DevOps System Administrator

Description

Stanford University Libraries (SUL) is seeking a talented systems administrator to support the management, preservation and access of digital library content. This is a four-year term position, with the possibility of extension. This position is part of the Application Development team in the Digital Library Systems and Services (DLSS) unit of SUL.

The DevOps System Administrator will be primarily focused on defining, documenting and supporting application deployment best practices, including systems configuration, and on maintaining and supporting production DLSS services. Specifically, the DevOps System Administrator will provide expertise and ongoing support for DLSS's software deployment and maintenance procedures in order to ensure high availability, consistency, and adherence to best practices for network and application security. The DevOps System Administrator will play a key role between other DLSS software developers and the Libraries' system administrators.

As a member of SUL's digital library application development team, the DevOps System Administrator will also contribute to the overall development of the Stanford Library's web and digital library infrastructure, and help plan, specify, and build the technologies needed to support the University's goal of ubiquitous access to scholarly information.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Maintain, refine, and support DLSS's application deployment process. (40%) Define puppet manifests to configure servers and write Capistrano recipes to automate application deploy processes. Load test applications before they go live. Provide data and metrics to support hardware sizing requirements and performance tuning decisions. Document procedures, and keep documentation updated.
• Maintain and support DLSS's production environment. (40%) Perform updates to deployed applications and supporting software libraries. Define and maintain nagios checks for DLSS applications; respond to system-level incidents, and application-level events when possible. In cooperation with project stakeholders, codify service level agreements and uptime expectations. Perform periodic auditing and upgrades to our monitoring service. Help provision and maintain testing infrastructure, including integration and load testing. Respond to production emergencies. Monitor and perform regular audits of DLSS security practices. Stay abreast of new security threats relevant to the DLSS environment, and ensure timely response to security holes.
• Perform systems administration tasks as needed. (20%) This will include management of virtual machines, NFS mounts, DNS updates, load balancer configuration, SSL certificates, etc. Act as a liaison between DLSS software developers and DLSS systems team.

Required Qualifications and Demonstrated Experience:

• Demonstrated expertise with Linux systems administration.
• Expert level knowledge of network and application security best practices.
• Knowledge of application development best practices and ability to support related infrastructure such as continuous integration, monitoring, version control, automated builds, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to develop new skills quickly, and to grasp unfamiliar architectures and application designs quickly.
• Experience maintaining network firewall zones and iptables configuration
• Demonstrated ability to work independently on a project from specification to launch; communicate effectively, orally and in writing; and work with all levels of staff, vendors, and consultants.
• Four-year college degree or equivalent with at least three years demonstrated experience required.
• At the 4P3 level, at least five years demonstrated experience required.

Desired Knowledge and Skills:

• Experience with puppet, chef, or other system configuration management system
• Demonstrated success participating in community-based open source projects, specifically those relevant to the Stanford Libraries' Digital Library architecture, such as Fedora, Blacklight, Solr or Hydra.
• Demonstrated success participating in and contributing to open source software development projects.
• Demonstrated experience with library applications and technology, including experience participating in relevant library open source efforts.
• In-depth knowledge of library policies and practice, metadata standards and the scholarly communication framework
• Familiarity with the process of digitizing images, text, audio and video in cultural heritage institutions.
• Prior, successful experience working as a professional in an academic and/or library environment.