This position will predominantly work in person in the downtown Chicago office, with minimal travel to other Chicago-area offices in Evanston, Northbrook, and Westchester.

THE ORGANIZATION:

Through clinical services, education, and research, The Family Institute at Northwestern University (TFI) is one of the nation’s leading relationship-based behavioral health organizations committed to strengthening and healing children and adolescents, couples, families, and individuals. When you join The Family Institute, you are joining a team of over 250 collaborators comprised of clinicians, educators, researchers, therapists-in-training, partners, and administrators across four service sites. We are a strong, independent organization focused on advancing the world of behavioral health.

THE ROLE:

Reporting to the Information Technology Operations Manager, the Technical Support Specialist performs analytical, technical, and administrative tasks related to supporting the technology infrastructure of the institution across all locations. This includes diagnosing and resolving problems in response to customer-reported incidents; conferring with end users to determine types of hardware and software required; installing new hardware and software and maintaining existing components; training end users in the use of equipment and software; performing general maintenance tasks; troubleshooting and resolving issues with devices and peripheral equipment located throughout the organization; documenting solutions to reported issues, preparing weekly summary reports for supervisor review; evaluating products for compatibility, expandability, and ease of use and support; making recommendations to management on the support or nonsupport of evaluated products. This role may also participate as a technical expert in various information system implementation, upgrade, and development projects.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Provide level 1 and 2 service desk support utilizing institutional issue management system. Analyze, research, and resolve complex end-user incidents/issues. Ensure timely response to reported issues, assign appropriate prioritization, provide thorough documentation, escalate issues as necessary, and monitor all issues through to resolution.
• Configure and deploy new equipment for employee use; including operating systems, requested software applications, computing peripherals, and workstation setup as necessary.
• Diagnose and repair hardware components, memory management, operating systems, and application software on previously deployed computing devices and peripherals.
• Support DHCP, DNS, AD DS, file sharing, printing services, and other network services as needed to maintain business operations.
• Support primary productivity and collaboration applications including messaging, video conferencing, telecommunications, and office suite.
• Ensure confidentiality, availability, and integrity of all TFI information systems through the implementation of institutional threat detection systems and compliance with security policies and protocols.
• Maintain inventory throughout the asset lifecycle. Implement newly procured assets, maintain existing asset health, and retire outdated/unsupported assets. Update asset information within the asset management system. Monitor deployed systems for required OS patches, software upgrades, and scheduled hardware replacement.
• Provide appropriate access to applications, systems, and data as defined by institutional policy and procedure.
• Train customers as needed on supported devices and technologies.
• Review, update, and maintain documentation as needed for the knowledge base, internal processes and procedures, workflows, and training manuals.
• Assist with the review and evaluation of new hardware and software products and provide relevant reviews/recommendations.
• Collaborate with Managed Services vendor and assist as necessary to ensure systems and networks are operating as expected.
• Ensure IT-related onboarding and training materials are accurate and participate in new employee and student orientation processes.
• Develops and maintains productive relationships with TFI users to ensure technology platforms and hardware meet current and future business needs.
• Advocate for compliance with established organizational policies and standards. Monitor the environment and report potential issues.
• Participate as the technical expert in organization-wide IT-related projects in collaboration with the assigned project manager.
• Provide weekly status reports to Information Technology Operations Manager.
• Other duties as assigned.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 3-5 years of experience working in IT operations performing similar duties.
• Working knowledge of a broad set of IT concepts: computer systems, information security, networking, systems administration, databases and data storage systems, and phone systems.
• Expert knowledge of Windows operating systems, and significant experience supporting Mac devices/operating systems. Ability to support relevant organizational applications within Android and iOS environments.
• Experience working with popular incident tracking and asset management software applications.
• Prefer experience with Microsoft 365 environment.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to establish strong working relationships with community members.
• Ability to perform essential duties with little to no assistance.
• Prior experience within a healthcare setting and familiarity with HIPAA requirements is preferred.
• Industry-related certifications (CompTIA, ITIL, PMP, MCSA, etc.) are preferred.

Physical and Mental Requirements

• Work will be conducted in a climate-controlled office setting with extensive use of computers and other office equipment.
• Ability to safely lift 25 pounds routinely is required to move computers and related peripherals.
• Very limited exposure to physical risk.

COVID Vaccination Statement

For the safety and well-being of our community, The Family Institute requires employees to submit proof of an up-to-date COVID vaccination and booster record upon starting employment.

EOE Statement

The Family Institute is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Reasonable Accommodation Notice

The Family Institute believes in providing access to employment opportunities for people with disabilities.