IT Support Specialist

GDS Customer AdvocateAdvocate for GDS customer and maintain overall ownership for customer-impacting service requests, problems and incidents during shift/rotation. Primary point-of-contact for communication between internal and external stakeholders regarding ongoing problems, initiatives and projects.ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIESThe essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:Successfully communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.Participate in basic and intermediate-level technical troubleshooting.Provide quality customer service to internal and external customers including thorough and appropriate communication.Ability to understand AND follow GDS Policies, GDS Procedures, and GDS Processes.Work independently and with customers, peers, engineers and partner vendors to diagnose problems and attain resolution within designated Service Level Agreements (SLA).Manage assigned tickets, activities, and projects and ensure all activity and time is properly and thoroughly documented.Ensure the resolution of customer issues in accordance with SLA obligations while maintaining high levels of customer service feedback.Ensure that required communication with customers regarding outages, updates, status changes, etc. are performed appropriately.Participate in meetings for departmental, process, and project planning as required.Provide reports for internal and external use as directed.This role requires the possibility of working, days, nights, weekends, and holidays on a set schedule onsite at GDS office(s). This schedule is subject to change from time to time as business needs change.Ability to prioritize tasks based on workload.Educate internal and external users in the use of GDS offerings.Other duties as assigned.Requirements1+ year Telecommunications and/or NOC/Technical Support Center experience working within a SLA environment.Associate's degree (or equivalent training) in telecommunications or IT/networking support; familiarity with configuring and troubleshooting Cisco based networks; effective troubleshooting and analytical skills; OR an equivalent combination of education and experience.Demonstrate and maintain basic to intermediate level knowledge and industry level certifications (where applicable). Ex: CompTIA Network / A+, CCST, and ITIL foundation certifications preferred.Ability to take ownership, along with excellent customer service and interpersonal skills.Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, and customers.Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.Recognizes problems and responds, systematically gathers information, sorts through complex issues, seeks input from others, addresses root cause of issues, makes timely decisions, can make difficult decisions, uses consensus when possible, and communicates decisions to others.To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of Contact Management systems; Database software; Internet software; Spreadsheet software, Word Processing software, Active Directory Administration, Exchange Administration, Folder permissions, and any other software or application as deemed by business need.Must demonstrate the ability to multi-task in high stress situations while working in a fast-paced environment and maintain professionalism throughout.