Systems Engineer (DevOps / SysAdmin / Cloud)

Description

The Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University is seeking a Systems Engineer to manage IT infrastructure in both on-campus datacenters and cloud-based environments.

The Systems Engineer will be responsible for building and supporting deployment and operations infrastructure for software applications and data as part of the Digital Research & Curation Center. They will create and administer the systems necessary to effectively and efficiently build, test, release, and deploy software into scalable, reliable, and secure application environments. They will work closely with software engineers, following DevOps practices, to create tools and automation to simplify the transition of software from development environments into production deployment architectures. They will collaborate with other IT engineers to create data management, preservation, and sharing systems. They will also monitor and administer software applications and IT environments to ensure consistent and reliable operation.

This is a remote position, but the need to manage hardware within datacenters on campus dictates that candidates must live (or be willing to relocate) within commuting distance of the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus in Baltimore, Maryland.

Environment & Technologies

• The Sheridan Libraries currently manages software in on-campus datacenters (using VMWare) as well as in AWS. This role will require the creation and management of resources in both environments and participation in the analysis and transition of applications from on-campus systems into AWS.
• While toolsets are subject to change, these are the tools and technologies currently in use, so experience with these is a plus.
• Virtualization: VMWare
• Storage: Versity Storage Manager, S3
• AWS: EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, ECS, EKS, RDS, SNS, SQS, Route53, Cloudwatch, Lambda
• Containers: Docker, ECS, Kubernetes
• Infrastructure Automation: Terraform, Ansible
• OS: Linux (Amazon Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu)
• Code Management: Git, GitHub
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions
• Languages: Java, Python, Javascript/Node
• DB: PostgreSQL
• Search: Solr, ElasticSearch
• Administration/Communication: JIRA, Confluence, GitHub Issues/Project, Slack

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Design, build, configure, document, and administer IT infrastructure necessary to deploy, manage, and scale software applications.
• Following DevOps practices, collaborate with software teams to define and build tooling and automation that simplifies and supports software development, encourages best practices, and smooths the transition between development and deployment environments.
• Propose, scope, design, and build system infrastructure based on application, scaling, cost, and security requirements.
• Create and maintain infrastructure to support the storage, maintenance, and preservation of data, following preservation best practices for distribution across geography and administration.
• Analyze software applications to understand their functional and operational requirements in order to create hosting infrastructure that matches application capabilities.
• Create and execute transition plans for moving applications to AWS.
• Build infrastructure as code to ensure consistent and reliable management of application environments.
• Design, build, and support efficient CI/CD pipelines
• Maintain system stability while facilitating a steady flow of software updates and feature deployments.
• Coordinate with others on the systems and operations team to ensure support coverage for all library applications, regardless of deployment environment.
• Build and manage log and metric capture and analysis systems.
• Optimize system deployments to balance performance, cost, and security concerns.
• Develop system monitoring and alerting capabilities.
• Manage and monitor system access controls and authorization mechanisms.
• Perform systems administration to ensure operating systems, tools, and software remain up-to-date, functional, and secure.
• Troubleshoot and resolve system alerts, failures, and operational inefficiencies.
• Support system and software testing and debugging
• Administer software applications utilized as part of the software development process or provided as a Library resource.
• Manage day-to-day system operations.

Special Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree.
• Five years related experience.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Systems Engineering, Systems Administration, DevOps or similar role.
• Experience building and managing systems utilizing AWS tools and services.
• AWS certification in one or more disciplines (e.g. Solutions Architect, SysOps, DevOps, Networking, Security)
• Experience administering virtualized server environments.
• Experience configuring and managing rack-mounted servers, switches, and storage in a data center environment.
• Experience provisioning and managing cloud infrastructure with Terraform.
• Experience with DevOps practices.
• Experience managing hierarchical storage systems.
• Experience building and maintaining Docker containers and managing the deployment of applications using Docker containers.
• Experience utilizing Kubernetes for Docker deployments.
• Expertise in at least one scripting and/or development language.
• Expertise in the use of system automation tools and techniques.
• Experience managing Java-based application environments.
• Expertise in one or more high-level programming languages.
• Experience with monitoring, reporting, and alerting tools.
• Experience in Linux systems administration.
• Experience managing relational and NoSQL databases.
• Experience developing with Python.
• Experience with agile methodologies.
• Experience working with open-source tools and technologies.
• Experience working on open-source software project teams.
• Experience working on a fully remote team.
• Experience working in an academic or university setting.