Acumen Logistics
Reports To: Technology Director
Location: Northampton, with regular travel to all Acumen Group sites
Contract: Permanent, full-time
Hours: Business hours. Occasional out-of-hours for planned maintenance and incident response.
THE ROLE
Acumen Group is a specialist automotive logistics business operating from nine sites across England, with its head office in Northampton. Its subsidiary, Aculogic Ltd, develops a suite of SaaS products serving the automotive supply chain.
The group is investing in a dedicated in-house IT function to ensure its infrastructure keeps pace with the growing demands of the business. The strategic direction is set by the Technology Director: migrate the on-premises server estate to cloud, standardise the network across all sites, and continue strengthening security and operational practices. This role is the lead person on executing that strategy.
This is the only UK-based IT role in the organisation. You will work alongside two offshore support analysts who handle remote first and second-line support. You are the on-site capability, the escalation point for infrastructure issues, and the Technology Director's delivery arm for all UK-based IT activity. The right person will bring knowledge of how modern IT environments should work, contribute informed recommendations, and deliver against approved plans.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Infrastructure and Cloud Migration
Cloud migration: Deliver the technical execution of migrating the server estate (currently 9 VMs, Windows Server 2016, third-party hosted) to a cloud model (Azure or equivalent). Contribute to architecture evaluation under the Technology Director's direction.
Identity and access: Manage Active Directory, AD Connect, and Entra ID. Support the planned evolution towards cloud-native identity as the migration progresses.
Virtual desktop: Maintain the existing RDS environment. Research and present modern alternatives (Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365) for consideration.
Microsoft 365: Administer the M365 tenant including Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Entra ID conditional access, and licensing.
Backup and DR: Manage the current backup regime and contribute to the design of the target cloud-native approach. Support development and testing of the disaster recovery plan.
Network and Site Infrastructure
Network standardisation: Execute the approved plan to move from the current mixed firewall estate to a consistent, centrally managed platform with uniform security policies across all nine sites.
Connectivity: Manage WAN circuits and site-to-site VPN architecture. Deliver approved resilience improvements. Contribute to the assessment of modern connectivity options (SD-WAN, direct cloud connectivity) as infrastructure evolves.
LAN and wireless: Maintain switches, wireless access points, cabling, and IP addressing across all sites.
Endpoints, Security, and Compliance
Endpoint lifecycle: Procure, build, deploy, and dispose of laptops and peripherals to a standard baseline. Support the evaluation of modern provisioning tools (Intune, Autopilot) as directed.
Security posture: Maintain and continuously improve the group's technical security posture. Administer endpoint protection, email security, MFA, and DNS filtering. Provide recommendations as the environment evolves.
Patching: Implement and maintain a structured patching and vulnerability management process with compliance reporting.
Compliance: Support Cyber Essentials certification, the security awareness training programme, and annual penetration testing coordination. Operate within the group's IT Governance Policy Suite.
Support, Operations, and Vendor Management
On-site support: Provide hands-on support across all nine sites (Northampton, Coventry, Halifax, Redditch, Bognor Regis, Burton-upon-Trent, Derby, Halewood, Doncaster) for issues that cannot be resolved remotely.
Incident response: Act as the on-site responder for infrastructure incidents requiring physical intervention.
Service management: Use SolarWinds IT Service Desk and Observability for ticketing and monitoring. Maintain the IT asset register.
Vendors: Operational point of contact for ISPs, firewall support, managed print, and specialist contractors. Manage procurement, on-site engineering visits, domain renewals, and certificate management.
REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
Cloud and modern infrastructure: Practical understanding of cloud services (Azure, AWS, or equivalent). Able to contribute to architecture decisions on cloud migration, hybrid identity, and cloud-native DR. You don't need to be an architect, but you need to know what good looks like.
Microsoft 365 and Entra ID: Solid M365 administration experience including Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, conditional access, and licence management.
Windows Server: Hands-on AD, Group Policy, DNS, and DHCP experience for managing the current estate during the migration period.
Networking: Strong TCP/IP, VPN, firewall, and VLAN fundamentals. Able to assess a multi-site network and contribute to standardisation planning.
Endpoint management: Experience deploying and managing Windows endpoints at scale. Familiarity with Intune and Autopilot is highly desirable.
Security: Genuine understanding of cyber security principles and current best practice, including zero trust, least privilege, and defence in depth. Not just product knowledge
Communication: Clear communicator with non-technical colleagues and senior stakeholders. Comfortable working independently and presenting options with trade-offs.
Mobility: Full UK driving licence. Willingness to travel regularly across England with occasional overnight stays.
Desirable
Azure IaaS/PaaS, Azure Virtual Desktop, or Azure Migrate experience. Intune and Autopilot. Infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Bicep). SD-WAN awareness. ITIL fundamentals. Relevant certifications (AZ-104, MS-102, CompTIA Security+) are welcome but practical ability and modern thinking matter more. Multi-site experience.
WHAT THIS ROLE OFFERS
You will be the only UK-based IT person in the group, reporting directly to the Technology Director, with real responsibility for delivery and the opportunity to contribute to how the infrastructure evolves. The group is investing in its IT capability to match the pace of business growth: cloud migration, network standardisation, modern security tooling, and Cyber Essentials certification. Strategy is set by the Technology Director; you'll be the person making it happen. You'll work alongside a small, capable team and a Technology Director who is technically hands-on and invested in the success of the function.
Pay: £40,000.00-£45,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Experience:
Licence/Certification:
Work authorisation:
Willingness to travel:
Work Location: In person