post, each individual task undertaken may not be specifically identified. You may be therefore required to undertake other tasks and duties that commensurate with the grade and nature of the role and/or in the reasonable discretion of the School.

This job specification is current at the date issued. It will be reviewed from time by the Bursar to ensure that it remains current and the School reserves the right to make reasonable changes.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential Qualities:

GCSE grades 4 to 9 (or equivalent) in English, Maths and ICT.
A relevant qualification in a technology discipline

Desirable Qualities:

Management Qualification

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential Qualities:

Senior management experience of managing IT systems infrastructure and general user applications
Senior management experience of Client systems configuration and printer support
Senior management experience of Client and printer hardware and support
Senior management experience of MS Office 365 and Windows10 or later operation systems
Senior management experience of Active Directory, both on Premise and Azure
Senior management experience of SCCM
Senior Management experience of leading a multi skillset team
Senior Management experience of managing and leading projects

Skills

Essential Qualities:

Good spoken and written English, including the ability to convey technical issues to non-technical colleagues
Excellent problem solving and organisational skills with the ability to prioritise tasks
Management of large system transformations
CRM/MIS Management & Development
Server, network, switching and wireless systems design and management
Data security and backup strategy design and implementation
Database management and security
Managed print services
Managing mobile devices, wireless networks and telephony systems
Site security and CCTV systems
Configuration of web services
Implementation and configuration of Apple hardware
Experience of managing budgets and budgetary control
Excellent administrative and organisational skills
Proven strong people management experience

Experience

Essential Qualities:

Previous experience of working in a similar role

Desirable Qualities:

Experience of working in an educational setting

Personal Attributes

Essential Qualities:

Commitment to safeguarding children and young people
Commitment to continuous professional development
Willingness to commit to the School’s aims and values
Commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and understanding how this applies to the role
An organised, methodical and professional approach and a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
A willingness to learn and adapting technologies, to perform to the best of one’s ability and to be committed to continual professional development within the team
Integrity and honesty and the ability to maintain confidentiality

Confidentiality and Data Protection

In the course of their employment, staff may have access to confidential information relating to pupils and their families and are required to exercise due consideration in the way they use such information. Staff should not act in any way which might be prejudicial to the School’s interest. Information which may be included in the category covers both the general business of the School and information regarding specific individuals. A strict code of confidentiality must be adhered to at all times. The School is registered under the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Staff must not at any time use data held by the School for personal use or disclose such data to a third person/party.

Child Protection at St Edward’s

St Edward’s is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and we aim to create and maintain a safe environment for our pupils, where they feel respected and supported. We expect all staff to share this commitment and to become familiar with our policies and procedures for child protection and security. It is a requirement of the Children Act and Care Standards Regulations that all employees of the School must receive enhanced clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Health and Safety

The School is obliged, so far as is reasonably practicable to provide safe and healthy conditions and safe systems of work for all employees which prevent risk to health, safety and welfare. You are required by health and safety legislation to take reasonable care for your own health and safety and for the health and safety of others. Employees must not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety and welfare in pursuance of any of the statutory provisions.

Hours of Work

A flexible attitude is required regarding hours of work to meet the demands of the position. Basic hours are:

• 08.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday during term including an unpaid lunch break

• 09.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday outside of term time including an unpaid lunch break

In addition, the post holder will be included in the on-call rota providing out of hours remote or onsite support in emergencies. They will also be required to provide remote or on-site support for the publication of GCSE and A-Level results both on the release and pre-release days from 6am.