IT Technician → Team Lead

01Problem

Two years at an MSP supporting primary and secondary schools – broad-spectrum IT for environments where nothing is ever quite documented and the deadline is always "before the next lesson." Started on the tools, ended up running the team.

02Process

• 01Delivered first and second-line support across multiple campuses, independently managing diverse estates and hitting 97% of SLAs.
• 02Administered Microsoft 365 at scale – Intune, Entra, Exchange, SharePoint – for 2,000+ user accounts and 800+ client devices.
• 03Owned networking infrastructure: switch patching, VLAN structures, Fortinet firewalls, DHCP.
• 04Managed Windows 10/11 estates alongside Active Directory, Group Policy, and Configuration Manager.
• 05Supported the wider stack schools actually run on – CCTV, printers, VoIP, Google Workspace.

03Skills built

• 01Multi-site support at scale – diagnosing across estates with inconsistent documentation, no two sites quite the same.
• 02Team leadership – moving from technician to running a five-person team, with performance management, mentoring, and the standards work that came with it.
• 03Microsoft 365 administration end-to-end across thousands of accounts, including the identity, mail, and device sides of the stack.
• 04Networking from the cable up – VLANs, switching, Fortinet firewalls, DHCP – and the troubleshooting that comes with a live school day.
• 05Windows estate management via AD, Group Policy, and Configuration Manager, including imaging and deployment at scale.
• 06Incident response under pressure, including ransomware containment and recovery on a live estate.

04Outcome

1. Outcome 01Drafted new operational standards and templates that were adopted by senior directors across the MSP.
2. Outcome 02Led contract renewals and procurement, and ran strategy meetings to align IT spend with school objectives.
3. Outcome 03Contained and recovered from a live ransomware incident on a school estate without lasting data loss.