Third Line Support Engineer (Senior Infrastructure & Support Specialist)

Job Description: Third Line Support Engineer (Senior Infrastructure & Support Specialist)

Job Title: Third Line Support Engineer

Department: IT

Reporting To: Head of IT Infrastructure / IT Manager

Location: Banbury (Office-based)

Job Type: Permanent, Full-time

Salary: Competitive + benefits (DOE)

Main Job Purpose We are seeking an experienced Third Line Support Engineer to provide advanced technical support, own complex infrastructure issues, and ensure the high availability, security, and performance of critical IT systems. This senior hands-on role focuses on resolving escalated incidents, maintaining and optimising virtualised and containerised environments (VMware, Kubernetes), supporting core business databases (Progress OpenEdge SQL), and contributing to infrastructure projects and continuous improvement.

You will act as the escalation point for the IT Service Desk, drive root-cause analysis, implement proactive fixes, and support business-critical systems with minimal downtime.

Key Responsibilities

Advanced Technical Support & Incident Resolution

• Own and resolve complex, escalated incidents and problems from Level 1/2 support, ensuring rapid diagnosis and permanent fixes.
• Provide deep technical troubleshooting across servers, networks, cloud platforms, virtualisation (VMware), container orchestration (Kubernetes), and Progress OpenEdge databases.
• Perform root-cause analysis on recurring or high-impact issues and implement preventive measures.
• Maintain high availability of critical systems through proactive monitoring, patching, updates, and performance tuning.

Infrastructure Management & Optimisation

• Design, implement, maintain, and support virtualised environments (VMware) and containerised workloads (Kubernetes).
• Manage and optimise core business systems, including Progress OpenEdge databases – monitoring, backups, tuning, and recovery.
• Ensure infrastructure is secure, well-documented, compliant with security standards, and regularly patched/updated.
• Support disaster recovery, business continuity planning, and testing of backup/restore procedures.

Project & Change Delivery

• Lead or contribute to infrastructure-related projects, upgrades, migrations, and new technology deployments.
• Define technical scopes, coordinate with internal teams and external vendors, and ensure delivery on time, within budget, and with minimal operational impact.
• Collaborate across departments to integrate new systems and minimise disruption.

Service Desk & Team Support

• Act as escalation point and mentor for Level 1/2 support engineers, sharing knowledge and providing technical guidance.
• Assist in developing and refining SLAs, KPIs, and support processes to drive continuous improvement.
• Contribute to the knowledge base with detailed resolution articles and best practices.

Risk, Security & Compliance

• Identify and mitigate infrastructure risks and vulnerabilities.
• Ensure adherence to security policies, standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Work with vendors and partners on advanced support, patching, and security remediation.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven senior-level experience in third-line / advanced infrastructure support roles.
• Strong hands-on expertise in:
• VMware virtualisation (vSphere, vCenter, ESXi)
• Kubernetes container orchestration
• Progress OpenEdge SQL databases (administration, tuning, backups)
• Server management (Windows/Linux), networking, storage, and cloud platforms
• Track record of resolving complex technical incidents and delivering root-cause fixes.
• Experience contributing to infrastructure projects, upgrades, and migrations.
• Solid understanding of ITIL processes, SLAs, KPIs, and service desk operations.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making skills under pressure.
• Strong communication and documentation abilities (technical and non-technical audiences).

Desirable

• Relevant certifications (e.g., VMware Certified Professional, Kubernetes certifications, ITIL Foundation, Microsoft/Azure, CompTIA Security+, etc.).
• Experience with monitoring tools, scripting/automation (PowerShell, Bash, Ansible), and disaster recovery planning.
• Previous mentoring or team leadership exposure.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to work on mission-critical infrastructure in a high-availability environment
• Competitive salary and performance-related benefits
• Hybrid working model with flexibility
• Continuous professional development and certification support
• Collaborative, technically focused team

If you are a technically deep, hands-on senior engineer who thrives on solving complex problems and ensuring system reliability, we’d love to hear from you.