Systems Administrator

UNC-Chapel Hill•Chapel Hill, NC

25d•Hybrid

About The Position

This position may be eligible for a hybrid work arrangement that may include a partially remote work location, consistent with System Office policy. UNC Chapel Hill employees are generally required to reside within a reasonable commuting distance of their assigned duty station. The primary purpose of the Systems Specialist is to develop and support information technology systems that support the business, research and instructional functions of the College community. This is specialized work involving complex systems, many of which have high information security and uptime standards. This will require providing direct support to users of those systems, generating and maintaining documentation in regard to those systems, researching specialized hardware and software for same for both the research and instructional mission of the College, and manage and install operating systems and software on both real hardware and virtual machines. The work involves the advanced use of software and/or hardware tools to maintain existing and provision new services that are critical to the daily work of the College community. The work requires expertise with core infrastructure elements and how they interrelate to provide a cohesive and stable computing environment. Examples of the specific technologies this position supports include Proxmox, Hyper-V, and vCenter Virtualization Environments; Ansible, Cfengine, or similar configuration management software; Zabbix, or similar monitoring applications; Warewulf or other HPC cluster management, networking and related technologies including containers, Slurm, Infiniband, etc.; Ubuntu/Debian Linux desktop and server; VMware vSphere, Microsoft Server, Synology, NetApp Data Ontap, Citrix Xenapp, Wordpress, and Crowdstrike Falcon and Qualys security software. Although situated within a highly collaborative team environment, this position is expected to work independently to resolve issues, and to perform well under pressure in a dynamic environment with time-sensitive deadlines. Understanding of the configuration of the systems software, applications and space usage is required for employees to determine impacts as changes and enhancements are made to systems. Work includes optimizing systems performance, troubleshooting systems problems, and analyzing usage and systems load issues of a highly technical nature. Work also includes continuous security vulnerability management, detection and response, patch management, compliance scanning, and web application/container security. Work may include interaction with clients, technicians, analysts and specialists to troubleshoot problems related to the use of single and/or multiple information systems. The position’s duties will include creation, installation and modification of software and hardware, as well as testing and documenting on a variety of platforms. May have final technical decision responsibility. This M-F, 8am – 5pm position will also perform other duties as assigned and may work occasional nights and weekends. This position will perform occasional on-call duties as directed by management.

Requirements

At least five years of professional work experience in systems administration and workstation support in both Windows and Linux preferred.
Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively independently with general guidelines and little supervision as well as in a collaborative team.

Nice To Haves

Preferred applicants should have broad and deep knowledge of Linux server operating systems (Ubuntu/Debian); virtualization, management, and security monitoring software including Qualys, VMware vCenter, Proxmox VE, Ansible, Zabbix, Grafana, and familiarity with HPC concepts, GPUs, usage, and management; and familiarity with scientific research software typically used in scientific academic departments.
Strong communication skills and customer-service skills are highly desirable, as this position interacts with faculty, students, and staff of various computer skill levels within the UNC community.
Familiarity with UNC academic and administrative software is preferred.
Prior experience as a collegial colleague who works collaboratively with both leadership and co-workers in a learning-focused environment is preferred.
A demonstrated history of improvement and building upon everyone’s skill sets and talents is preferred.
Previous academic experience and customer service or retail experience is desirable as well.

Responsibilities

Develop and support information technology systems that support the business, research and instructional functions of the College community.
Provide direct support to users of those systems
Generate and maintain documentation in regard to those systems
Research specialized hardware and software for same for both the research and instructional mission of the College
Manage and install operating systems and software on both real hardware and virtual machines
Maintain existing and provision new services that are critical to the daily work of the College community
Optimize systems performance
Troubleshoot systems problems
Analyze usage and systems load issues of a highly technical nature
Continuous security vulnerability management, detection and response, patch management, compliance scanning, and web application/container security.
Creation, installation and modification of software and hardware, as well as testing and documenting on a variety of platforms.
Perform other duties as assigned and may work occasional nights and weekends.
Perform occasional on-call duties as directed by management.