[Hiring] Messaging & Collaboration Engineer @American Public Education, Inc. (APEI)

Role Description

The Messaging and Collaboration Engineer designs, supports, and improves the platforms employees use to communicate and work together. This role engineers secure, scalable, and reliable services for email, calendaring, chat, meetings, and file collaboration; resolves complex technical issues; and delivers enhancements, integrations, automation, and lifecycle initiatives that improve the employee experience and business value of collaboration services.

• Engineer, administer, and support enterprise messaging and collaboration platforms, including Microsoft 365, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business.
• Design and implement secure, scalable service configurations, technical standards, and platform enhancements aligned with business, security, compliance, and operational requirements.
• Troubleshoot complex and escalated issues involving mail flow, calendars, meetings, chat, file sharing, permissions, federation, client connectivity, and service integrations.
• Manage and improve service configurations for users, groups, mailboxes, distribution lists, shared mailboxes, retention settings, external collaboration, and related platform capabilities.
• Engineer and maintain security and compliance controls, including access policies, retention, auditing, message protection, information protection, and eDiscovery capabilities in partnership with Security and Legal or Compliance teams.
• Monitor service health, capacity, performance, and availability; lead technical investigation of incidents and recurring problems; and implement corrective and preventive improvements.
• Plan and execute platform updates, migrations, integrations, tenant changes, pilots, and adoption initiatives with appropriate testing, change control, communication, and rollback planning.
• Develop reusable PowerShell automation and reporting to improve administrative accuracy, consistency, visibility, and efficiency.
• Create and maintain architecture diagrams, technical standards, operating procedures, configuration documentation, knowledge articles, and support guidance.
• Partner with identity, security, network, endpoint, service desk, application, and vendor teams to deliver reliable services and cross-functional projects.
• Provide clear technical guidance and communicate service issues, risks, changes, and resolutions to employees, technical teams, and stakeholders.
• Evaluate platform capabilities, usage and adoption of trends, support data, and licensing considerations to recommend improvements that increase collaboration effectiveness and return on investment.

Qualifications

• Three or more years of experience engineering, administering, or supporting enterprise messaging and collaboration services.
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online in a managed enterprise environment, including mail flow, recipient management, service configuration, and troubleshooting.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, email routing, DNS records, authentication, identity, and access management.
• Experience designing or implementing collaboration platform enhancements, migrations, integrations, or significant production changes.
• Working knowledge of security and compliance concepts such as retention, eDiscovery, auditing, data loss prevention, information protection, external sharing, and privileged access.
• Experience troubleshooting complex service issues, performing root cause analysis, and managing changes in a production environment.
• Ability to use PowerShell or another scripting language for administration, reporting, and automation.
• Ability to translate business and technical requirements into secure, supportable platform designs and implementation plans.
• Strong customer service, communication, documentation, prioritization, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and business teams.
• Preferred: experience with Microsoft Purview, Exchange hybrid environments, Microsoft Entra ID, third-party messaging gateways, email authentication technologies, and collaboration integrations.
• Preferred: experience with service monitoring, Microsoft 365 usage reporting, adoption analysis, or license optimization.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, or a related field preferred; equivalent combination of education and relevant experience considered.
• Relevant Microsoft messaging, collaboration, security, or cloud certification preferred.

Competencies

• Collaborates: Builds and maintains effective partnerships with team members and stakeholders, working collaboratively to achieve shared goals and resolve challenges effectively.
• Communicates Effectively: Delivers clear, concise, and tailored communications through various modes (e.g., written, verbal, and visual) to meet the unique needs of diverse audiences.
• Customer Focus: Cultivates strong relationships with internal and external customers by actively listening to their needs and providing timely, customer-centric solutions.
• Demonstrates Self-Awareness: Regularly seeks and incorporates feedback from peers, leaders, and stakeholders to understand and address personal strengths and areas for growth.
• Ensures Accountability: Consistently meets deadlines and delivers on commitments, ensuring work quality and aligning with organizational standards.
• Innovation & Improvement: Encourages forward-thinking solutions, process improvements, and a culture of learning to enhance efficiency and team effectiveness.