Wanted: A Meticulous First Mate with a knack for navigating technical storms!  

WHO WE ARE

Entara is a new kind of IT Managed Services Company. We’re built from the ground up to provide the strategic vision, platforms, processes and people to travel with our clients on the path to their best IT future. We partner with mid-sized Chicago organizations to make technology work brilliantly for our clients.

We launched in 2001, as the niche firm YJT Solutions (You Just Trade) helping to solve some of the IT challenges of Chicago’s most intense trading environments. Because of our success working in the financial industry, we branched out to serve other industries over a decade ago.

In 2018, we rebranded to Entara because our company has grown and evolved far beyond its original roots. We are doubling down on making investments in our future to better serve our clients. We are evaluating new toolsets, selecting and integrating the best ones for our future-facing IT Service Management platform, EntaraWorks. We are hiring tomorrow’s leaders, giving them the opportunity to grow beyond what they ever imagined.

We’ve been formally recognized as one of Chicago’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in both 2017, 2018 and 2019. We’ve made the INC 5000 Top Growing Companies list for the last 3 years! Although we’re ranked among MSPmentor’s Top 200 global IT managed services providers, our customers are generally local to the Chicagoland area. Our sole focus is excellence. If you are fond of the phrase “close enough,” please don’t apply for this job. Our success is built on developing exceptional relationships with fellow co-workers and clients alike, as we collaboratively chart our best paths forward to the future.

Frodo couldn’t do it alone. He needed a team. Entara values teamwork and collegiality, especially on those days that feel like a march to Mordor.  At Entara, everyone has a role to play, everyone leads in one situation or another, and everyone has the opportunity to grow into positions of increasing responsibility. If your goal is to be Lord of the Ring, please don’t apply for this job. If you want to join the Fellowship of the Ring, please do apply!

EMBARK ON YOUR JOURNEY

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

(Otherwise known as the fine print, the list of job tasks and responsibilities.)

Our clients trust Entara with ensuring that their technical operations are executing to perfection day and night, 24x7x365. Entara’s IT Service Desk Coordinator is tasked with assisting our Managed Services leader and engineers with navigating the choppy waters in a sea of technical opportunities, responding to the ebb and flow of incidents. The IT Service Desk Coordinator will report directly to the Director of Managed Services and act as the first point of contact for client support activity to review, update, assign, and escalate issues within the appropriate timeframe and to the most capable resource. Our IT Service Desk Coordinator will be asked to have the ability to “float” and utilize their administrative know-how to help execute key operational process tasks inclusive of calendar management, team scheduling, documentation, and reporting.

• Ticket Triage:
  • Be the first point of contact for all issues and triage using our standard processes
  • Follow New Call Process to:
    • Answer Service Desk telephone calls and emails, gathering necessary details
    • Gather required information to identify pertinent ticket details
    • Assess urgency and impact
    • Utilize technical judgement to assign and escalate issues based on their specifications
    • Create ticket

• Ticket and Resource Management:
  • Be available and logged into the Managed Services support queues and required tools
  • Ensure SLAs are being met on open tickets and escalate as required
  • Follow Dispatch Process to:
    • Pick up open tickets in the queue (both new calls and monitoring alerts)
    • Analyze incoming system/network issues
    • Consult with users about the nature of experienced system/network issues
    • Review ticket details to understand the scope and skillset required to address the issue
    • Prioritize and assign ticket to the appropriate engineer(s)
  • Update Clients as necessary regarding their open tickets
  • Follow Client Escalation Process for identified Priority 1 “P1” tickets
  • Assist in calendar management and organization of resources under the direction of our Command Center Manager

• Operations Assistance:
  • Perform delegated tasks at the direction of the Director of Managed Services and Command Center Manager, including but not limited to:
    • Team Calendar Management: additions, adjustments, and improving functionality
    • Team Scheduling: following pre-set guidelines and availability restrictions, schedule on-site resources to meet client needs & draft monthly-quarterly Overnight Dispatch schedule
    • Transition Reports: Draft for use by Overnight Dispatch team, review morning transition reports for adherence to standards, assist in process refinement
    • Ad Hoc Projects aimed at process improvement, reporting translation, etc.
  • Observe department performance and identify opportunities for efficiency or process improvement to recommend to Director of Managed Services.
  • Employ a “be of help” attitude with MS Engineers who need administrative assistance: if you can step in and make their lives easier- help make it happen.   

