IT roles at Dick Lovett

In this apprenticeship, you will attend Wiltshire College to gain a Level 3 qualification as an Infrastructure Technician Apprentice. You don’t need to have any set experience to apply, but you must have four level 4 grades at GCSE, so this is a great path into an exciting career in IT.

Alongside attending college, you will work in the IT department and your role would be to assist the Service Desk with day-to-day tasks such as creating new starters, acting as an initial point of contact for enquiries into the Service Desk, resolving problems that employees around the Group may have, and completing password resets.

When you complete your Apprenticeship, you will become a Technical Support Analyst.

This role is suited to someone who doesn’t necessarily want to complete an apprenticeship and provides another initial entry point into IT within Dick Lovett. This role would suit someone who is either looking for a career change or taking their first steps into an IT role.

This role is based on the IT Service Desk and involves tasks such as creating new starters, acting as an initial point of contact for enquiries into the Service Desk, resolving problems that employees around the Group may have, completing password resets, Management of Users, Groups and Computers.

The development path includes completing self-paced online learning modules based around industry qualifications such as CompTia A+, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, and Microsoft Modern Desktop Administrator. This is mixed with on the job learning that starts to build an understanding of the company's core infrastructure and the automotive solutions we support for the brand as well as building on Service Desk procedures.

After being able to work independently as a Junior, the next step in your career would be a Technical Support Analyst.

This role is suited to someone who has had a couple of years’ experience within an IT Service Desk role or may have A-Level or above qualifications, and is equivalent to 2nd Line IT Support roles.

Technical Support Analysts provide escalated technical assistance to our internal customers. They handle more complex technical issues that cannot be resolved by the Junior Technical Support analyst and apprentices. This role requires in-depth troubleshooting, problem analysis and resolution skills.

This role also assists the Infrastructure team with smaller Group projects.

The development path includes completing self-paced online learning modules based around further industry qualifications such as Microsoft 365 Security Administrator, Microsoft Endpoint Manager and CompTIA Network +. This is mixed with on the job learning that aims to further build on the understanding of the company’s core infrastructure and automotive solutions and begins to build leadership skills.

This role is suited to someone who has had several years’ experience within an IT Service Desk Role and has worked previously in either a 2nd line or 3rd line role. Candidates may be educated to degree level or hold equivalent relevant qualifications.

Senior Technical Support Analysts possess advanced technical expertise in IT Infrastructure, Systems and Applications, and can handle complex and specialised technical issues that require in-depth knowledge and experience. Their role involves diagnosing and resolving complex problems, providing guidance to lower-level technical support members.

Senior Technical Support Analysts play a key role in problem management. They analyse recurring incidents, investigate underlying causes, and develop long term solutions to prevent further occurrences.

Senior Technical Support Analysts contribute to technical documentation. They document complex solutions, troubleshooting steps, system configurations and best practices.

The development path includes completing self-paced online learning modules based around advanced industry qualifications which the individual can specialise in depending on preference. Again this is mixed with on the job learning that aims to create an advanced knowledge of the company’s core infrastructure and to build further on leadership skills.

Depending on your desired career path, from this role you can progress to either Service Desk Supervisor or Infrastructure Engineer.

In this role, you are responsible for managing the performance of the Service Desk team. Providing guidance, support and mentorship to the team members and ensuring they have the necessary resources and skills to deliver high quality service to the Group.

As a senior team member, you will monitor team performance, set performance targets, conduct regular performance evaluations, and provide feedback to Service Desk team members.

Part of your responsibilities also include the training and development of Service Desk team members, assessing skill gaps, designing training programs and delivering 1:1 training sessions with members of the Service Desk team to enhance their technical skills, customer service abilities and problem solving capabilities. Whilst providing ongoing coaching and support to help team members improve their performance and skills.

The Team Leader oversees the efficient and effective handling of incidents and service requests into the Service Desk ensuring that tickets are properly triaged, prioritised, and assigned to the appropriate team members and taking necessary actions to maintain service level agreements and customer satisfaction. You would also act as a final escalation point for more complex tickets received by the Service Desk, and be a point of contact for major incident management.

The Service Desk Team Leader would also liaise with new vendors and maintain relationships with current suppliers, as well as working alongside the Infrastructure team to deliver on projects for the Group.

The role is intended for those looking to make the leap from a 2nd or 3rd line IT support to a back of house infrastructure role. The ideal candidate is self-motivated with a keen interest in IT infrastructure, learning about new technologies, and realising ways in which new tech can help the company better meet its goals.

The role includes day-to-day monitoring of the infrastructure platforms and helping the Service Desk team with any tickets that are escalated. This might include things like network changes, phone system changes or server changes.

This role also includes technical projects specifically assigned by the Infrastructure Team Lead or Head of IT, such as IT delivery of Corporate Identity changes to our dealerships. We are seeing more audio visual equipment, Wi-Fi and other IT in our showrooms and workshops, which requires IT involvement.

Experience of Networking (Firewalls, LAN, WAN, Wi-Fi), Server Infrastructure, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Active Directory and Domain Services are desirable. After gaining dealership-related experience, you would progress to be an Infrastructure Engineer.

This role is suited to someone with at least five years of previous work with infrastructure technology – this might include networking, server environments or cloud infrastructure. A combination is preferred because of the diverse systems in use within the Group.

In this role, you would take a lead on projects and employ the help of our Infrastructure Analysts. You need to be comfortable at dealing with suppliers and partners to ensure the Group is meeting retailer standard requirements from an IT perspective and building relationships to help deliver IT solutions that meet the needs of the business.

At this level, a sound working knowledge of diverse technologies would be expected, including but not limited to: Cisco switching, Microsoft Windows Server environments, VMWare vCentre and ESXi, Microsoft Azure (multiple technologies are employed), Office 365 deployment, VoIP telephony, and WAN / SDWAN.

After progressing to a Senior Infrastructure Engineer from this role, progression would be either to Infrastructure Team Leader or through an increasingly broad set of engineering skills and experience.

This role is suited to someone with at least five to seven years infrastructure and project experience, who can lead the Infrastructure team in relation to projects being undertaken and project management.

Communication skills are key in this role, to develop relationships with suppliers and partners to ensure IT services delivered to the Group meet the needs of the business and be able to provide new or changing solutions as these requirements change.

Project Management skills and PRINCE2 are desirable to ensure projects and solutions are delivered on time, within budget, and fit for purpose. Part of this role is also ensuring infrastructure service level agreements are met.

At this level, you would work with the Head of IT, Service Desk Team Leader and Business Systems Manager to ensure the three areas of IT work together to deliver solutions and resolve any technical challenges. You would also act as a point of escalation in the event of a major outage or equipment failure and lead the Infrastructure team in resolving any issues affecting core services swiftly and efficiently.