LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE & TROPICAL MEDICINE
IT SERVICES
Applications & Solutions Support Officer (Technical)
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is Britain's national school of public health and a
leading postgraduate institution worldwide for research and postgraduate education in global health.
Part of the University of London, the London School is the largest institution of its kind in Europe with a
remarkable depth and breadth of expertise encompassing many disciplines. The School was ranked one
of the top 3 research institutions in the country in the Times Higher Education’s 'table of excellence',
which is based on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), ahead of the London School of
Economics, Oxford, Imperial and University College, London. The institution also achieved the largest
increase in ranking compared with 2001 of any of the top 10 institutions in the RAE rankings. In 2009,
the School became the first UK institution to win the Gates Award for Global Health.
The School’s environment is a rich multicultural one: there are almost 4000 students from 100+ countries
following 22 taught masters courses delivered either in London (~650) or through distance learning
(~2700), and undertaking research degree training (~400). Over 40% of these students are from nonEuropean countries. The largest growth has been in distance learning students (>40% over 3 years),
though the London-based student population (where accommodation limits growth) is at its highest level
ever. Alumni are working in more than 180 countries. The School has about 1300 staff drawn from over
60 nationalities.
There are research collaborations with over 100 countries throughout the world, utilizing our critical mass
of multidisciplinary expertise which includes clinicians, epidemiologists, statisticians, social scientists,
molecular biologists and immunologists. At any one time around 80 School staff are based overseas,
particularly in Africa and Asia. We have a strong commitment to partnership with institutions in low and
middle income countries to support the development of teaching and research capacity.
The School has expanded greatly in recent years. Its research funding now exceeds £48 m per annum,
much of it from highly competitive national and international sources. The distance learning programme
which was launched in 1998 now caters for over 2000 students studying on four masters programmes.
The commitment of staff to methodological rigour, innovative thinking and policy relevance will ensure
that the School continues to occupy a leadership position in national and global health, adapting quickly
to new challenges and opportunities.
Mission
The School's mission is to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of
excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public
health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas.
IT Services and the Network Infrastructure
IT Services is responsible for a broad range of IT, web, e-learning and audio-visual/multi-media services
for LSHTM. The section consists of the following groupings: network support, Applications and Solutions,
Customer Services, learning support and web services. The post holder will join eight other members of
the Applications and Solutions team, responsible for maintaining, developing and supporting all core
networked systems, data centres, storage, server hardware and software services. IT Services as a
whole comprises over 40 specialist staff, two placement students recruited on an annual basis, and an
administrator.
The School’s systems are delivered on a variety of operating system platforms. Most external-facing and
network security/management systems are provided on a linux SLES platform; core file and e-mail
services are currently delivered on a clustered SLES environment, while the School’s Management
Information Systems and other services utilise Windows server. It is the intention to standardise on SLES
for services, except where a Windows server environment is more appropriate.
It is IT Services’ policy to virtualise new services, as well as existing services being migrated from old
hardware, provided the application concerned is appropriate for virtualisation. The platform in use for this
is VMWare’s ESXi / vCenter. This policy supports the objectives of server consolidation and a reduction
in data centre power consumption, in line with the School’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
The School’s directory service is delivered using NetIQ’s eDirectory, and this platform forms the basis,
along with NetIQ’s Identity Management solution, of our current implementation of identity management
and automatic provisioning, and our future plans in this area.
Servers and core network equipment are housed in two high-specification data centres in different
buildings. Each data centre has an independent external connection. There are in the region of 1500
networked PCs, most of them running Windows 7 and managed using Novell’s ZenWorks. There is a
small community of Macintosh users.
The Post
The Applications and Solutions Support Officer (Technical) is responsible for developing, supporting and
maintaining the School’s enterprise systems, to ensure maximum availability and performance.
The role holder is one of a team of staff who support and manage the School’s networked systems
across OES, Linux, and Windows server, as well as e-mail.
In addition to playing a full part in ongoing systems projects, s/he has specific responsibility for the dayto-day management of the data centres, server purchasing and hardware maintenance. S/he is also
involved in new developments and projects, within the School, and also helps to support the backup
infrastructure for the School’s systems.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone keen to work in a small team at the heart of the development
and support of enterprise systems.
JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION
POST: Applications & Solutions Support Officer (Technical)
DIVISION/DEPT/UNIT: ITS
RESPONSIBLE TO: Head of Application Management & Solutions
GRADE: PSP6
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Purpose
The Applications and Solutions Support Officer (Technical) is responsible for developing, supporting and
maintaining the School’s enterprise systems (in conjunction with the other members of the Applications
and Solutions Team), to ensure maximum availability and performance.
