JANET(UK) VACANCIES

VACANCY NOTICE 328

UNIX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR

Location - Central London

1. ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

JANET Network Operations Centre (NOC) is tasked with operating and maintaining the JANET national backbone, its connections to the Internet and other research networks, and 3 regional access networks used to connect qualifying organisations to JANET. It monitors and deals with issues on the network on a 365x7x24 basis.

To support these responsibilities the NOC has a wide variety of UNIX-based servers  running commercial and locally built open source applications and tools. There is also some inhouse developed software written in shell script, Perl and C for special tasks. The majority of the servers are Sun SPARC/x86 based hardware running Solaris, though Linux on Sun and Dell x86 hardware is increasing in numbers. Some of the servers are based at the NOC but there are a number spread around the network at major points of presence and datacentres.

Staff at the NOC currently use a combination of desktops based on Sun Solaris/x86, MacOS X and Dell Windows. The intention is eventually to migrate the Windows users to a Linux-based desktop.

The UNIX Systems Administrator will be responsible for the day to day operation, support and improvement of the facilities at the NOC within this heterogeneous UNIX environment. This will include responsibility for design and implementation of changes to the environment to support new developments and responsibilities undertaken by the NOC as part of its remit.

2. REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

For the purposes of the annual performance round and line management, the UNIX Systems Administrator will report to the NOC's core engineering team manager.

3. MAIN DUTIES

This vacancy notice sets out the main duties of the post. Specific duties may vary from time to time without changing the general character of the duties or level of responsibility entailed.

The main duties of the post are:

• UNIX System Administration and Technical Support, with responsibility for the delivery of reliable, highly available and high performance environments
• to manage all aspects of the desktop and server environment, from initial requirement through the entire life cycle, including upgrades and eventual replacement
• to conduct Performance Monitoring / Tuning and Capacity Monitoring / Planning
• to investigate and develop new or improved facilities of benefit to the NOC.

 

4. SKILLS REQUIRED

The post-holder should possess the following skills:

• Good, concise communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Ability to develop technical solutions for resolution of complex issues.
• Ability to work in a close-knit team operating in a challenging, fast moving, technical environment.
• An awareness of the public relations implications of the activities of the NOC.
• Ability to exhibit tact, diplomacy and empathy at all levels within JANET(UK).
• Ability to work to a broad task specification on the basis of initiative and in a self-directed, well-motivated and flexible manner.
• Ability to negotiate and resolve conflicting priorities when dealing with stakeholders' needs.
• Ability to prioritise own workload.
• Ability to pick up new skills quickly and learn on the job.

5. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Proven experience of innovative and reliable UNIX System Administration (Solaris and Linux with exposure to other flavours).
• Experience of UNIX and Windows integration would be useful.
• Excellent knowledge of UNIX Performance Monitoring and Tuning.
• Good knowledge of Sun hardware, covering SPARC, X86 and other platforms.
• Excellent Shell Scripting skills. Writing and maintaining administrative scripts and tools, using Perl and other scripting languages.
• Experience of UNIX patch/updates management.
• Solid experience of providing support for UNIX based production applications, including installation of open source software from source code.
• Good working knowledge of networking protocols, network infrastructure and security.
• Knowledge of Firewall management and administration would be useful.
• Knowledge of server products for e-mail, Web and similar services. (e.g Apache, Exim, Wiki, OpenVPN).
• Knowledge of virtualised environments.
• Knowledge of SQL would be useful.

 

6. FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information about this post, please contact Dietrich Nanton, Core Architecture Team Manager, on 0207 269 2739.

Application forms can be downloaded from http://www.ja.net/company/vacancies/index.html or email Vacancies@ja.net

The salary for this position is £34,055 or £42,395 per annum depending on the successful applicant’s qualifications, skills and experience plus London weighting allowance (currently £2,134) per annum.  The position is a full-time, permanent position.

The closing date for completed applications is 12 noon on Friday 10 September 2010. Interviews will be held on Tuesday 21 September 2010.

 

Please note that applications must be made on the Company’s application form and submitted by email only. CVs should not be submitted.

 

JANET(UK) welcomes applications from all sections of the community