Senior IT Administrator in Newton, Massachusetts at The University of Massachusetts Foundation Inc

II. Position Summary

The Senior IT Administrator is a senior technical expert and trusted advisor within the UMass Foundation IT team. Reporting to the Senior Director of IT Infrastructure and Security, this position is an experienced IT generalist responsible for the advanced administration, integration, and security of the Foundation's technology ecosystem, spanning cloud, infrastructure, collaboration, user systems, and security platforms. The role collaborates with IT leadership and works closely with staff across the Foundation to deliver reliable, resilient, secure, and forward-looking IT services aligned with organizational needs.

The role spans a broad technology landscape, including end-user devices (laptops, desktops, mobile devices, printers), Microsoft cloud technologies, AWS services, Salesforce, CRM support tools, collaboration and communications platforms, cloud ERP and financial management solutions, and AI tools such as AI assistants, meeting notetakers, and agentic solutions. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in many of these areas, the technical foundation and curiosity to quickly come up to speed on the rest, and the self-direction to operate independently, solve complex problems, and provide leadership through technical expertise.

III. Essential Functions

Infrastructure and System Administration

• Lead administration of Microsoft cloud ecosystem technologies (Microsoft Entra, Azure, Exchange, Intune, Microsoft 365, Defender, Teams, SharePoint).
• Manage AWS services (IAM, S3, CloudTrail, CloudWatch).
• Administer cloud storage, backup, and recovery processes to ensure data integrity and compliance with retention policies.
• Maintain, administer, and enhance the Foundation's collaboration and communications platforms, including messaging (Slack, Teams), video conferencing (Zoom, Teams), SharePoint, and telephony (Zoom Phone).
• Manage user accounts, security groups, group life cycle policies and access to data in supported systems.
• Contribute to the design and deployment of scalable and secure solutions that align with business needs.
• Monitor, review, and remediate security alerts from Microsoft Defender and other tools, and participate in incident response and proactive risk reduction efforts.

IT Customer Service

• Provide day-to-day IT support to Foundation staff, monitoring and responding to requests, tracking issues, and implementing solutions.
• Maintain and support end-user hardware and applications, including desktops, laptops, peripherals, printers, VoIP phones, and A/V equipment, including workstation setup and teardown.
• Work closely with the facility/IT provider at the physical office location to ensure customer service calls from Foundation users related to building access, connectivity, printing, conference rooms are adequately resolved.
• Provide in-person end user training and/or support to Foundation Staff, including new user setup, orientation and security awareness.
• Support running of webinars for board meetings and external events.

CRM Ecosystem & Emerging Platforms

• Contribute to the ongoing administration and integration of the Advancement CRM ecosystem, including Salesforce and related applications.
• Evaluate, pilot, and support AI tools used across the Foundation, including AI assistants, meeting notetakers, and emerging agentic solutions. Provide guidance to staff on effective and secure use, and assess new offerings as the landscape evolves.
• Collaborate with IT leadership on roadmaps for adopting and optimizing new technologies.
• Develop processes and documentation to support reliable operations and integration across business systems.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Take ownership of complex and advanced technical issues, leading investigation and resolution.
• Collaborate regularly with leadership, vendors, and consultants on IT strategy and operations.
• Partner with business teams on the evaluation, implementation, and ongoing support of new solutions, including reviewing statements of work, supporting data migration, collaborating with vendor implementation teams, and providing technical guidance throughout deployment and beyond.

IV. Other Functions/Responsibilities

• Attends periodic staff meetings and training sessions.
• Complies with proper paperwork procedures, prompt follow-up communications and departmental policies.
• Off-hours and on-call support are required for this position for support of Foundation projects and initiatives, as well as responding to any type of organizational IT related incident.
• When provided access to personal, proprietary and/or otherwise confidential data, maintain information in the strictest of confidence and follow procedure to ensure the privacy, security and proper use of the data.
• This job description is not a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities; special projects and other duties may be required.

VI. Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience)

• Experience supporting CRM platforms and their surrounding ecosystem, including Salesforce, MuleSoft, and related business applications.
• Hands-on experience with AI tools in a business context, including AI assistants (such as Claude, ChatGPT, and/or Copilot), meeting notetakers, and agent-based workflows.
• Experience provisioning and administering virtual machines in cloud environments (AWS and/or Microsoft Azure).
  • Experience supporting SharePoint sites.
  • Experience in higher education and financial services settings.
  • Experience with applications and processes related to fundraising services.
  • Certifications or training from relevant technology providers such as AWS, Microsoft, or Salesforce.

VII. Working Conditions

• Ability to lift/move up to 50 pounds in support of IT equipment setup.
• Occasional evening or weekend work may be required to support organizational needs.
• Hybrid role with expectation of being onsite at the Foundation office in Newton, MA, 2 to 3 days onsite per week as needed or as discussed with your manager.

VIII. Organizational Relationships

Supervisory Responsibilities: none; no direct reports