IT Manager: IT Professional Job Roles

Get your IT team Microsoft-certified and experience the change it brings, such as improved project deployment; increased team performance, efficiency, and productivity; and improved customer satisfaction. Review the recommended IT professional job roles to see the training resources and certifications that map to specific IT needs and Microsoft technologies.

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Enterprise administrator

Enterprise administrators deploy and maintain vital business solutions on enterprise platform architectures. They must carefully balance business requirements against platform capabilities in order to maintain a secure and stable environment and a thorough understanding of server solutions, Active Directory, and applications critical to the business. At times, they might need to fulfill an architectural design role. The typical required experience for the enterprise administrator job role is three to eight years.

Server administrator

Server administrators implement and manage one of the most important technologies in the organization—the servers. The role demands expertise in server operating systems, Active Directory, and an array of monitoring and profiling tools that help manage the server environment and tune systems to perform optimally. The typical required experience for the server administrator job role is two to five years.

Database administrator

Database administrators have specialized training in database maintenance and optimization, and they are in charge of an organization’s important data solutions. They ensure that database security, availability, and performance satisfy business requirements. To do this, their expertise must span archival, data distribution, and the design of high-availability solutions. The typical required experience for the database administrator job role is three to five years.

Enterprise messaging administrator

Enterprise messaging administrators are the communications expert who design, plan, and implement high-availability servers dedicated to e-mail, instant messaging, voice mail, and other communication. They monitor and report on server health as well as design and implement disaster recovery and security solutions. They may plan upgrades, migrations, and deployments. The typical required experience for the enterprise messaging administrator job role is two or more years.

Enterprise support technician

Enterprise support technicians are typically the face of IT for people working in medium-sized organizations or larger enterprises who might start by deploying and supporting desktop operating systems. Depending on the company's size, they might specialize in a support area, such as troubleshooting networks or managing security. The typical required experience for the enterprise support technician job role is more than two years.

Consumer support technician

If people on your team are new to information technology, they might want to start their career as a consumer support technician. This role is typically found in a small to medium-sized organization, or in a larger enterprise as tier-1 support. Coming into this role, they probably already know how to implement and troubleshoot desktop operating systems in stand-alone or small home-network environments. This role helps support users with a wide range of desktop operating systems, applications, and mobile devices, plus network, virus, malicious software, and hardware support issues. The typical required experience for the consumer support technician job role is zero to five years.