Contract IT Contract jobs in Dublin, County Dublin

Job Post Summary

• Role Title: Systems & Applications Administrator
• Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent
• Salary: €50,000-€60,000 per annum

To be considered for this role, you must currently hold the legal right to work and live in Ireland. We do not provide sponsorship for work permits, either for this vacancy or any future employment. All relevant working permits/visas must be up to date and verified upon application.

Job Description:

At Portobello Institute, our mission is to make education accessible, relevant, and responsive, empowering each learner to reach their potential.

As a Systems & Applications Administrator with Portobello Institute, the purpose of this role is to take technical and operational ownership of the Institute’s core systems and applications, ensuring reliable, secure and efficient services that support learners, teaching and day-to-day operations. You will administer connected learning, student, identity and productivity platforms, resolve technical issues, maintain accurate configurations and safeguard the integrity of learner records and business processes. You will investigate and resolve system issues, develop and maintain scripts and automation, and contribute to integrations, testing and technical improvements under the direction of the Technical Delivery Manager. You will work as part of the IT and Technical Delivery function, contributing to Portobello’s mission to make education accessible, relevant and student-centred. This role requires technical ownership, problem-solving, analytical thinking, collaboration, initiative and a commitment to delivering reliable services while acting with integrity and professionalism at all times.

Key Responsabilities

1. Systems administration and operational reliability

• Administer and monitor core platforms including Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Moodle ePortobello and agreed configurations in Classter and related applications. Maintain dependable operation across their technical dependencies.
• Administer the Linux and cloud hosting services supporting the learning environment. Manage application services, file permissions, scheduled tasks, runtime dependencies and logs and investigate problems across application, database and hosting layers.
• Establish and maintain useful monitoring and alerts for service health, integration activity performance and capacity. Investigate failures using logs and metrics, including HTTP, DNS, connectivity and certificate issues, and act on risks before they disrupt users.
• Plan and implement approved patches, application upgrades and hosting changes using test or cloned environments where appropriate. Validate compatibility and downstream effects and maintain tested backup, restore and rollback arrangements, including learning archives.

2. Identity, access and security operations

• Manage staff and learner accounts, licences, groups and permissions through approved onboarding, role changes and offboarding. Maintain consistent access across Entra ID, Microsoft 365 and connected platforms.
• Diagnose provisioning, identity matching, single sign-on and access propagation issues. Understand synchronisation timing and upstream conditions before applying corrective action.
• Configure and troubleshoot approved application registrations, service accounts, permissions and authentication settings. Maintain credentials and certificate renewals, apply least privilege and support access reviews with accurate records of privileged and service access.
• Apply approved security updates and secure data-handling practices. Respond promptly to suspected incidents, preserve relevant evidence and escalate material risks through the agreed route.

3. Learner lifecycle and digital learning operations

• Support the technical operation of admissions, registration, enrolment, progression and year-end rollover processes. Validate agreed configuration and synchronisation so approved learner states lead to the correct downstream access.
• Administer learning platform structures, roles and enrolments and support Teams provisioning, membership, class access, recordings and learning material permissions. Coordinate readiness checks with academic and learner support colleagues.
• Support the operation of connected assessment and learning tools, including approved integrations and authentication. Test changes and help colleagues distinguish access, configuration and process issues.
• Investigate exceptions across Classter, Moodle, Microsoft 365 and associated CRM or payment services. Trace source records and lifecycle conditions and work with the responsible department on approved corrections without bypassing financial or academic controls.

4. User support and incident resolution

• Own day-to-day technical support for assigned systems and applications, including routine staff IT and digital access issues. Record, prioritise and follow requests through to resolution, keeping users informed of progress and dependencies.
• Resolve technical incidents independently within competence and authority, using application and server logs, SQL queries, scripts and API responses to establish the cause. Implement and verify safe fixes and document corrective action that prevents recurrence.
• Reproduce application and integration defects and assess likely causes before escalation. Provide the Technical Delivery Manager or supplier with diagnostic evidence, user impact and proposed next steps, contribute to agreed fixes and verify the resolution.
• Analyse recurring requests and incidents, addressing avoidable causes through configuration, guidance or agreed improvements. Support staff device and software setup within the agreed service remit and maintain relevant asset and licence records.

5. Integration support, automation and technical implementation

• Maintain and troubleshoot existing integrations, scheduled jobs, workflows, serverless functions such as AWS Lambda and reporting refreshes. Investigate authentication, data mapping, sequencing and processing failures and implement approved fixes or recovery steps with checks for duplicate or incomplete processing.
• Write, debug and maintain production scripts and operational automation using PowerShell, Python or comparable tools. Include validation, logging, error handling and safeguards for bulk changes and maintain the code in version control.
• Use SQL, REST APIs and structured data to investigate discrepancies, reconcile records and validate system behaviour. Develop repeatable checks and extracts and implement approved data corrections or bulk operations with clear validation and audit records.
• Implement defined components of integrations, workflows and application improvements within agreed designs and review arrangements. Contribute to testing, deployment and defect resolution and establish usable monitoring, support and recovery arrangements before operational handover.

6. Documentation, service improvement and professional practice

• Maintain current configuration records, runbooks, access records, change logs and troubleshooting guides. Capture dependencies and known failure modes so another technical colleague can operate and recover assigned services.
• Work with the LEDI Team Lead and departmental colleagues on clear support routes, practical SOPs and user guidance. Share knowledge that helps staff use systems confidently and reduces avoidable workarounds.
• Propose and deliver agreed operational improvements that reduce repeated effort, strengthen resilience or improve the learner and staff experience. Evaluate useful platform features and tools within approved priorities and safeguards.
• Own the operational queue and manage agreed maintenance, support and technical implementation commitments with the Technical Delivery Manager. Prioritise requests according to impact and urgency, protect agreed time for planned improvements and raise capacity pressures early with proposed options. Follow agreed approval and escalation arrangements for significant changes.

