School of Engineering - Technical Support Specialist II

Position Classification:

Regular, full-time, hourly, non-exempt, and benefit-eligible staff position. For more information, visit Why Work at UCO.

$22.00 per hour is equivalent to $45,760 per year.

General Schedule:

Position typically works 40 hours per week Monday through Friday 8am - 5pm.

Position Overview:

Ensures the proper day-to-day operation of the college technology environment including applications and equipment. Provides technical support, troubleshoots and resolves urgent technical issues, and responds to help requests. Identifies and escalates complex issues to a higher-level position. Installs computer hardware, repairs software, and runs diagnostic programs. Installs, maintains, and supports personal computing devices and associated peripherals for the organization's employees. Configures and installs hardware or software that supports critical business needs. Involved in the installation and rollout of new software packages, upgrades, and new desktop hardware. Sets up and connects to peripheral equipment, including printers and scanners, and troubleshoots and resolves malfunctions. Receives and addresses service requests from individual end users or from the help desk. Maintains inventory of parts or components, tracks progress of service requests and updates ticketing systems, and logs repairs and services performed. Tests software and hardware to evaluate ease of use and whether product will aid user in performing work. Writes software and hardware evaluation and recommendation for management review. Writes or revises user-training manuals and procedures. Develops training materials, such as exercises and visual displays. Performs work under general supervision. Handles moderately complex issues and problems, and refers more complex issues to higher-level staff. Possesses moderate working knowledge of subject matter. Reports to a supervisor or manager and supervises student employees or equivalent.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Supports IT operations related to education and research for the School of Engineering.

1. Educational Support: Provide direct support to students using computational tools for coursework, projects, and labs. Assist in the setup, configuration, and maintenance of computational software environments used in teaching labs and classrooms. Evaluate and recommend new computational software, platforms, and pedagogical approaches for engineering education.

2. Research Support: Consult with faculty, research staff, and graduate students on selecting and implementing appropriate computational methodologies for their research projects. Support researchers in accessing and utilizing the Buddy high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, and data storage solutions effectively.

3. Resource Management & Infrastructure: Manage software licenses for specialized engineering and scientific computing applications used within the school. Serve as a liaison between the School of Engineering and College of Mathematics and Science (cmstech) IT support and the Center for Research and Education in Interdisciplinary Computation (CREIC) HPC staff regarding computational needs, resource allocation, and technical support. Assist in planning and advocating for necessary computational hardware and software infrastructure upgrades.

4. Consultation and Technical Assistance: Act as a primary point of contact for troubleshooting and resolving issues related to engineering and computational software and resource access for education and research.

Qualifications/Experience Required:
General education or vocational training and 2+ years’ relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

Knowledge:

1. Programming and Scripting Languages: Some knowledge of languages commonly used in engineering education and research (e.g., Python or MATLAB).
2. Operating Systems: Knowledge of Windows and Linux/Unix environments, including command-line interfaces, file systems, and permissions management, as these are prevalent in research computing.
3. Engineering Software Applications: Familiarity with core computational software used across various engineering disciplines (e.g., SolidWorks, ANSYS, Fluent, LabVIEW).
4. Research Computing Environments: Knowledge of High-Performance Computing (HPC) concepts (e.g., job schedulers like Slurm).
5. Version Control Systems: Knowledge of tools like Git for managing code development and collaboration.
6. Networking Fundamentals: Basic understanding of network protocols, connectivity, and troubleshooting in the context of accessing resources.
7. Educational Technologies (Helpful): Awareness of learning management systems (LMS), and virtual lab environments, and tools used for technical instruction.
8. IT Support Principles: Understanding of troubleshooting methodologies, ticketing systems, documentation practices, and customer service standards.

Skills:

1. Technical Troubleshooting: Skilled in diagnosing and resolving software installation issues, code errors, execution problems, and user access difficulties across different platforms.
2. Software Installation and Configuration: Skill in installing, configuring, and managing complex engineering and scientific software packages.
3. Communication (Written and Verbal): Excellent skill in explaining complex technical concepts clearly and concisely to diverse audiences (students, faculty, staff) with varying levels of technical expertise. Skill in writing clear documentation, tutorials, and support guides.
4. Customer Service: Skill in providing patient, effective, and user-centered technical support. Active listening skills to accurately understand user needs and problems.
5. Time Management and Prioritization: Skill in managing multiple support requests and tasks simultaneously, prioritizing effectively to meet user needs.
6. Documentation: Skill in creating and maintaining accurate and user-friendly technical documentation for software, hardware, and procedures.

Abilities:

1. Learn Quickly: Ability to rapidly learn new software, hardware, programming languages, and computational techniques as required by evolving research and educational needs.
2. Work Independently: Ability to manage workload, troubleshoot issues, and take initiative with minimal supervision.
3. Collaborate Effectively: Ability to work productively with faculty, students, researchers, IT staff, and vendors.
4. Adaptability: Ability to switch focus between educational support and research support tasks, and adapt to diverse technical challenges across different engineering domains.
5. Attention to Detail: Ability to be precise and thorough when troubleshooting, configuring systems, writing code, and documenting procedures.

Physical Demands
Reasonable accommodations (in accordance with ADA requirements) may be made, upon request, to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.