Senior System Administrator - Rosebank, Cape Town (Hybrid) at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About the job:

The CSIR has a vacancy for a Senior Systems Administrator in the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) area, within the National Integration Cyberinfrastructure System (NICIS), which is hosted by Next Generation Enterprises and Institution cluster. The incumbent will be responsible for setup and ongoing support of virtual machines (VMs), Cloud database portal, OpenStack cloud infrastructure, HPC and other CHPC ICT systems. The position is based in Cape Town.

Key responsibilities:

• Provision and de-provision of VMS and cloud accounts;
• Deploy, manage, and operate cloud environments;
• Contribute and identify appropriate use and operational best practices;
• Create (where appropriate) automation, to streamline provisioning and de-provisioning processes;
• Assist users with their cloud-related inquiries, troubleshooting issues, and providing guidance on how to effectively use OpenStack services and resources;
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, guidelines, and best practices for the OpenStack cloud environment;
• Lead certain data/service migration projects;
• Lead/Contribute on new projects or upgrade of systems;
• Back-up servers and associated operating systems and software;
• Demonstrate leadership in either field of HPC/Cloud (storage, cluster/cloud design and configuration, interconnects or applications porting and tuning)
• Conduct research on HPC and cloud related hardware and software in support of procurement and system development;  
• Proactively keep up to date with the latest developments and advancements in OpenStack technology;
• Monitor the health and performance of the OpenStack cloud environment;
• Participate on Human Capital Development initiatives;
• Take initiatives and be a team player.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A National diploma or Bachelor’s degree in information technology or related field (e.g. computer systems engineering, computer science) with at least five years’ experience in LINUX system administrator, of which one year should be in Cloud administration;
• Experience in the following would be advantageous:
  • Linux system administration;
  • Linux based Cloud systems administration; 
  • Implementations of cluster technologies;
  • Linux installation and packaging tools, especially RPM;
• Should have knowledge and experience working with Dev-ops tools;
• Should have knowledge about HPC;
• Proven experience with systems planning, security principles, and general software management best practices;
• Extensive experience with bash, python scripting and more;
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Ability to work in a team-oriented and collaborative environment;
• Detail-oriented, strong work ethic and high standard of excellence;
• Fast learner, achiever, sets high personal goals;
• Must be able to multitask projects and meet their respective deadlines.