IT Infrastructure Lead - Ashbourne About Choice Stores: Choice Stores is a proudly 100% Irish-owned retailer, known for great value, bright and welcoming stores, and teams who take pride in delivering a great customer experience.
With a growing presence across Ireland, we're deeply committed to supporting local jobs, local suppliers, and the communities we serve.
Our locally led business model keeps us agile, people-focused, and responsive to what really matters: our teams and our customers.
As we grow, we're looking for passionate, driven individuals to join us and be part of our journey.
Role Overview: As our IT Infrastructure Lead, you'll play a foundational role in shaping the future of our IT operations.
Reporting directly to the Operations Director, you'll have the opportunity to build an ecosystem from the ground up, ensuring seamless integration of our IT infrastructure across all our locations.
This role combines infrastructure ownership with end-user support leadership, focusing on reliability, monitoring, and consistent store IT experience.
Key Responsibilities: Act as the primary point of contact for all technology-related incidents and requests.
Ensure adherence to critical SLAs and deliver optimal solutions.
Provide system-level support across our operations, including installation, configuration, maintenance, and support.
Liaise with third-party vendors to ensure cost-effective and timely solutions.
Oversee and manage our diverse software platforms and IT infrastructure components.
Assess infrastructure changes and play a key role in change management governance.
Coordinate and travel between stores as necessary to ensure consistent IT experiences.
Own hardware lifecycle management across sites (procurement guidance, asset tracking, replacement planning, warranty/RMA coordination).
Implement and maintain infrastructure monitoring (servers/network/storage) including alerting, dashboards, and incident escalation (e.g., Zabbix).
Lead help desk operations: ticket queue ownership, prioritisation, SLA tracking, knowledge base upkeep, and continuous improvement of support workflows.
Support and administer Microsoft 365 services including Office 365, SharePoint Online, Teams, Exchange administration tasks (as applicable), and access governance.
Perform proactive troubleshooting and root-cause analysis to reduce recurring incidents and improve reliability across stores and HQ.
Must-Have Skills: Proven experience in system administration, IT infrastructure, or similar roles.
Strong understanding of Active Directory, SAN Storage, and virtualization (Hyper V/VMware).
Proficiency with diverse software platforms and IT infrastructure components.
Advanced skills in administering MS Office and Windows operating systems.
Advanced Microsoft 365 experience including SharePoint site structure/governance, permissions, and adoption support.
Experience with Zabbix (or comparable monitoring platforms) for alerting, dashboards, and capacity planning.
Hands-on hardware troubleshooting and monitoring (servers, endpoints, peripherals, basic network troubleshooting).
Help desk / Service desk management experience (ticketing, SLAs, escalation, reporting, knowledge base).
Knowledge of the ITIL Framework and ISO *****.
Familiarity with creating and maintaining SOPs.
Experience with antivirus EDR solutions and VPN administration.
Experience with ERP / WMS / epos systems Knowledge in IT projects management.
Nice-to-Have Skills: Experience with Cloud solutions like AWS, Azure, and Digital Ocean.
Network management skills, including wiring, addressing Wi-Fi blackspots, and creating Visio diagrams.
Compensation Benefits: We offer a very competitive salary package that reflects the importance of this role.
Comprehensive benefits tailored to meet the needs of our employees.
Location Work Model: This position is based in our Ashbourne, Co.
Meath office.
While regular travel between our stores will be required, we ensure its well-coordinated and planned.
Standard working hours are 08:*******:00.
However, during implementation and project "go-live" phases, some additional hours may be required.
Growth Reporting: As a brand-new role within Choice, you'll have the unique opportunity to build and shape the IT infrastructure ecosystem.
Direct reporting to the Operations Director ensures that your contributions are recognised at the highest level.
Performance will be evaluated based on defined KPIs, ensuring clarity in expectations and growth.
Ideal Candidate Attributes: A proactive approach, thriving under pressure.
Strong troubleshooting and communication skills.
Trustworthy, with the capability of working autonomously.
An innovative mindset, always looking for ways to improve and streamline processes.