Senior IT Engineer

Force36 is looking for an experienced Senior IT Engineer to join our technical team in Saffron Walden.

This is a hands-on senior technical role within a busy MSP environment, working across a varied customer base and dealing with everything from complex Microsoft 365 issues and networking problems through to infrastructure, escalations and project work.

We’re looking for someone who is comfortable operating at second and third-line level, but just as importantly, someone who enjoys solving problems, sharing knowledge and helping the wider technical team get to the right answer.

You’ll be one of the senior technical escalation points within Force36. When something has made its way through the helpdesk and needs deeper investigation, you’ll be someone the team can rely on to take ownership and get it resolved.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll work across both reactive support and planned technical work, including:

• Providing second and third-line technical support across our customer base
• Taking ownership of complex and escalated support issues through to resolution
• Supporting and administering Microsoft 365 environments, including Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive and Entra ID
• Troubleshooting Windows desktop, server, cloud and networking issues
• Diagnosing complex connectivity, performance and infrastructure problems
• Supporting and configuring customer networks, firewalls, switches, wireless infrastructure and VPNs
• Working with Ubiquiti UniFi networking environments
• Supporting new customer onboarding and technical migrations
• Delivering infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and networking projects
• Supporting our Unified Communications estate and working alongside our UC specialists
• Visiting customer sites for installations, troubleshooting, project work and more complex technical issues
• Working closely with first and second-line engineers on escalations
• Sharing knowledge and helping develop the technical capability of the wider team
• Improving technical documentation, processes and standards across our customer environments

This is still a hands-on engineering role. We’re not looking for someone who wants to sit above the helpdesk and delegate tickets. We want someone who enjoys getting stuck into difficult technical problems and seeing them through., While supporting our helpdesk is an important part of the role, we don’t want our senior engineers spending their careers doing nothing but closing tickets.

You’ll also be involved in customer projects, migrations, infrastructure improvements and new deployments, giving you the opportunity to work on larger pieces of technical work and see them through from planning to completion.

As a senior member of the technical team, you’ll also have the opportunity to influence how we do things, identify better ways of working and help us continually improve the technology we deploy and support.

Develop your expertise

Technology doesn’t stand still, and neither should our engineers.

We’ll support relevant technical training and professional certifications, whether that’s further developing your Microsoft, networking, cloud, security or Unified Communications knowledge.

You’ll have access to a dedicated training and development budget and the opportunity to broaden your technical experience across the wide range of environments you encounter working within an MSP.

Why Force36?

We’re an established and growing MSP where good engineers get noticed and have the opportunity to make a genuine impact.

As a Senior IT Engineer, you’ll have the autonomy to take ownership of complex technical problems while still working closely with a wider team when you need them.

You won’t disappear into a huge service desk or find yourself restricted to one narrow area of technology. You’ll work across different customers, environments and technologies, while having the opportunity to help shape our technical standards and support the development of the engineers around you.

If you’re the engineer people already come to when “we’ve tried everything else”, we’d like to hear from you.

You’ll need strong experience working within IT support, ideally within an MSP or similarly fast-paced multi-customer environment, and you’ll be comfortable managing competing priorities when the helpdesk gets busy.

You’ll need excellent knowledge of:

• Microsoft 365 administration and troubleshooting
• Exchange Online
• Entra ID / Azure AD
• SharePoint and OneDrive
• Microsoft Teams
• Windows 10/11
• Windows Server
• Active Directory and Group Policy
• DNS, DHCP and general TCP/IP networking
• Second and third-line troubleshooting

Networking experience is a big advantage

Strong networking knowledge would be a significant advantage for this role.

We’re particularly interested in experience with Ubiquiti UniFi, including gateways, switching and wireless environments.

Knowledge of VLANs, routing, switching, VPNs, firewalls, NAT, DHCP, DNS and Wi-Fi troubleshooting will be extremely useful.

You don’t need to be a dedicated network engineer, but if you can confidently work out whether the problem is Microsoft 365, the endpoint, DNS, the firewall, a VLAN or something considerably more obscure, you’ll fit in well.

Unified Communications

You don’t need to be our UC specialist, but a working knowledge of VoIP and Unified Communications would be advantageous.

Experience with platforms such as Cisco Webex Calling, Gamma Horizon or other hosted telephony solutions would be particularly useful, as would an understanding of SIP and how voice services interact with customer networks., You’ll therefore need a full UK driving licence and be comfortable working directly with customers both remotely and face-to-face.

Strong communication skills matter. Being technically excellent is important, but so is being able to explain a problem to a customer without making it unnecessarily complicated., We’d particularly like to hear about the sort of second and third-line problems you enjoy solving, along with any experience you have with Microsoft 365, networking, UniFi and MSP environments.

Alongside a competitive salary, you’ll receive:

• Generous holiday entitlement
• Company pension
• Support for relevant training and professional certifications
• The equipment and tools you need to do your job properly
• Free on-site parking at our Saffron Walden office
• Company events and social activities
• Genuine opportunities to develop your technical knowledge and take greater ownership as you progress

What you’ll need

This role is based from our Saffron Walden office and includes travel to customer sites when required.