Application Support Analyst

Company Description

Dentsu is a modern marketing solutions company. Our mission is to help clients navigate, progress and thrive in a world of change. Businesses rely on our integrated network of agencies and specialized practices to champion meaningful progress through creative, media, commerce, data and technology. Part of Dentsu Group, our global network comprises 66,000 diverse people in 143 countries, who are dedicated to teaming for growth and good. Some of our award-winning agencies include 360i, Carat, dentsumcgarrybowen, DEG, dentsuX, iProspect and Merkle. Follow us on Twitter @DentsuUSA and visit dentsu.com/us.

We are champions for meaningful progress and we strive to be a force for good—for our people, for our clients, for the industry and for our society. We keep our people at the center, creating space for growth, understanding and learning so they can thrive. We embed diversity, in our mindset, in our solutions and in our teams to empower an inclusive, equitable and culturally fluent environment. Building this culture within our teams makes us better collaborators with each other and with our clients, driving better outcomes for all.

Job Description

The Systems Administrator, Managed Hosting role within Merkle is responsible for providing support for infrastructure within the Merkle Managed Hosting environment with an emphasis on workflow automation and file transfer solutions. The Systems Administrator must be able to provide escalation support for incidents and service requests and addressing them with an appropriate sense of urgency. Candidates will work in a team setting, sharing information, collaborating, and assisting other team members.  Candidate must possess a strong dedication to quality customer service, excellent follow-through, attention to detail, and a drive to be part of a larger team and engage with broad Corporate IT challenges and initiatives.

The Systems Administrator reports to the Manager, IMS Operations.  The role will work with a team of geographically distributed Merkle staff and contract employees.

Essential Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and implementation of global, cost effective, enterprise-class systems following ITIL/ITSM processes/practices, while maintaining compliance with all company policies, procedures and standards.
• Provide shift and on-call incident and service request support for assigned Managed Hosting platforms which include Windows Server, LINUX, Workflow Automantion and File transfer solutions.
• Evaluate scope and impact of incidents and escalate as appropriate
• Provide guidance for other team members regarding IT procedures and service delivery.
• Investigate and document root cause analysis for incidents that result in a service disruption.
• Planning, Coordinating and performing Change Management Activities.
• Identify, plan and implement corrective actions within Problem Management.
• Ensure that all solutions are aligned with IT standards and best practices.
• Platform Ownership for specific technology. A Platform Owner is responsible for:
  • Determining and reporting on the availability of a specific platform
  • Monitoring  and alerting – Ensure the primary functionality is properly monitored
  • Backups and Recovery – Ensure critical data is identified/protected and a recovery model is in place and periodically tested
  • Capacity management – Develop capacity models, measure utilization and establish and maintain forecasts
  • Develop maintenance plans and schedules
  • Incident tracking – Track the incidents that have occurred on the platform and the remediation activities performed
  • Develop and present environmental metrics
  • Health checks – Periodic evaluation of the platform to ensure it is operating optimally
  • Creation and maintenance of product guides
  • Lifecycle Management – Ensure that software and hardware are up to date
    • Hardware – Ensure hardware is supported by the vendor and pro-actively plan for a refresh when required.
    • Firmware – review and apply firmware are required
    • Software – Software follow the N-1 rule for major releases
• Develop best practices and training materials within respective discipline for other team members
• Stay current with existing and emerging computing concepts and technologies.
• Provide high level of customer service to all levels of the organization.
• Manage and prioritize multiple incidents and service requests while adapting to changing business conditions.
• Docume