The role holder is one of a team of staff who support and manage the School’s networked systems
across, SLES-OES, Linux, and Windows server, as well as e-mail.
In addition to playing a full part in ongoing systems projects, s/he has specific responsibility for the dayto-day management of the data centres, server purchasing and hardware maintenance. S/he is also
involved in new developments and projects, within the School, and also helps to support the backup
infrastructure for the School’s systems.
Responsibilities
1. Support, develop and maintain the School’s enterprise systems infrastructure to ensure maximum
levels of availability, service and performance
2. Undertake the day-to-day management of the School’s data centres, including monitoring and
enhancing their environmental performance
3. Monitor server performance and health and to take corrective action (including the application of any
upgrades and patches when necessary, using appropriate change control procedures)
4. Install, manage and maintain servers across the Linux/Novell and Windows network operating
systems
5. Support the move to and management of a virtualised environment
6. Contribute to systems architecture design and support (including support to HPC)
7. Deliver new projects and services as agreed with the Head of Application Support Services
8. Maintain records and detailed documentation of server installation, configuration and patch levels, and
back-up facilities to ensure rapid restoration of service in the event of a failure
9. Contribute to the support and management of the School’s e-mail system
10. Assist with the support and management of the School’s data backup service
11. Undertake server purchasing
12. Maintain records and manage the server hardware maintenance contracts, and liaise with the
relevant hardware suppliers regarding server purchase and warranty
13. Develop and support general principles of environment management for datacentre hardware and
network equipment.
14. Provide support and advice to users (in collaboration with IT Partners and helpdesk staff) on use of
the School’s enterprise systems, including the production of documentation
15. Contribute to the continuous development and delivery of new systems-based services as
determined by user requirements and emerging standards
16. Undertake any other duties as reasonably delegated by your line manager
17. Manage your own continuous professional development, internal collaborations and external
networks, in order to contribute to service quality, research excellence and innovation
18. Demonstrate the School’s values through your behaviour at work, including your duties and
responsibilities in respect of equality and diversity, health and safety, data protection, and any other
legislative requirement
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential/ Desirable
Qualifications The
successful candidate
should:
Hold relevant professional
Essential
qualifications or equivalent
experience
Hold an undergraduate degree Desirable
or equivalent
Tested by*
A, I
A
Background & Experience The successful candidate should have a background in, or
experience of:
Administering server operating systems in a production environment Essential
A, I
A variety of desktop operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) and
Essential
A, I
management systems
Developing effective application architectures and deploying these in Desirable
A, I
business environments
NetIQ’s eDirectory management or equivalent directory service
Essential
A, I
Supporting HPC clusters
Desirable
A, I
Scripting or programming
Essential
A, I
Using a network of key individuals to secure important business information and influence
broad organisational change
Desirable
A, I
Network infrastructure and protocols & front line applications
Essential
A, I
operating over them
E-mail and archiving systems
Desirable
A,I
Knowledge The successful candidate should have demonstrable knowledge of:
Administering virtualized
Desirable
A, I
server clusters (with practical
experience)
Administering server
operating systems and
enterprise storage
systems(with practical
experience)
Essential
A, I
Administering e-mail systems
(with practical experience)
Desirable
A,I
Network infrastructure and
protocols
Essential
A,1
Data centre management set
up and their effective
management
Essential
A, I
Virtualisation and operating
virtualised environments
Desirable
A, I
Identity management
applications and their
operation
Desirable
A, I
Skills & Competencies The successful candidate should demonstrate:
A focus on results –
consistent delivery of projects
on time and to specification
Essential
A, I
An ability to identify business
requirements and
successfully apply these to IT
service delivery
Desirable
A, I
Confidence in operating in an
environment of change with
the ability to use change
management
models/frameworks
Desirable
A, I
Well-developed
communication skills: verbal,
written and in presentations.
The ability to sell ideas or
benefits and build persuasive
arguments based on data,
logic and the objective merits
of solutions
Desirable
A, I
The ability to build and
sustain effective professional
working relationships within IT
and wider business
environment
Essential
A, I
A strong customer focus –
demonstrating a thorough
understanding of customer
needs
Desirable
A, I
The ability to think
conceptually, demonstrating
creativity and innovation
Essential
A, I
The ability to look
continuously for opportunities
for improvement and to
develop strategies for change
to influence and shape the
future direction of the
business – adapting thinking
and behaviour to suit the
requirements of different
situations
Desirable
A, I
Commercial awareness and
the ability to lead vendor
contract activities effectively
Desirable
A, I
The ability to work effectively
as a member of a small team,
Essential
A, I
including sharing
responsibilities with others
when necessary
The ability to think logically
and to track faults
methodically and resolve
them
Essential
A, I