Data Backup Team Lead

We are seeking a detail-oriented Backup & Recovery Specialist to take ownership of the day-to-day health, reliability, and recoverability of our clients' data backup systems. This position is part of our US-based managed services operation and is responsible for ensuring that client backup solutions are functioning as designed, problems are identified and resolved promptly, and backed-up data can actually be recovered when needed. This is not simply a backup-monitoring position. The Backup & Recovery Specialist is expected to develop a thorough understanding of the backup environments assigned to them and take ownership of their ongoing operation. The successful candidate will recognize that a backup job reporting "successful" is only one part of protecting a client's data. Our goal is to know that the right data is being protected, retention and storage are appropriate, backup infrastructure is healthy, and recovery procedures have been tested and documented. Primary Responsibilities The Backup & Recovery Specialist will manage backup and recovery operations across multiple client environments. Responsibilities include: - Monitor scheduled backup jobs and investigate failures, warnings, missed jobs, and other abnormal conditions. - Troubleshoot backup problems and work with other technical resources when issues involve servers, storage, networking, applications, virtualization platforms, or other infrastructure. - Verify that backup configurations continue to protect the systems, applications, and data they were designed to protect. - Perform scheduled restore tests to validate that backup data is recoverable rather than relying solely on successful backup-job status. - Review backup storage utilization, retention, repository health, and capacity trends and identify potential problems before they result in backup failures. - Maintain accurate documentation of client backup environments, including protected systems, backup schedules, retention policies, storage destinations, recovery procedures, and other information necessary to support recovery. - Assist with file, application, server, virtual machine, and other restoration requests. - Participate in disaster recovery testing and recovery exercises when appropriate. - Identify backup systems that are obsolete, improperly configured, inadequately protected, or otherwise present an unacceptable recovery risk. - Escalate significant backup and recovery risks to technical management rather than allowing unresolved issues to become routine. - Work with other members of the technical team when infrastructure changes may affect existing backup protection. - Assist with the deployment, migration, upgrade, and replacement of backup solutions. - Maintain clear and complete service tickets documenting problems, troubleshooting, remediation, testing, and results. - Help develop and improve internal backup standards, procedures, checklists, and recovery documentation. - Ownership and Accountability A central expectation of this position is ownership. The Backup & Recovery Specialist is responsible for knowing whether assigned client backup environments are healthy and for pursuing identified problems through resolution. A failed backup should not simply generate a ticket that remains open indefinitely, nor should recurring warnings become accepted because they have not yet resulted in data loss. When a problem cannot be resolved directly, the specialist is expected to engage the appropriate internal or external resources, clearly document the issue, and continue tracking it until it has been resolved or formally accepted as a known risk. The specialist must also look beyond individual backup jobs. Changes to servers, storage, applications, virtualization environments, or client operations can create gaps even while existing backup jobs continue to report success. Part of the role is recognizing those gaps and bringing them to the attention of the appropriate team members. Recovery Readiness We consider recovery testing an essential part of backup management. The Backup & Recovery Specialist will therefore be responsible for helping demonstrate that protected data can actually be restored. Depending on the client and system, this may include restoring files, validating application data, recovering virtual machines, testing alternate recovery locations, or participating in broader disaster recovery exercises. Recovery tests must be documented so that another technician can understand what was tested, how the test was performed, whether it succeeded, and what corrective actions were required. Documentation Because our organization operates as a team, backup knowledge cannot reside solely with the person who normally manages a particular client. The Backup & Recovery Specialist is expected to maintain documentation sufficient for another qualified technician to understand the client's backup environment and perform common recovery operations in the specialist's absence. Documentation should accurately reflect the current environment and be updated as configurations change. Qualifications The ideal candidate will have experience supporting backup, server, storage, or infrastructure technologies in an MSP or other multi-client environment. Candidates should have: - Practical experience administering business-class backup and recovery solutions. - Working knowledge of Windows Server environments and common file and application workloads. - Familiarity with virtualization technologies and virtual machine backup and recovery. - Understanding of local and cloud-based backup repositories, retention, capacity, and storage concepts. - General knowledge of networking, DNS, authentication, permissions, and other infrastructure concepts commonly involved in backup troubleshooting. - Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills. - Excellent attention to detail and an ability to recognize recurring or systemic problems. - Strong written documentation skills. - Ability to manage multiple client environments and competing priorities. - Ability to work independently while knowing when an issue requires escalation or assistance from another technical specialist. Experience with Acronis backup technologies is strongly preferred. Experience working for an MSP or managing backup systems across multiple independent organizations is also highly desirable. What Success Looks Like Success in this position is not measured simply by closing backup alerts. It is measured by the reliability and recoverability of the client environments under the specialist's care. A successful Backup & Recovery Specialist knows which systems are protected, notices when something does not look right, investigates recurring problems rather than repeatedly clearing alerts, keeps documentation current, performs meaningful recovery testing, and makes potential risks visible before they become emergencies. When a client needs data restored, our objective is to already know that the recovery process works. About Us We are a US-based managed services provider focused on helping businesses operate securely, reliably, and effectively through technology. Our technical teams work collaboratively across client environments, with an emphasis on ownership, documentation, proactive problem-solving, and continuous improvement. We are looking for someone who views backup and recovery as a professional discipline—not simply another collection of alerts to monitor—and who takes pride in knowing that the systems entrusted to them will be there when our clients need them most.