Additional responsibilities may include:

• Collaborating with internal teams and stakeholders as required.
• Maintaining accurate records, data, and documentation in line with internal and external standards.
• Contributing to continuous improvement and effective ways of working.
• Demonstrating behaviours aligned with Portobello’s values in all interactions.

Essential Qualifications & Experience

• A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems or a related technical discipline, or equivalent substantial professional experience demonstrating comparable technical depth.
• Strong practical experience administering and supporting live organisational systems, with evidence of independently resolving technical incidents and implementing reliable production changes.
• Hands-on Microsoft 365 and Entra ID administration, including identity lifecycle, groups, permissions, authentication and access across connected applications. Able to diagnose provisioning and single sign-on problems.
• Practical Linux administration and hosted application support, including services, file permissions, scheduled tasks, runtime dependencies and application logs. Sound understanding of HTTP, DNS, connectivity and certificates for troubleshooting.
• Experience administering cloud-hosted services on AWS, Azure or an equivalent platform, including compute, storage, access control, monitoring, backups and tested recovery. Able to assess operational dependencies and recognise when specialist input is required.
• Demonstrated experience writing, debugging and maintaining scripts or automation used in production, using PowerShell, Python or a comparable language. Able to explain validation, logging, error handling and safeguards for bulk changes.
• Practical SQL capability, including joins, validation queries and reconciliation of records. Experience working with structured data to investigate discrepancies and produce accurate, repeatable checks or extracts.
• Hands-on experience using REST APIs, JSON and service authentication to investigate integration behaviour or implement defined changes. Understand identifiers, mappings, sequencing and the risks of failed, incomplete or duplicate processing.
• Experience using Git or equivalent version control and delivering changes through proportionate testing, review, deployment and rollback arrangements. Apply access controls and secure handling of sensitive data throughout technical work.
• Experience managing support requests and vendor cases, documenting technical solutions and explaining issues clearly to colleagues who are not technical specialists.

Desirable Qualifications & Experience

• Moodle administration, including course structures, enrolments, roles, plugins and learning platform upgrades; Linux and PHP application support.
• Student information systems, HubSpot or other CRM platforms and the operational dependencies between admissions, learning and finance systems.
• Specific experience with AWS EC2, S3, IAM, Lambda and CloudWatch, including application monitoring, environment cloning and restore testing.
• Hybrid Active Directory / Entra environments, Microsoft Graph and advanced Teams or SharePoint administration, including permissions and provisioning dependencies.
• Building or maintaining Power Automate workflows, supporting Power BI refreshes and working with scheduled or serverless integration services.
• Relevant professional certification in Microsoft 365, identity, cloud administration or service management and experience in an education or learner services environment.

Skills & Competencies

• Technical and operational ownership: take a defined problem or requirement through investigation, implementation and verification, maintaining dependable services without continual prompting.
• Analytical problem-solving: test assumptions against logs and data, understand dependencies and distinguish technical faults from timing, process and source record issues.
• Technical judgement: choose proportionate remedies, recognise the limits of delegated authority and seek specialist input before exposing services or data to avoidable risk.
• Service focus: respond calmly and professionally, understand learner and staff impact and explain next steps in clear, practical language.
• Prioritisation and collaboration: balance incidents, planned maintenance and technical delivery, making trade-offs and dependencies clear. Provide credible updates and protect agreed time for implementation and improvement work.
• Accuracy and professional discipline: maintain careful records, validate changes and uphold confidentiality and secure working practices under pressure.
• Learning and improvement: build technical depth, explain implementation choices and turn recurring operational problems into maintainable improvements. Share knowledge that enables others to support the resulting services.

About Portobello Institute

Portobello Institute is committed to making education accessible to a wide student body. We are a small Institute with big ambitions and a strong student-centred focus. Our size allows us to nurture the one in every one – we know the name and ambitions of each of our students and each of our team members.

Our culture is collaborative, agile, and supportive, suited to high-performing people who want to grow and develop their careers. We take pride in doing the right thing every time and in working together to deliver meaningful outcomes for students and colleagues alike.

Equal Opportunities

Portobello Institute is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates and are committed to creating an inclusive, values driven and respectful workplace.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: €50,000.00-€60,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Flexitime
• Work from home

Application question(s):

• Production scripting and automation

Describe a script or automation you personally built and used in production to reduce recurring manual work. Explain the tools you used and how it selected or matched the correct accounts or records. Describe one actual failure or edge case you encountered and the safeguard you implemented. Explain how you handled the risk of duplicate or incomplete changes and what evidence showed that the automation improved the original process?

• Linux and cloud application operations

Describe a Linux-hosted or cloud-hosted application incident you personally diagnosed and resolved involving poor performance, intermittent availability or service failure. Identify the application and hosting environment, and explain one specific command, log finding or monitoring result that helped establish the cause. What recovery action did you take, how did you verify the service was working correctly and what did you change to reduce the risk of recurrence?

• Microsoft 365 and Entra ID — Yes/No

Do you have hands-on experience administering Microsoft 365 and Entra ID in a live production environment, including identities, groups, permissions, enterprise applications, single sign-on and troubleshooting access or provisioning issues? (Yes/No)?

• Diagnosing issues across connected systems

Describe a production issue you personally diagnosed and resolved involving two or more connected systems. Which systems were involved, and what specific log finding, SQL query, API response or other evidence established the root cause? Explain one plausible cause you ruled out, what you changed and how you verified the resolution across the affected systems?

• Do you currently have the legal right to work in Ireland without the need for employer sponsorship now or in the future? (Yes/No)

Work authorisation:

• Ireland (required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Dublin, County Dublin