Information Technology Services Classification Level Range C Reports to. Manager ITS Infrastructure Effective Date June 29 th, 2015 Position Summary

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Judith Allen
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1 Athabasca University Professional Position Description Section I Position Update Only Information Position Title Senior System Administrator Position # , Department Information Technology Services Classification Level Range C Reports to Manager ITS Infrastructure Effective Date June 29 th, 2015 Position Summary Briefly describe the main purpose(s) of the position Classification Review Under the general direction of the Manager ITS Infrastructure, this position is primarily responsible for the system administration of the enterprise Linux OS based computer servers, both physical and virtual, within Athabasca University, along with system administration of web services deployed on said computer servers. The position also supports all of the Linux OS development and test environments deployed within the ITS portfolio and provides level 2 technical support to the Windows OS servers on an as needed basis. Performing support of the above servers requires advanced system administration experience, with particular emphasis on high availability (HA), security and compliance with AU service standards. Duties and Responsibilities Organize by key responsibility area and include % of time spent where possible Working in a complex environment the incumbent will work closely with other ITS units, AU developers, web editors, and identified operational groups within the university governance structures to ensure technical requirements for projects are delivered and AU s infrastructure is maintained in a high availability model. Linux and Web System Administration Responsible for providing input to the Operations management team to define server requirements for proposed new servers, or upgrades of existing servers, including planning for application usage, high availability considerations and systems recovery. Responsible for staging servers in a test environment and working with other members of the ITS Operations group to create the production deployment plan, including activity sequencing and work breakdown structure (WBS). Responsible for responding immediately to any failing systems and where applicable, working with other members of the Operations team to determine root cause and restore service as quickly as possible. Responsible for ensuring that all servers currently in use are operating utilizing the currently approved and supported version of RedHat Linux OS, and patching the OS as required, including identifying any OS dependencies pertaining to services currently deployed and applying

Under the general direction of the Manager ITS Infrastructure, this position is primarily responsible for the system administration of the enterprise Linux OS based computer servers, both physical

2 updates/patches as required. Responsible for supporting web developers in terms of deployment of required tools and libraries. Responsible for keeping all software in packaged format on the production servers. Responsible for systems monitoring (machine and web server health). Responsible, where assigned under the direction of the Security Incident Manager, for responding to security incidents performing root cause analysis, taking required actions, based on analysis to secure AU s servers and services, and providing input into the security incident report. Responsible for taking the necessary actions to comply with AU's system recovery plans and high availability requirements. Also, for monitoring that these systems are in a ready and consistent state, and necessary support activities to ensure targets are met. Responsible for responding to HelpDesk trouble call assignments. Responsible for creating, deploying and supporting VMWare virtualized environments. Will be assigned to perform technical activities within the context of approved projects, both software and operational. Is required to enter all activities in ITS s current time recording system. Is required to attend and participate in ITS Operations meetings, as well as meetings related to any assigned project work.

Responsible, where assigned under the direction of the Security Incident Manager, for responding to security incidents performing root cause analysis, taking required actions, based on analysis to

3 Classification Factors Communication The incumbent must interact with a wide variety of technical staff within the Information Technology Services department, staff of the university, and vendors support services. The incumbent is responsible for taking HelpDesk tickets assigned to either themselves or the Systems Administrator unit, and doing the required analysis to resolve the issue, including liaising with service vendors or other units within the ITS Operations group. Supervision Impact of Service or Product Regular communication is also maintained with all units within ITS Operations to communicate scheduled downtimes for maintenance or upgrades or deployments of new or enhanced services. N/A The activities associated with this position are critical for the delivery and availability of many of the core services offered to or by the University. It is the shared responsibility of this position to ensure high availability levels as defined by the University and immediate, professional response if unanticipated outages occur. Independence of Action Complexity Planning This position works independently under the general guidance of the Manager, ITS Infrastructure. The incumbent works from a prioritized list of tasks assigned to them by the Manager ITS Infrastructure, as well as tickets generated by HelpDesk and assigned to the Systems Administration unit. Given the critical environment and the growth in complexity and dynamics of electronic offerings this position requires a wide set of skills. The existing environment is complex because the supported environment includes multiple environments for the full lifecycle deployment of solutions, secured firewall zones, three tier architectures, cross-university integrated solutions with multiple dependencies, and support of large audiences in terms of usage of systems and in terms of developers of systems. The incumbent will work from a prioritized list of projects and activities. He or she should be able to anticipate problems and take corrective action as well as seize opportunities for improvements in reliability and security of services. The incumbent may be involved in providing recommendations as to replacements for end of life components within the ITS infrastructure.

The incumbent is responsible for taking HelpDesk tickets assigned to either themselves or the Systems Administrator unit, and doing the required analysis to resolve the issue, including liaising with

4 Signatures for Section I Incumbent's Signature Supervisor's Signature

5 Section II Qualifications Includes education, experience, skills, abilities and any other special qualifications required. The qualifications relate to the position not the incumbent Required: The incumbent is required to have as a minimum, a 4-year degree in Computing Sciences, recognized in Canada, and 5 years related Linux System Administration experience in a web centric environment or an equivalent combination of education and experience. The incumbent is required to have a minimum of 3 years experience with VMware and VSphere 4 or higher Strong interpersonal and communication skills Ability to solve problems quickly, completely, and in an independent manner. Ability to identify tasks and processes which are suited for Web delivery and implement them. Desired: A solid understanding of a UNIX-based operating system; understands paging and swapping, interprocess communication, devices and what device drivers do, file system concepts ("inode", "superblock"), and can use performance analysis to tune systems. Advanced experience in working in a Linux operating system environment. Advanced skill in working with administrative programming languages (Perl, Python, shell), ability to port C programs from one platform to another. Advanced skills in package management in Linux with RPM, and familiarity with managing multiple machines from a central repository. Advanced knowledge of Internet protocols and standards that relate to the WWW, for example XHTML, XML, SOAP, WebDAV, HTTP, SMTP, MIME, LDAP, Active Directory and DNS. Advanced skill in application administration of Apache, Tomcat, Nginx, and Squid web servers. Intermediate skill in working with web scripting languages like JavaScript (client-embedded) or PHP (server-embedded). Intermediate knowledge of Common Gateway Interface standard and of the module interface and variety of modules in Apache and Tomcat Web servers. Knowledge of WWW browser capabilities, plug-ins, caching, and effects of programs running on clients' machines. A solid understanding of networking/distributed computing environment concepts; understands

Linux System Administration experience in a web centric environment or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

6 principles of routing, managing network services. Experience with network security (for example, building firewalls, deploying authentication systems, configuring firewall rules, or applying cryptography to web applications). Experience with host security (for example, passwords, uids/gids, file permissions, file system integrity, use of security packages). Experience with securing web transactions. Experience configuring and deploying relational databases, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL. Experience using structured query language (SQL). Signatures for Sections I and II Department Head Signature Executive Officer Signature Human Resources Review

applications). Experience with host security (for example, passwords, uids/gids, file permissions, file system integrity, use of security packages).

Athabasca University Professional Position Description Section I Position Information Update Only Classification Review

Athabasca University Professional Position Description Section I Position Information Update Only Classification Review Position Title Position # Department Classification Level Reports to Effective Date