The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the National Facility for Optical and Infrared Astronomy of the National Research Foundation (NRF). Its headquarters are in Cape Town, while its telescopes are at Sutherland in the Northern Cape. Distributed between the two sites, SAAO employs about 130 people, many of them scientists and engineers, and is contracted to operate SALT (the Southern African Large Telescope) on behalf of the international SALT Foundation. SAAO is the premier optical/infrared research facility on the African continent, with global research and outreach collaborations, contributing to SET human capital development for South Africa.
The IT team wants to hire a Senior IT Administrator for our South Africa office. This role will be responsible for everything from troubleshooting hardware/software issues to international IT compliance. We invite applications for the position of IT Systems Administrator as described below:
Duties and Responsibilities will include:· Administer IT Operation in Cape Town campus, as well as support of remote office. · Standby support one week per month for after hours and Sutherland. · Manage ticketing queue for internal IT related issues ensuring timely and accurate troubleshooting of issues. · Ensure the security of data, network access and license management. · Maintain assets, information security and other relevant IT infrastructure. · Troubleshoot and resolve IT issued software and hardware in a timely manner. · Install, troubleshoot and maintain hardware and peripheral components. · Oversee network and system infrastructure to ensure optimal performance. · Assistance with various IT projects such as procurement, documentation, and reconciliation of IT systems. · Work with external vendors to resolve all maintenance issues around the office space.
Minimum Requirements:· Degree in Computer Science , National Diploma in IT or equivalent qualification. · 6 years’ systems administration experience with at least 3 years in a production environment. · Drivers LicenceExperience· Experience withtroubleshooting, setting up, and managing macOS, Windows and Linux machines· Experience with working in a cloud environment. · Experience with the setup, managing and documentation of WAN and LAN· Experience with server cluster setups· Experience with WordPress. · Experience withworking with 3rd party vendors for software/hardware procurement. · Experience with VPN server and client configuration (across different platforms), IP Phones (SIP), printer configurations, configuringand troubleshootingcloud based Office 365 Suite. · Experience with LDAP, Kubernetes, Docker, instant messaging services, Proxmox, third-party cloud providers, SSO, SSH and SAML· Experience in monitoring and management of large, complex systems using Nagios (check_mk), Zabbix· Experience with mikrotik firewalls
Desirable requirements:· Strong interpersonal and communication skills. · Attention to detail, ability to see a task through to completion, passion for excellent client service, self-motivated, able to work unsupervised, curious, persistent, dedicated. · Ability to solve problems quickly and automate processes. · In-depth troubleshooting of technical problems as well as solving of more complex software and hardware problems. · Familiarity with the principles and practice of system configuration management· A solid understanding of an operating system; understanding of paging and swapping, inter-process communications, devices and what device drivers do, filesystem concepts (inodes, clustering, logical partitions), ability to use performance analysis to tune systems· A solid understanding of networking. Routing and switching. · A solid understanding of storage systems· Ability to program in a scripting language (e. g. , Bash, Perl, Python, VBScript, PowerShell)· Works well alone or on a team· A , Net , Sec is a plus· Technical certification (e. g: Microsoft certification, Linux certification, other professional qualifications)The filling of this position will be in line with the NRF’s Employment Equity Policy and Plan. The salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.