Microsoft M365 Administrator (MS Teams and SharePoint Online)

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial, collaborative, and diverse firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you enjoy working with team members whose defining characteristics are exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, you may be the person we are seeking to join our Information Technology in Chicago office as the Microsoft M365 Administrator (MS Teams  and SharePoint Online).

The M365 Administrator will be part of the IT Modern Workplace team. The Modern Workplace Team was created to help the firm’s legal and business professionals to work anywhere, at any time, and on any device. We focus on the core ‘device-top’ applications, which include the M365 ecosystem, the document management system, e-signatures, and more.

The M365 Administrator will oversee the administration of MS Teams, SharePoint Online, Planner, Forms, Viva, and other such M365 collaboration tools. They will work closely with those overseeing other M365 applications - Microsoft Office, Outlook and Exchange, and the MS Power Platform Development tools - and in conjunction technical experts supporting these services, including our IT Architects and our M365 Collaboration Engineer.

The right candidate is expected to provide leadership in establishing robust M365 service administration protocols, and they will work with their colleagues in identifying, documenting, and supporting our business use cases for our evolving, core device-top services.

Essential Functions: 

• Administers the Firm’s M365 collaboration tools, including SharePoint Online, MS Teams, OneNote, Viva Engage, etc.
•  Provisions sites and accounts, and oversees management of the provisioning process, using any tools provided to facilitate the process.
• Continually develops the processes and policies for provisioning
•  Forms a community with the firm’s Global Assistant Director of IT Modern Workplace, the Global Cloud Architect, the Global Enterprise Application Architect (and with others as needed) to provide collective oversight of the M365 ecosystem.
• Promotes optimal useability of M365 services.
• Monitors Microsoft's roadmap for upgrades to M365 services and establishes the mechanisms by which we share relevant changes with our people.
• Assesses, in advance and after the fact, the user impact of improvements to applications in the M365 Hybrid environment, and provides input on change management, adoption, communication and training.
• Works with the office of the Director of Information Governance in ensuring content management policies for M365 are in compliance and updated as business needs evolve.
• Works closely with the IT Information Security team, prioritizing safety of the firm’s people, systems and content.
• Identifies potential points of integration between M365 services on the core device-top and works with technical colleagues to deliver key integrations.
• Promotes use of the data available via the Microsoft admin portal to identify areas of untapped benefit, and to foster our continuing path towards a data-driven organization.
• Provides level three support for functional requests relating to M365 collaboration services.
• Continually evaluates opportunities to improve our people’s experience of technology, preferably in a scalable way.
• A coach and mentor to other team members, providing training if required.
• Fosters trust and builds relationships with the other Information Technology teams.
• Attends regular vendor meetings for areas of expertise, stays informed of latest technology roadmaps, security notifications, and bug/hot fixes.
• Ensures vendors provide proper levels of support, maintain SLA’s, and provide root cause analysis for escalated issues.
• Ensures all team, departmental and firm policies and procedures are adhered to, including technical change management and service continuity.
• Where appropriate, attends user groups independently or with senior managers and makes recommendations of how improvements can be made.
• Attends and contributes to team meetings.
• Completes all administrative tasks, i.e., (time tracking, project and task updates, trouble ticket notes, status reports, responding to email, etc.) accurately and on time.
• Performs other duties as assigned or required to meet Firm goals and objectives.

Qualifications and Experience: 

• Relevant Associate’s degree or certifications, or equivalent work experience, preferably in legal or legal tech industry.
• Prior experience in M365, specifically MS Teams and SharePoint Online administration, and guiding their use within an organization.
• In depth knowledge of SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams is required
• Administrative knowledge of Yammer / Viva Engage is preferred.
• Holistic knowledge of the M365 Suite is required.
• Knowledge of MS Power Platform is preferred.
• Knowledge of Intapp Workspaces is helpful.
• Training in business analysis, consulting and/or client-facing roles.
• Excellent collaboration, interpersonal, and communication skills.

Performance Traits:

• Someone who has learned to lead, and desires to do so, even when there may be no formal lines of reporting; effectively communicates and influence others outside the direct chain of reporting.
• A critical thinker.
• A self-learner.
• Places a priority on the ‘user-experience’.
• Someone who can move quickly from high level thinking to detail orientation, and back.
• A transparent communicator.
• Someone who instinctively develops others.
• The ability to take complex concepts and make them understood to the lay person.
• Methodical and analytical.
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills.
• Naturally inclined to understand and address the unstated pain points in an organization.
• The ability to explore options in concept, to visualize how events may unfold, and to convey these simply to those who need to decide on a best course of action.
• Ability to work both independently and within a team.
• Possesses the empathy to recognize and understand both personal and team dynamics, employing that capability to deliver value and drive results.
• Resilient and able to handle setbacks.
• Penchant for diligently pursuing ideas with new approaches.
• Proven ability to effectively juggle competing priorities and still meet deadlines.
• High level of discretion, comfortable handling sensitive information and maintaining confidentiality.
• Strong adaptability to changing organizational needs.
• Comfort with ambiguity.
• Ability to ‘challenge the status quo’