Microsoft Systems Administrator

About Us

The University System of Georgia (USG) is comprised of 26 higher education institutions as well as the University System Office (USO). Within the USO, our administrative operations are primarily housed in the Trinity Washington Building located in downtown Atlanta. Our Information Technology Services (ITS) division is located in Athens. The University System of Georgia Shared Services Center (SSC) is located in Sandersville. The Georgia Public Library System is located in Atlanta. The Georgia Archives is located in Morrow. The State of Georgia Records Center is located in Austell.

Location

This role is based at the Information Technology Services (ITS) office in Athens, Georgia, located at 2500 Daniells Bridge Road. Onsite attendance is required five days a week, and remote work is not offered for this position.

This position is for permanent, full-time employment. Candidates must reside in the state of Georgia or be willing to relocate to Georgia as a condition of employment.

Please note that we do not provide visa sponsorship or support visa transfers for this position at any point in time. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Responsibilities

- Administer multiple server environments supporting academic, administrative, and networking applications and services in a 24x7x365 production environment.

- Install server operating systems and related software via automation

- Automate as much as possible, look to automate more, help other people and teams automate

- Participate in on call pager rotation, respond to emergencies after hours

- Respond quickly to hardware, software, network, and system failures. Provide troubleshooting, analysis, and recommendations for corrective action.

- Contribute to the research and development of technologies and tools used for system administration.

- Assist database administrators, application specialists, and developers with the installation, evaluation, and testing of new products and product versions.

- Identify and provide possible solutions to problems confronting database administrators, application specialists, and developers.

- Assist in evaluating vendor proposals for software, services, and equipment.

- Provide technical assistance and advice to University System of Georgia member institutions running local servers and services.

- Organization-wide monitoring system

- Organization-wide logging system

- Infrastructure stats and trend analysis

- Occasional need to perform maintenance and upgrades after hours and/or on weekends

- Occasional need to be in data center troubleshooting and/or installing/de-installing equipment

- Performs related duties as assigned


Required Qualifications

- A minimum of 5 years of experience managing servers and services in a production environment.


Preferred Qualifications

- Experience automating system administration tasks, preferably using Puppet

- Experience managing virtualized environments (particularly with VMware ESX).

- Understanding of common services and protocols including SAML, Git, DNS, TCP/IP, NTP, SSH, SMTP, etc.

- Experience writing effective system administration scripts and utilities.

- Competency programming in one or more high level programming languages.

- Strong working knowledge of patch management and change control practices.

- Experience diagnosing Local Area Networking and firewall problems.

- Experience managing a SAML Single Sign-On environment is a plus.

- Experience working in environments with Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle database management systems is a plus.

- Experience with high-availability design (failover systems and data replication) is a plus.


Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

- Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities.

- Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.

- Strong interpersonal and oral communication skills.

- Skilled at working within a team-oriented, collaborative environment.

- Ability to present ideas and solutions in business-friendly and user-friendly language.

- Highly self-motivated and self-directed.

- Keen attention to detail.

- Maintain a consistent, high quality, customer-focused orientation when developing and supporting services for both internal and external users.

- Treat customers, staff and co-workers with respect, courtesy and tact; listen well and maintain a professional relationship.

- Communicate with customers and obtain all required information necessary to determine and address their specific needs.

- Maintain a high level of knowledge of current and future trends in the appropriate business and information technology areas.

- Participate in organization or system-provided training regarding changes in administrative services law, rules, and regulations.


USG Core Values

The University System of Georgia is comprised of our 25 institutions of higher education and learning as well as the System Office. Our USG Statement of Core Values are Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect. These values serve as the foundation for all that we do as an organization, and each USG community member is responsible for demonstrating and upholding these standards. More details on the USG Statement of Core Values and Code of Conduct are available in USG Board Policy 8.2.18.1.2 and can be found on-line at .

Additionally, USG supports Freedom of Expression as stated in Board Policy 6.5 Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom found on-line at .

Conditions of Employment

Offers of employment are subject to federal and state laws, as well as the statutes, rules, and regulations of this institution, and the Bylaws and Policies of the Board of Regents (BOR) of the University System of Georgia (USG). These Bylaws and Policies are available for inspection upon request.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The University System Office is an equal employment, equal access, and equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of the University System Office to recruit, hire, train, and promote persons without regard to race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status as required by applicable state and federal laws (including Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, Sections 503, and 504, ADEA, ADA, E.O. 11246, and Rev. Proc. 75-50).

For questions or more detailed information regarding this policy please contact the University System Office Human Resources at View phone number on click.appcast.io. Individuals requiring disability related accommodations for participation in any event or to obtain print materials in an alternative format, please contact Human Resources.

Background Check

Offers of employment are subject to a background investigation, including criminal records history, to determine eligibility for employment. Additionally, credentials and employment history stated in your application materials are also subject to verification.

For certain positions, a satisfactory credit check, MVR, or other relevant investigations may also be conducted. The University System Office holds the sole discretion in assessing eligibility for employment.