IT Support Lead

Why Naughty Dog?

For nearly 40 years, Naughty Dog has been crafting best-selling, critically acclaimed games that constantly push the boundaries of narrative, gameplay, and technology. We’ve been busy at the Kennel, most recently releasing The Last of Us Part I, a complete and faithful remake of the original game, rebuilt from the ground up and fully optimized for the PlayStation 5 and currently in development for PC. As a part of the Naughty Dog legacy, you’ll be continuing the development of extraordinary and enduring experiences for a broad, global range of audiences.

Naughty Dog games have long been lauded for their evocative, character-driven stories and attention to detail. We are committed to innovation within our games and as such have curated some of the top creative and technically innovative minds in the industry. We welcome a diverse group of candidates and believe that a broad range of cultural and life experiences contribute to the overall well-being and success of the studio and the titles we craft together.

We are looking for a highly qualified on-site IT Support Lead to join our team to manage our support team and services. This individual will be responsible for support of our local and remote users, core infrastructure, and development hardware and software. This position will lead and evaluate the internal support staff, contribute to internal support, and drive continuous improvement within the IT Department.

The ideal candidate will have an expert technical background, exceptional customer service skills, previous experience in a Support Lead or Manager role, and be well versed in all matters of hardware and software within a Windows and Linux environment. A strong passion for researching, deploying, and supporting groundbreaking hardware and software solutions is also critical.

Are you interested in supporting and learning from some of the most talented people in the industry, taking on new challenges, and being an integral part of developing great games? If so, we would love to hear from you!

Who we're looking for:

• Lead Naughty Dog’s user support team and evaluate individual and team performance
• Ensure end user support is timely and accurate every day
• Collaborate with IT and Studio Leadership to drive the roadmaps for IT support services, end-user hardware and software support, and future technologies
• Implement ITIL and best practice framework to continuously improve service goals and reporting
• Lead reporting on KPIs and SLAs to studio leadership.
• Handle monitoring and maintaining of system performance, IT system operations, internal tools, and storage utilization
• Manage patching and updating of desktop hardware and software
• Lead support for various applications such Enterprise Office 365, Slack, Zoom, MS Teams, Zendesk, JIRA, Parsec, etc.
• Manage configuration, deployment, and maintenance of desktop and development hardware
• Assist in the racking and installation of server, networking, and desktop equipment
• Perform ongoing analysis of IT processes and workflows as well as hardware and software to determine appropriate improvements
• Create and maintain installation, procedure, and support documentation
• Collaborate with the various stakeholders and teams to assist in troubleshooting, identifying root causes, and improve development and support workflows
• Collaborate with the greater SIE teams and PlayStation Studios to facilitate ongoing project partnerships
• Provide advanced technical support to users when required
• Provide mentorship and training to members of the IT Team
• Follow up with customers to ensure satisfaction and identify areas of improvement
• Prepare cost analysis and budget plans/proposals as needed
• Additional responsibilities to be assigned as needed

What skills you will use:

• Must have 10+ years of IT experience with 3+ Years in a support Lead or Manager position as a people and technical manager
• Must have experience working in a highly distributed, Windows/Linux based production, or studio environment
• Must have Excellent written and verbal communication skills, customer service, and organizational skills
• Must have experience developing and setting strong personnel performance goals, team building, and providing 1 on 1 mentorship
• Must have Experience with configuration and administration of project and incident tracking systems such as JIRA, Zendesk ServiceNow, etc.
• Must have a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent education + experience
• Possess strong documentation skills
• Possess strong understanding of imaging and software deployment tools
• Possess a collaborative and team-oriented mentality
• Experience developing, managing, and reporting on SLAs
• Experience with virtualization technologies such as VMWare and Hyper-V
• Experience with configuration management or infrastructure as code such as Ansible
• Experience with vulnerability management solutions such as Qualys, Tanium, Carbon Black, etc.
• Experience with OKTA or similar access management platforms
• Ability to clearly articulate ideas in user-friendly language to end-users and studio leadership
• Ability to be on-call to cover after hours support for the studio should the requirement emerge
• Ability to travel on-site for after hours emergency support should the need arise

Bonus Skills:

• Familiarity with Azure Active Directory
• Familiarity with Linux Ubuntu
• Familiarity with Netapp hardware
• Familiarity with outsourcing pipelines and partnerships
• Experience with terminal services
• Experience with Perforce
• Experience with cloud AWS management
• A passion for games

As part of the Naughty Dog application process, candidates should expect to be given a technical interview.

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression, and gender reassignment), race (including color, nationality, ethnic, national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees, and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

#LI-AB1