WHO YOU ARE: REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Entara provides local, live coverage 24x7-- just like a hospital does. You’re available to work between 45-55 hours a week, fluctuating based on demand, client needs, and team availability. Generally, these hours will be during normal operating hours, Monday-Friday. We are looking for that rare breed that doesn’t shy away when we need “reinforcements”. You are open to occasional weekends and in a pinch, could be pulled to back-fill for our Overnight-Dispatch team- picking up 4 hour shifts into the wee hours of the morning to ensure our clients never are wanting for a helping hand!
• You have at least 1-2 year(s) of experience in a role that required you to autonomously perform both concurrent and sequential tasks, as well as administrative oversight,  in a timely and accurate fashion. You enjoy roles that follow a set process and require an attentiveness to the details. Our ideal candidate would already have experience with dispatch (even if it’s of another flavor).   
• You have at a minimum obtained your high school diploma and ideally have dabbled in higher education (i.e. a specialized certification, Associates, or Bachelors in a related field). You are a fast-learner (especially when it comes to navigating technical tools) and comprehension was one of your strengths in school. 
• At the end of a long day, you pride yourself on the influence you had on another person’s day. It’s not just about mindlessly doing a task, you enjoy bridging the gap for our clients and ensuring their issues get resolved in a timely manner.
• You are fascinated by the technical industry and want to gain exposure to (and be a valuable part of) the internal operations of one of Chicago’s Best Managed Service Providers!

WHO YOU ARE: PERSONALITY-WISE

• A Combo Meal: Your style is winningly ambidextrous. While you take the time to cross every “i” and dot every “t”, you also can accommodate the need for responsiveness and speed. You take the initiative to try to find the answer yourself, but exercise the self-awareness to know when you should ask for help. Even when your tasks seem like they are multiplying exponentially, you find a method in the madness and distill the top priorities requiring immediate action.
• A Personal Stake: When you screw up, the person who is most disappointed is always you. You take great pride in the quality of your work and the way in which you deliver it. Some people are fine with settling for “very good,” but you have your eye on the prize: excellence. You are self-motivated in respect to your work because you view it as a reflection of yourself and what you have to offer. You often find that the standards you set for yourself are even higher than what others expect of you, and you learn from your mistakes.
• Resilience of a rubber band: You don’t snap when stretched to your limits by panicked, frustrated and/or irate users who probably tried to solve the problem themselves before calling the Service Desk and are therefore operating on their last nerve. You have the temperament of a Zen monk on a Rocky Mountain high.
• You enjoy the rhythm of a checklist: Checking for open issues, gathering the details, determining the urgency, scheduling follow-ups, and communicating next steps. That’s your preferred cup of tea!
• Appetite for learning: You’re always reaching for the next apple on the knowledge tree, as well as the last piece of pizza in the box. Learning is its own reward—but it also helps when you have your eye on a job in the next tier. You like working in a managed-knowledge organization that promotes from within as you gain experience.
• You play fair. You live by all those early childhood lessons about treating people with respect, keeping your commitments, listening to the views of others, resolving conflict through negotiation, communicating clearly, and contributing to a positive team effort. You place team success above your individual interests. 

We’re serious about these qualities. If they don’t apply to you, you won’t be happy at Entara and we won’t be happy with you. We’ll part ways sooner rather than later.  Let’s avoid all that discomfort by agreeing you won’t contort yourself to meet requirements that just don’t fit. You are who you are, and that’s okay.

WHAT YOU GET IN RETURN

You’ll have a direct impact on our operations, our clients, and our fellow EntaraCorps members. Because of that impact, you’ll get our respect and gratitude for the role you play in making Entara the best it can be.

We’ll provide you with skills, training, responsibility and opportunities to grow, both at Entara and wherever your career takes you in the future. (However, we hope you’ll be successful here for a good, long time.)

We consider mentoring and participating in the continual learning of others to be absolutely essential for both you and your co-workers. You’ll benefit by developing your leadership skills—and by having a replacement ready when you’re ready to move up to another position.

We know that’s not enough.

Here are some of the employee benefits we currently offer:

• BCBS Gold-level PPO Medical Insurance, premiums paid 100% by us
• Generous and flexible Paid Time Off policy
• 401k Corporate Matching Program
• Reimbursement for approved certification tests and training, seminars, conferences and more
• Dental Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Healthcare Savings Account (HSA)
• Dependent Care FSA
• Tax-advantaged Commuter Benefit Plans
• Company-wide outings every three months. Recent examples include Ravinia concerts, rooftop barbecues, floating the Chicago River, bowling & bocce, laser tag, and vintage gaming at Headquarters, among other things!

And there’s more…

Free snacks and drinks, weekly lunches, and “Fridays at Four.” Combine that with the chance to work with a variety of clients in some of the most interesting industries around, solve big problems, create new pathways in managed services, and help to lead our clients and ourselves deep into the future, and Entara becomes the one IT company that’s hard to beat.

And there’s even more...                                

Our spirit is what makes us different. We work hard. We play hard. We care about each other because we respect where each of us comes from and who we are. We have a more evolved notion of teamwork--solving client problems together and scouring the horizon for new ideas together. We recognize the journey we’re all on, from our clients to ourselves. We’re all at different places on that journey, and each stop requires support, knowledge and courage to move on. It’s why we bring the best tools and support to our clients. And why we treat and reward our EntaraCorps the way we do.