System Administrator

University of Toronto • Toronto, ON

6d • CA$67,916 - CA$86,855 • Onsite

About The Position

The Faculty of Arts & Science is seeking a System Administrator for the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory focused on information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. The Citizen Lab uses a mixed-methods approach combining political science, law, computer science, and area studies to research topics such as digital espionage, internet filtering, online freedom of expression, privacy, security, and transparency mechanisms related to corporate and state surveillance. The System Administrator will support and maintain the group’s computer and network systems, provide end-user technical support, and remotely support researchers and contractors in different time zones. This role requires meticulous attention to detail, procedural discipline, and a strong understanding of security standards to ensure system integrity and data protection.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related discipline or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum three years or recent and related experience in a similar complex networked research computing environment, supporting administrative, academic and active research staff who work in the fields of law, political science and information technology/security.
• Demonstrated ability to adhere to detailed, multi-step procedures for administering security protocols on work-issued equipment used by others.
• Demonstrated skills in consistently following established guidelines for system access, configuration, monitoring, and compliance, ensuring that all actions are performed accurately and in the prescribed sequence.
• Working knowledge of a range of computing equipment and operating software including Apple Mac laptops, iPhones, iPads (macOS, iOS/iPadOS), PC compatibles (Windows 7, 10, 11 and specialized builds like Windows Server or LTSC), Unix/Linux servers and workstations (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Alma, Rocky and derivatives), disk drives, NAS appliances, monitors, docks, KVM switches, ILOM controllers, Windows (workstation, server, terminal services), TCP/IP, SMB, NFS, DNS, Internet services (HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, TLS/SSL, etc.), Ansible, Palo-Alto firewall, Switches, GitLab, GitHub, Mosyle Apple Mobile Device Management, Google Workspace, Linux KVM virtual machines (e.g., ProxMox or QEMU), containers (e.g., Docker or Podman), and a variety of programming/scripting languages (e.g., Perl, Python PHP, shell, C) and database monitoring, backup and administration (e.g., SQLite, PostgreSQL, mySQL).
• Working knowledge and experience with Google Workspace administration, monitoring and security features/functionality, including Gmail, Google Calendar, GDrive and Google Meet.
• Working knowledge and experience supporting and managing password and secret/credential managers (e.g., Bitwarden, KeePass, 1Password, Hashicorp Vault).
• Experience with router and switch configuration and security, creating and supporting VLANs and VPNs, including WireGuard, and network monitoring.
• Experience with SIEM and log analytics platforms, such as Kibana or Grafana.
• Experience with fleet management and orchestration tools such as Puppet, Ansible, Chef and Salt. Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) technologies and languages such as AWS CloudFormation, Bicep and Terraform.
• Experience with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python) and LEMP (Linux, nginx, MySQL, PHP/Python) open source web server stacks, including cloud deployments, CI/CD pipelines, and automated SSL/TLS certificate management, provisioning and deployment using ACME (e.g., certbot).
• Demonstrated understanding of networks, network management techniques, networking equipment (routers, switches, hubs, bridges, firewalls and proxy servers, fibre-optic and copper/Ethernet connections, etc.) and supporting general productivity software packages on macOS and iOS (e.g., Microsoft Office online and desktop/mobile apps, Adobe suite, SaaS applications and services such as MailChimp).
• Demonstrated understanding of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography concepts, such as digital signatures, private and public keys and certificates.
• Demonstrated understanding of Apple ecosystem (macOS, iOS, iPadOS, iCloud encryption and recovery key management, etc) security features, including firmware locking, whole disk encryption (FileVault), and secure boot process.
• Strong commitment to high quality service and must be able to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
• Strong initiative and the ability to work independently, while exercising sound judgment to know when to escalate issues or seek guidance.
• Strong analytical skills, energetic, enthusiastic attitude, and time management skills to permit simultaneous action on many tasks, many of which will demand timely completion.
• Ability to handle, lift and manipulate computer hardware and electronic equipment and relevant testing equipment.

Nice To Haves

• Communicator
• Analytical
• Proactive
• Problem solver
• Responsible

Responsibilities

• Monitoring the performance and integrity of servers, including cloud SaaS applications.
• Troubleshooting networking issues.
• Troubleshooting and resolving server/systems issues.
• Conducting detailed analysis of system performance to inform management decision making.
• Generating concise diagnostic reports.
• Making minor equipment repairs.
• Introducing variations to established practices to resolve end-user issues.
• Probing for information to establish needs.

What This Job Offers

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