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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Information Technology Specialist

💰 $ - $

ITTechnologyInformation Technology

🎯 Role Definition

An Information Technology Specialist delivers technical support, designs and maintains IT infrastructure, and ensures secure, reliable systems for business operations. This role blends hands-on troubleshooting with systems administration, network management, and user-facing support while aligning technology solutions to organizational goals. Ideal candidates demonstrate broad technical proficiency across servers, networking, endpoints, cloud services, and security controls plus strong communication and customer service skills.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Help Desk Technician / Desktop Support
  • Network Technician / Junior Systems Administrator
  • Technical Support Specialist

Advancement To:

  • Senior Systems Administrator / Senior IT Specialist
  • IT Infrastructure Manager / IT Operations Manager
  • Network Architect / Systems Engineer
  • Security Analyst / Cybersecurity Engineer

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Engineer
  • DevOps Engineer
  • IT Compliance or Audit Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Provide day-to-day technical support to end users for hardware, software, mobile devices and peripherals; troubleshoot and resolve issues while documenting incidents, root causes and remediation steps in the ticketing system.
  • Administer and maintain Windows Server environments, including patching, performance tuning, role-based services (Active Directory, DNS, DHCP), printer services and file/share permissions to ensure high availability and compliance with policies.
  • Manage user accounts, groups and security policies in Active Directory & Azure AD; implement onboarding/offboarding processes, group policy objects (GPOs) and access control to enforce least privilege.
  • Configure, deploy, and manage endpoint protection and management tools (SCCM, Intune, Jamf or equivalent); maintain OS images, software distribution, inventory and automated updates across desktops and laptops.
  • Monitor and maintain network infrastructure including switches, routers, firewalls, VPN concentrators and wireless controllers; apply firmware updates, manage VLANs, and troubleshoot connectivity and performance issues.
  • Implement and administer virtualization platforms (VMware vSphere, Hyper-V) including VM provisioning, storage allocation, snapshots, and resource optimization to support application availability and scalability.
  • Manage backup and recovery processes for servers and critical workloads, including scheduling, retention policies, disaster recovery exercises and verification of restore procedures.
  • Support cloud services (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) for IaaS/PaaS workloads: provisioning resources, managing identity and access, monitoring costs and applying security best practices.
  • Install, configure and maintain enterprise applications (collaboration suites, ERP/CRM components, database clients) and troubleshoot integrations between systems while coordinating with vendors.
  • Implement and enforce security controls: endpoint hardening, multi-factor authentication (MFA), vulnerability scanning, patch management, and assist in remediation of identified risks in collaboration with security teams.
  • Administer email systems and collaboration platforms (Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint) including tenant settings, mailbox provisioning, security policies and data loss prevention configurations.
  • Maintain IT inventory and asset management records, coordinate hardware procurement and lifecycle refreshes, and ensure secure disposal of decommissioned equipment according to policy.
  • Design and execute network and systems upgrades and migrations, including change planning, impact analysis, rollback strategies, and communication to stakeholders to minimize disruption.
  • Develop, maintain and update technical documentation: runbooks, standard operating procedures (SOPs), network diagrams, system configurations and knowledge base articles for support teams and auditors.
  • Participate in incident response and on-call rotation: triage outages, coordinate cross-functional troubleshooting, escalate appropriately, and lead post-incident reviews to drive remediation and continuous improvement.
  • Implement monitoring, alerting and capacity planning using tools like Nagios, Zabbix, Prometheus, Datadog or Azure Monitor to proactively detect issues and optimize system performance.
  • Configure and manage network security devices (firewalls, IDS/IPS, web proxies) and support secure remote access solutions (VPN, Zero Trust access) to protect corporate resources.
  • Collaborate with application owners, business units and third-party vendors to translate business requirements into technical solutions, provide project updates, and ensure requirements are met on schedule.
  • Ensure compliance with IT policies, regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA where applicable), and internal controls through documentation, change control processes, and periodic audits.
  • Train and mentor junior IT staff and end users on best practices, new technologies, security awareness and effective use of systems and applications to reduce repeat incidents and improve user adoption.
  • Evaluate emerging technologies, perform proof-of-concept testing and provide recommendations for modernization opportunities that align with organizational strategy and cost constraints.
  • Maintain strong communication channels with stakeholders, providing regular status reports on system health, major incidents, project deliverables and risk mitigation activities.
  • Coordinate cross-functional IT projects including implementation schedules, resource planning, testing, validation and handover to operations with clear acceptance criteria.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data and reporting requests related to IT asset usage, ticket trends, and performance metrics; prepare summaries to inform capacity planning and budgeting.
  • Contribute to the organization's IT roadmap by identifying technical debt, automation opportunities and optimization projects aligned to business priorities.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate operational needs into technical requirements for integrations, system improvements and automation initiatives.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies for IT projects and continuous improvement initiatives; provide technical estimates and identify dependencies.
  • Assist procurement with vendor evaluations, contract renewals and license management to ensure cost-effective sourcing and compliance with vendor terms.
  • Facilitate periodic security awareness training and phishing simulation exercises; track organizational susceptibility metrics and recommend mitigations.
  • Provide subject-matter expertise for internal audits and external assessments, supplying evidence of controls and remediation activities as requested.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Windows Server administration (2016/2019/2022), Active Directory, Group Policy Object (GPO) design and management.
  • Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online administration, SharePoint, Teams and email security configuration (DLP, anti-spam policies).
  • Endpoint management tools: Microsoft Intune, SCCM (ConfigMgr), Jamf or similar MDM/UEM platforms.
  • Virtualization and hypervisor management: VMware vSphere, ESXi, vCenter, and/or Microsoft Hyper-V.
  • Networking fundamentals and administration: TCP/IP, VLANs, routing, switching, DNS, DHCP; experience with Cisco, Juniper or similar network hardware.
  • Firewall and security appliances: Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cisco ASA/Firepower, and experience configuring VPN, NAT and access control rules.
  • Cloud platform administration: Microsoft Azure and/or AWS (IAM, VNet/VPC, storage, compute), including basic cost and security management.
  • Backup and recovery solutions: Veeam, NetBackup, Windows Server Backup or cloud-native backup tools; disaster recovery planning and testing.
  • Scripting and automation: PowerShell, Bash, Python for task automation, configuration management and bulk provisioning.
  • Monitoring and logging tools: Nagios, Zabbix, Prometheus, Datadog, Splunk, or ELK stack for observability and alerting.
  • Identity and access management (IAM), multi-factor authentication (MFA), SSO (SAML/OAuth) and privileged access controls.
  • Ticketing and ITSM platforms: ServiceNow, JIRA Service Desk, Zendesk or similar; familiarity with ITIL processes and SLAs.
  • Database basics and tools: SQL querying for basic troubleshooting and reporting (MS SQL Server, MySQL).
  • Hardware troubleshooting: desktops, laptops, printers, servers, storage arrays and peripherals; understanding of RAID and SAN/NAS concepts.
  • Configuration management and version control concepts; familiarity with IaC tools (Terraform, ARM templates) is a plus.

Soft Skills

  • Strong customer service orientation; ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical staff and maintain professionalism under pressure.
  • Clear written and verbal communication for ticket updates, documentation and stakeholder briefings.
  • Analytical problem-solving and troubleshooting skills with attention to diagnosing root causes and preventing recurrence.
  • Time management and prioritization to handle competing requests, outages and project work effectively.
  • Teamwork and collaboration across IT, security, procurement and business units to deliver integrated solutions.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning mindset to keep pace with evolving technologies and security threats.
  • Initiative and accountability for driving issues to resolution and following through on commitments.
  • Attention to detail in configuration, documentation, and change control to reduce operational risk.
  • Project coordination skills: organizing tasks, tracking milestones and communicating progress to stakeholders.
  • Ethical judgment and commitment to privacy, data protection and handling confidential information responsibly.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:
Associate degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Network Administration or equivalent combination of education and hands-on experience.

Preferred Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, or related technical discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Information Technology / Information Systems
  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Network Administration / Telecommunications
  • Cybersecurity / Information Assurance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–7 years of progressively responsible IT experience across systems, networking, cloud or endpoint management.

Preferred: 3–5 years in enterprise IT operations or systems administration with demonstrated experience in Active Directory, virtualization, cloud services (Azure/AWS), and ITSM processes. Certifications such as CompTIA Network+/Security+, Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator, MCSA/MCSE, VMware Certified Professional, or Cisco CCNA are advantageous.

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