Duke University:

Duke University was created in 1924 through an indenture of trust by James Buchanan Duke. Today, Duke is regarded as one of America’s leading research universities. Located in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is positioned in the heart of the Research Triangle, which is ranked annually as one of the best places in the country to work and live. Duke has more than 15,000 students who study and conduct research in its 10 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. With about 40,000 employees, Duke is the third largest private employer in North Carolina, and it now has international programs in more than 150 countries.

Department: IT – Technical Support Center
Job Title: Staff Technical Support Specialist

The Staff Technical Support Specialist is expected to provide outstanding first and second level support to assigned areas within the Fuqua School of Business, communicating clearly and with empathy and diplomacy. This includes responding quickly and accurately to all information technology requests from members of the Fuqua community, negotiating when and how services may be provided, and working with fellow IT team members to provide services in a timely manner.

The Staff Technical Support Specialist is expected to work closely with assigned staff departments to understand their end-user computing technology requirements and preferences, and to develop and execute strategies to help them optimize their use of computing resources. This includes staying current with industry trends and best-practices, and continuously performing research into new technologies and processes that may improve end-user computing at the Fuqua School of Business.

Typical Roles and Responsibilities of this position include:

• Manage the availability and performance of all Fuqua-owned computing devices used by assigned areas and departments.
  • Provide technical assistance and support for all problems and requests related to computer systems, hardware, and software for assigned areas and departments. Work with team members, Fuqua IT staff, Duke IT staff, or other resources as needed to remediate issues.
  • Work with teammates to maintain an accurate inventory of desktop computing hardware for all assigned departments, clearly identifying the equipment that has been assigned to each individual or location, how long that equipment has been in service, and forecasting hardware refreshes based on the approved lifecycle for each category of equipment.
  • Work with teammates to the optimal software configuration for assigned departments, building, maintaining, and deploying system images that meet user and IT security requirements. Ensure that all software is properly licensed and maintained as close to current version and patch levels as practical.
  • Through the annual technology refresh process, work with teammates to determine the optimal hardware configuration to meet the anticipated computing requirements for Fuqua staff and PhD students throughout the approved technology lifecycle.
  • Ensure that all systems used by assigned departments are configured appropriately with respect to Fuqua and Duke policies and standards and industry best practice.
  • Provide how-to support across multiple vendor hardware and operating system platforms, focusing on Dell, Lenovo, and Microsoft. There may also be an occasional need to support products from Apple and other vendors. Leverage outside resources as needed to provide timely, accurate responses to all requests.
  • Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware and software upgrades, and resource optimization as required.
  • Acquire, install, repair, or upgrade computer components and software as needed.
  • If assigned departments include PhD students, maintain a familiarity with research computing options available at Fuqua and at Duke and recommend appropriate alternatives as requested.
  • Ensure that all changes and/or updates needed to end-user computers are completed with minimal impact to the ongoing operations of the school.
  • Communicate changes to shared computing resources to assigned areas and departments, clearly identifying potential impacts.

• General Responsibilities:
  • Represent Fuqua IT and assigned subject areas to other Duke University IT departments.
  • Assist the Service Desk in providing face-to-face support as needed. This includes taking turns manning the service desk for periods of time when the primary Service Desk staff are unavailable and volunteering to help during busy times.
  • Participate in an 24/7 on-call support rotation.

The job description and listed responsibilities are not all inclusive and others may be assigned from time to time on a temporary or permanent basis.

Required Experience, Knowledge, and Skills

• Graduation from a four-year college or university, preferably with a major in computer science or information technology, and 2 years of experience in an IT technical support or service desk position; or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Experience configuring, deploying, upgrading, and supporting computers running current versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems.
• Experience configuring and repairing end user computing hardware and common peripherals.
• Experience using current versions of the Microsoft Office suite.
• Experience using common web browsers and email clients.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work well in a team-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated willingness to accept new and added responsibility.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully negotiate service times and outages with tact and diplomacy, and to maintain a professional demeanor in sometimes difficult circumstances.
• Significant customer support experience.

Preferred Requirements

• Current professional certification in operating systems commonly used in end user computing.
• One or more relevant certifications, such as:
  • ITIL Foundation
  • CompTIA A+
  • CompTIA Network+
  • CompTIA Security+
• Experience working with IT service management systems such as ServiceNow.

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.