Montana Career Opportunity – Systems Administrator – The Biomimicry Institute

The Biomimicry Institute http://biomimicry.org is seeking a 0.5 FTE systems administrator to support the goals of our three program areas ― AskNature.org, Design Challenges, and Biomimicry Global Network―and our largely virtual office environment.

In addition to managing our technological systems, this position provides technical expertise, user support, and limited training to our small, geographically dispersed team of staff and contractors. This position is currently based in Missoula, Montana.

Essential Functions

You will be responsible for effective provisioning, installation/configuration, operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software and related infrastructure. You will ensure that system hardware, operating systems, software systems, and related procedures adhere to our organizational needs and values, thus enabling staff to be fully effective.

In the early phases of new project initiatives across the organization, you will help plan necessary systems and integrations, and assist with related technical issues, including for development of online courses. These activities include the definition of needs, benefits, and technical strategy; research and development within the project life-cycle; technical analysis and design; and support of operations staff in executing, testing, and rolling-out solutions.

You will be accountable for the following hardware and/or software systems: physical Linux servers in Missoula, our remote desktop financial server, storage and hosting services via Amazon AWS, domain hosting via multiple providers, Google Apps, Egnyte, Salesforce, Webex, Harvest, IATS Merchant account, MailChimp, Quickbooks, Transaction Pro Importer, and other cloud-based services as needed. Responsibilities on these systems include administrative engineering and provisioning, operations and support, maintenance, and research and development to ensure organizational success.

A portion of your time will be spent in a user support role, providing domain expertise to staff, contractors, and volunteers working primarily with Apple hardware and the cloud-based services listed above.

Systems Administrator Responsibilities

Engineering and Provisioning

* Engineering of solutions for various project and operational needs

* Install new and/or rebuild existing servers and configure hardware, peripherals, services, settings, directories, storage, etc. in accordance with best practices and project requirements.

* Develop and maintain installation and configuration procedures and documentation.

* Contribute to and maintain system standards.

* Research and recommend innovative and automated approaches for system administration tasks. Identify approaches that leverage our resources and provide economies of scale.

Operations and Support

* Perform daily system monitoring, verifying the integrity and availability of all hardware, server resources, systems and key processes, reviewing system and application logs, and verifying completion of scheduled jobs such as backups.

* Perform regular security monitoring to identify any possible intrusions.

* Perform daily backup operations, ensuring all required file systems and system data are successfully backed up as appropriate.

* Create, change, and delete user accounts per request.

* Provide support per request.

* Investigate and troubleshoot issues.

* Repair and recover from hardware or software failures. Coordinate and communicate with impacted staff, contractors, and/or volunteers.

Maintenance

* Apply OS patches and upgrades on a regular basis and upgrade administrative tools and utilities. Configure and add new services as necessary.

* Maintain operational, configuration, or other procedures.

* Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades, and resource optimization as required. Configure CPU, memory, and disk partitions as required.

Knowledge/Skills/Experience

* Bachelor (4-year) degree, with a technical major, such as engineering or computer science.

* Systems Administration/System Engineer certification a plus.

* Ability to problem-solve and effectively manage time given competing priorities and in a remote work environment.

* Written and verbal ability to communicate technical information effectively to staff; ability to help staff anticipate technological needs and considerations prior to launching new products.

* 0-4 years experience desired.

This position occasionally requires working evenings and weekends, sometimes with little advance notice.

To apply

Please submit one PDF that includes a cover letter, a detailed resume, and names and contact information for three professional references to the address on our Careers page: http://biomimicry.org/careers

The position will remain open until filled.

The Biomimicry Institute offers competitive wages and benefits, including health insurance, 401k plan, PTO, and flex-time.