Senior Systems Administrator

University of Toronto • Toronto, ON

13d • CA$103,367 - CA$132,188 • Onsite

About The Position

The University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) system is the largest academic library in Canada. Scholars Portal, a department of UTL, develops and operates shared digital infrastructure and technology services that support university libraries in Ontario and across Canada. This role supports the infrastructure and operational environment that underpins Scholaris, Canada's national shared institutional repository service. The Senior Systems Administrator will be responsible for the administration, monitoring, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the systems and platforms that support Scholaris, focusing on service reliability, security, performance, scalability, and operational sustainability. The incumbent will work closely with systems team members, developers, librarians, and external partners on server provisioning, configuration management, deployment support, patching, monitoring, backup and recovery, and disaster preparedness. They will contribute to the automation of routine operational tasks, support CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices, and participate in the planning and implementation of platform upgrades and service enhancements. As part of a collaborative team, the Senior Systems Administrator will help maintain and improve a robust, highly available repository service that supports institutions across Canada. The incumbent will troubleshoot complex infrastructure and application issues, contribute to incident response and root cause analysis, and work with colleagues to ensure Scholaris continues to evolve as a secure, reliable, and sustainable national research infrastructure.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum five (5) years of relevant experience in systems administration, infrastructure operations, or platform support
• Extensive experience administering and supporting Linux-based production environments
• Experience deploying, maintaining, and troubleshooting highly available, resilient, and secure systems
• Experience supporting distributed systems and services in a production environment
• Strong knowledge of operating systems administration, networking, storage, and core infrastructure concepts
• Experience with configuration management, automation, and infrastructure management tools (e.g., Ansible, Chef, or equivalent)
• Experience administering web servers, reverse proxies, and load balancing technologies (e.g., Apache, Nginx, HAProxy, or equivalent)
• Experience with containerization and related platform technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, or equivalent), preferably in on-premises environments
• Experience supporting virtualization and infrastructure platforms using open-source technologies (e.g., KVM, OpenStack, or equivalent)
• Experience supporting databases and backend services in a production environment, including writing and maintaining SQL scripts; familiarity with technologies such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ, or Elasticsearch is an asset
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with technical and non-technical colleagues
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment, and to contribute to documentation, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement

Nice To Haves

• Accountable
• Efficient
• Goal oriented
• Organized
• Responsible
• Self-directed
• Team player

Responsibilities

• Designing and implementing new operating systems and subsystems server software
• Planning and implementing expansion and enhancement of IT networks independently
• Analyzing, troubleshooting and testing highly complex systems
• Developing and updating architectural framework for highly complex and confidential university-wide IT systems

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior