Systems Administrator

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation's top public universities. Known for its beautiful campus, world-class medical care, commitment to the arts and top athletic programs, Carolina is an ideal place to teach, work and learn.

One of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, Chapel Hill has diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.

University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package, paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.

In partnership with faculty, staff and graduate students, OASIS provides thoughtful, innovative, and sustainable technical solutions to advance the College's mission to 'prepare people to solve the world's most challenging problems.' Information Services provides information technology services in support of the College of Arts and Science's mission; specifically, it puts a personal face on technology services, delivering 'hands-on' personal, network, and instructional technology support to the College community. The Office: (1) coordinates all information technology services at the College level; (2) establishes and implements College level computing policy and procedures; (3) represents and advocates information technology interests of the College to the broader community; and (4) acts as the primary liaison between the College and University Information Technology Services. The Office reports directly to the Dean's office, College of Arts and Sciences.

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.

Master's and 1-2 years' experience; or Bachelors and 2-4 years' experience; or will accept a combination of related education and experience in substitution.

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.

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.

Ability to move standard office equipment for purposes of new systems deployment, upgrades, and problem troubleshooting. Ability to kneel and/or climb to maintain rack-mounted hardware in computer data centers. Ability to rack and unrack equipment up to 50 lbs. for maintenance and upgrades, and equipment over 50 lbs. with assistance.

The University is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all to apply without regard to age, color, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.