Careers

About UMass Amherst

The flagship of the Commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity, and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship, and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges, and 100 undergraduate majors. We believe every member of our university community can contribute to our ongoing success by striving for the highest level of excellence as we seek breakthrough solutions to mounting environmental, social, economic, and technological challenges in our world. 

Job Summary

The Desktop Support Manager is responsible for managing daily operations of the desktop support; oversees a dedicated technical team devoted to providing high quality desktop technology solutions across multiple UMass departments; provides guidance with regard to infrastructure, server support, security incidents, inventory management and policy compliance, as well as troubleshooting of hardware, software, mobile devices, and ensure excellent customer service, satisfaction and appropriate staff coverage in reporting lines.

Essential Functions

• Oversees and manages a high profile, fast paced, and reliable client facing technical team that provides support for desktops, laptops, mobile devices, some servers in multiple academic departments with functions that comprise of recording, classification, escalation, troubleshooting and resolution of client incidents and service requests. Develops and follows a phone/ticket escalation process to ensure proper communication with the stakeholders. 
• Hires, evaluates, disciplines, and trains staff.  Develops and mentors team members through establishing performance expectations, training plans, mentoring behaviors to build a customer centric culture. Prioritizes workload, conducts effective resource management to ensure adequate capacity for current and future technology needs. Develops and updates standard operational procedures, training, and knowledgebase materials. 
• Supports a large network operation that supports Windows and Mac desktops, including software image creation, deployment with a multi-forest Active Directory structure. Conducts needs assessments regarding university infrastructure (wireless and wired access), data security, hardware and software inventory; makes recommendations and develops plans to improve resource allocation, equipment maintenance, purchase, and disposal. Supports tier 2 and 3 for configurations, installation, troubleshooting and technical support. 
• Provides data and reporting for ticket volume and resolution on ad-hoc, weekly, monthly or as needed to convey trends and assess customer demand. Review collected data and trends to develop strategies for improvement. 
• Collaborates with leadership, other IT managers and staff to develop and manage projects and to ensure strong alignment between service targets and meeting customer objectives. Additionally, works with vendors and central IT to provide resolution for concerns and to improve infrastructure and services. 
• Escalates and manages information security breaches and threat incidents in assigned academic areas; works with Central IT to implement preventative procedures and educates staff and faculty about effective security management tools and implement changes to mitigate risks. 

Other Functions

• Ensures all assigned departments comply with applicable state and federal laws, and regulations and University policies and procedures. Makes recommendations and deploys systems changes to maintain compliance.
• Performs related duties as assigned or required to meet Department, Executive Area/Division, and University goals and objectives.
• Participates in campus IT professional development opportunities. Monitors established and emerging trends, standards, protocols, and developments in desktop support technology particularly in higher education, online learning environments, and virtual reality simulations.
• Maintains an electronic inventory of technology; maintain departmental records regarding location, configuration, repair, and replacement.

Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)

• An Associates degree with 6 (six) years of professional IT support experience with computer technical support, help desk and/or network administration. 2 (two) years of professional IT related experience can be substituted for the Associates degree, for a total of 8 (eight) years of experience. 
• Demonstrated ability to supervise technical staff.
• Experience providing complex network and technology configuration, maintenance, support, and incident response. Experience in meeting the demands of complex production-oriented environments where timeliness and availability of systems is considered critical.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively, in a highly organized manner, paying close attention to detail.
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly and resolve issues involved with new technologies.
• Experience with long and short-term project development, planning, implementation, and management.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent analytical skills and ability to plan, recommend, implement and monitor effective and efficient processes and to identify problems and implement solutions.
• Ability to design and develop clear instructional material, work independently, exercise good judgment and make sound decisions.
• Significant experience with technologies and tools, preferably including Mac, Windows, file server, web server, basic business and education / research software, electronic health records, and interactive web-based tools such as blogs, wikis.

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)

• Bachelor’s degree in IT-related field.  
• Support experience in a distributed team environment or higher education institutions a plus.
• Knowledge and ability to setup, utilize, troubleshoot equipment used in conference rooms for multi user/location meetings, and distance learning. The ability to use multiple platforms and technologies is a plus.

Physical Demands/Working Conditions

• Balancing, carrying, pulling/pushing, standing, bending, climbing, driving, reaching, sitting, twisting and driving on campus.
• Ability to lift up to 50lbs.
• Typical office environment.

Work Schedule

• Monday to Friday 37.5 hours a week.
• Occasional night/weekend hours required as business needs dictate. 

Salary Information

Level 29

PSU Hiring Ranges

Special Instructions to Applicants

Along with the application, please submit a resume and cover letter. References will be checked at the finalist stage, please be prepared to provide contact information for three (3) professional references.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst welcomes all qualified applicants and complies with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws.