Senior Systems Administrator (Research)

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person. Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton.

The Senior Systems Administrator plays a key role in designing and managing digital research infrastructure, with an emphasis on high-performance computing systems, storage solutions, specialized software, and related services. This administrator supports researchers across various disciplines, e.g., medicine, biomedical sciences, agriculture, science, and engineering, to ensure effective use of HPC resources.

Located at the University of Alberta, this HPC digital research infrastructure supports projects that involve sensitive, confidential data and other data governed by strict regulatory requirements.

• Participate in the deployment and administration of digital research infrastructure. Plan, design, deploy, and provision digital research infrastructure and associated services, ensuring security, reliability, and scalability for future growth.
• Take a leadership role in establishing policies, best practices, and procedures to address the needs of research communities.
• Address operational issues affecting systems and researchers, conducting in-depth root cause analysis.
• Monitor resources to maximize the utilization of infrastructure, collect metrics, and develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide regular reports to senior leadership.
• Assist researchers in resolving issues and effectively using the digital research infrastructure. This includes a range of services such as workload preparation, code optimization, training, and job submission procedure refinement, all aimed at ensuring the successful utilization of high-performance computing resources to meet research goals.
• Participate in focus groups and committees, providing expert-level knowledge and gathering input.
• Participate in industry conferences and maintain relationships with vendors to stay informed about emerging technologies and improve service quality.
• Participate in a 24/7 on-call support rotation.

• Master’s Degree in Science with a focus on High Performance Computing, or a Bachelor of Science in Computing Science or a related field, with relevant work experience.
• Minimum of 8 years of extensive experience with Linux systems in roles such as system administrator or system analyst.
• Advanced working knowledge of administering large numbers of systems in an enterprise environment.
• Advanced working knowledge of automation technologies for provisioning, configuration management, infrastructure as code, and orchestration tools (Warewulf, Ansible, Puppet, Chef, etc.).
• Advanced working knowledge of programming and/or scripting with languages such as Bash, Python, and others.
• Working experience in supporting large-scale High Performance Computing environments.
• Working knowledge of scheduling software, such as Slurm, is a strong asset.
• Working knowledge of container deployment (Kubernetes or other) in the cloud or on-premises, as well as the administration of containerized applications.
• Demonstrated ability to participate in a 24/7 on-call support rotation.
• Effective communication and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrated ability in problem-solving and process optimization.

Application Instructions

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This position is subject to all applicable terms and conditions of the collective agreement between the Governors of the University of Alberta and the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA).

This position offers a comprehensive benefits package.