Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled
Portland State University
Position Details
Proposed Start Date12/01/2025Classification TitleInfo Technology Consultant 1Working TitleService Desk Support SpecialistDepartment610150 - OIT Academic Technology Services (ATS)Position NumberD92703RepresentationOP - SEIU/OPEU Local 503Position FTE1.0End date, if applicable
Brief Description of PSU/School/Dept
Portland State University (PSU) is a thriving campus of 27,000 students in downtown Portland, easily accessible by bike and public transit and surrounded by many restaurants, food carts, parks, and local businesses. PSU is committed to offering opportunities to students from a variety of backgrounds, and prides itself on providing access for low-income and nontraditional students. Our motto to “let knowledge serve the city”, reflects our dedication to finding innovative, sustainable solutions to local and global problems. Our location in the heart of one of America’s most dynamic cities gives our students unmatched access to career connections and an internationally acclaimed culture scene.
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) knows that there is plenty of competition in the high-tech industry. So what makes OIT unique? The innovative people that work here often cite the engaging work culture, leadership’s investment in professional development and career advancement, and our dedication to autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In OIT, you’ll experience firsthand our culture of inclusion, how we encourage a healthy work-life balance, and strive to support our employees professionally and personally. We are a department of dynamic, engaged, collaborative, and communicative people, and seek to attract more of the same. Read more about why Computerworld Top 100 Best Places to Work in IT named OIT as a great place to work for eight years running at https://www.pdx.edu/oit/employment
Position Summary
The Service Desk Support Specialist provides direct technical support to the campus community and assists in facilitating smooth and functional operations of the Service Desk team.
A day in your life at work may look like this: In the morning, you’ll check the schedule against any callouts and redistribute some of our student workforce to ensure support locations are covered for the day. Then, you’ll check the Help Desk support queue for new tickets and follow up on any requests you’re already handling. After that, you’ll staff the in-person, phone, and chat queues for a block of time. Along the way, you may gather with a team of people to consult on a particularly difficult customer issue. On some days, you might be the staff member on duty tasked with monitoring Slack, our team’s communication platform, and assisting student agents with handling customer requests and any other logistical things that arise during the day. After that, you may head to a project meeting for an hour, giving your perspective on the project’s impact on support operations, and be assigned tasks to handle before the next project meeting. At the end of the day, you’ll review your existing requests, send out some questions or updates, and know that tomorrow will bring new challenges your way.
The Support Specialist will provide:
Technical Support (30%):
- Provide direct technical support to campus constituents in person
- Staff phone queue, answering incoming support calls
- Active monitoring of ticket queues and proactively addressing issues
- Monitor chat and respond to customer inquiries
- Create, service, and complete help requests in the ticketing system
Escalation Support (30%):
- Act as an escalation point and support for the student team, troubleshooting more advanced technical and customer service issues, and facilitating clear escalations to the correct resources.
- Respond to and take ownership of challenging or unusual and escalated technical support requests.
- Foster and maintain relationships between Tier 1 and other units, including information sharing and regular coordination on shared topics and areas of support.
- Guide student employees to address tickets in the queue so that they are resolved promptly.
Team Support (20%):
- Work with the service desk team to support and coordinate our service operations.
- As a team, answer questions, address concerns, and generate support documentation as needed to improve team effectiveness.
- Work with student coordinators and the team lead to build and maintain an effective schedule.
- Participate in performance evaluation and management, providing feedback, coaching, and mentoring to student team members as needed.
- Assist in the creation and maintenance of team dashboards and processes such as QA review.
Team Project and Task Support (15%):
- Contribute to inter-team projects by creating project documentation, setting goals and deadlines, and following up on outstanding action items and deliverables.
- Provide frontline support perspective to project managers, system administrators, and developers as needed.
- Support project team members with tasks and assignments as needed
Other Duties as Assigned (5%)
Minimum Qualifications from Classification
This classification requires a basic foundation of knowledge and skills of technology and information systems generally obtained through an AA degree in computer science, information systems, educational technology, communications, or related fields, or similar certified course work in applicable fields of study and at least one year of related work experience.
Additional Minimum Qualifications for this Position
A successful candidate will have experience and knowledge in all of the following:
- Experience working in a collaborative, technical, team-oriented environment.
- Experience providing customer service/support.
- Ability to communicate with both technical and non-technical customers with diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
- Experience with Mac and/or PC operating systems.
- Familiarity with common computing hardware, such as desktops, laptops, and smartphones.
Preferred Qualifications
A successful candidate will have experience and knowledge in some of the following:
- Experience writing procedures or technical documentation.
- Familiarity with printers, copiers, or other office equipment.
- Experience with ticketing systems or other request-tracking tools.
- Basic knowledge of networking concepts and troubleshooting.
- Experience working in an IT support role.
We ask our employees and applicants (that’s you!) to align with our OIT Attributes for Success:
– – – Coaching: ability to give, accept, and incorporate feedback from others.
– – – Communication: exchange information and ideas well, both verbally and in writing; communication is an essential tool for effective work and maintaining healthy working relationships.
– – –Innovation: leverage information, imagination, and initiative to identify and build systems and services that create value for our campus community.
– – – Proactive: identify and initiate opportunities to take action and prevent potential problems or threats.
– – – Teamwork: identify with the larger organizational team and your role within it; share resources, respond to requests, and support OIT organizational strategy.
Key Cultural Competencies
- Creates an environment that acknowledges, encourages and celebrates differences.
- Functions and communicates effectively and respectfully within the context of varying beliefs, behaviors, orientations, identities and cultural backgrounds.
- Seeks opportunities to gain experience working and collaborating in diverse, multicultural, and inclusive settings with a willingness to change for continual improvement.
- Adheres to all PSU policies including the policies on Prohibited Discrimination & Harassment and the Professional Standards of Conduct.
Environmental Stewardship
Contributes to a culture of environmental stewardship, practices resource conservation, and actively works toward achieving long-term sustainability goals.
Work Days/HoursOn-Campus, normally Monday-Friday 8am - 5pm with the possibility of some overtime.Total Compensation Range & Benefits Statement
The starting annual salary rate for this position will be between $37,704 and $43,728 per year with an excellent benefits package, including 95% employer-paid health insurance premiums (employees and eligible dependents) and significantly reduced tuition rates for employees and eligible dependents at any of the Oregon Public Universities. After completing six full months, employees are eligible for an employer-paid retirement program in addition to two voluntary programs. Wellness options include access to the PSU rec center at a reduced rate and free wellness programs. For a better understanding of how all these benefits enhance the value of your annual salary, visit the PSU Total Compensation Calculator page. You will need to pass a background check and must be legally authorized to work in the United States, as our department is unable to sponsor visa applications.
Supplemental Questions Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).
- * This position is not eligible for employer sponsorship. Will you now, or in the future, require sponsorship to work in the US?
(Open Ended Question)
- * How did you first find out about this position?
- PSU Website
- Indeed.com
- HERCJobs
- Urban League of Portland
- Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber
- Oregon Employment Department
- Social Media
- Person Referral
- Career Builder
- Glass Door
- Other - Please describe in the next Question
- If you selected Other, please describe.
(Open Ended Question)
Applicant Documents Required Documents- Resume
- Cover Letter
- Professional References
Optional Documents
Equal employment opportunity, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.
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