Systems Architect (Data Centre Services)

Job Responsibility:

Date: Nov 9, 2023

Location: Waterloo, CA

Company: Wilfrid Laurier University

Department: Information and Comm. Technologies

Job Type: Limited Term

Full-time/Part-time: Full Time (>=1249 hrs/year)

Campus: Waterloo

Reports to: Manager, ICT Infrastructure

Employee Group: WLUSA

Application Deadline: November 17, 2023

Requisition ID: 6983

Wilfrid Laurier University is a leading multi-campus university that excels at educating with purpose. Through its exceptional employees, students, researchers, leaders, and educators, Laurier has built a reputation as a world-class institution known for its rich student experience, academic excellence, and global impact. With a commitment to Indigenization and commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, Laurier's thriving community has a place for everyone.

Laurier has more than 19,000 students and 2,100 faculty and staff across campuses in Waterloo and Brantford, as well locations in Kitchener and Milton. The university is committed to providing an inclusive workplace, a flexible work policy and employing a workforce that is reflective of local and national demographics. Our locations are situated on the traditional territories of the Neutral, Anishnawbe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. We recognize the unique heritages of Indigenous peoples and support their intentions to preserve and express their distinctive Indigenous cultures, histories, and knowledge through academic programming and co-curricular activities. Laurier's Centre for Indigegogy is one example of how Laurier honours Indigenous knowledge.

Position Summary

This position provides technical leadership and support enterprise ICT infrastructure at the University within the Data Centre Services group. Elements of the infrastructure supported include: the hardware and software support and integration of centrally located servers (Unix, Linux, Windows) and mass storage devices, as well as network communication systems. This position reports to the Manager, ICT Infrastructure.

The incumbent provides technical expertise, as well as organizing, planning, developing, and designing critical components of the enterprise IT infrastructure. The incumbent has ready access to highly confidential data and constantly works in an environment where attention to detail is paramount. The incumbent provides support to not only the University community, but is also a support person for the DCS team and the ICT department as a whole, and must be able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical users. The majority of the accountabilities require research and creative thinking, excellent problem solving skills and solid background knowledge and experience. There is a requirement for some programming, particularly with shell scripts. There are often frequent interruptions, requiring flexibility and the ability to multitask effectively. As this is a 7x24 operation, the Systems Architect will occasionally be required to work outside of normal business hours.

This position has a university-wide mandate and is based at the Waterloo Campus. The incumbent provides subject matter expertise to all campuses, requiring regular interpersonal interactions and collaboration with departments at the Waterloo Campus, the Brantford Campus, the Kitchener office and external partners. Special attention is given to ensure equitable service delivery across all locations.

Accountabilities

Responsible for providing technical expertise for delivering enterprise ICT infrastructure solutions and support to the faculty, staff and student community at the university. The portfolio will consist of the following service categories: Unix/Linux Server Administration, Windows Server Administration, Server Hardware Administration, Storage Management, Virtualization and Cloud Management, Network Operation, and Data Centre Automation.

The incumbent will work closely with the Manager, ICT Infrastructure and staff in the other infrastructure areas including:

• Network and Security: firewall and security policy and practices, intercampus and internet connectivity, equipment evergreen programs
• Email and IdM: architecture and design of the Identity Management Solution
• Cloud Infrastructure: architecture and design of various cloud services employed at Laurier

ICT Data Center Services

• The incumbent is responsible for the design, architecture, installation, configuration, and maintenance of the data center services. They are responsible for day-to-day data center operations, ensuring operability and mitigating risks within the data center. The incumbent is largely focused on technical tasks for 4 hours a day to ensure business operability for the University.
• Responsible for completing complex troubleshooting activities when issues arise and for ensuring resolution for high-impact technical problems. Coordination between other ICT technical staff and third-party technical support engineers is often required.
• Responsible for leading issue resolution when escalated by the DCS team.
• Unix/Linux Server Administration: Responsible for the installation and ongoing monitoring and maintenance of Linux and Unix operating systems in accordance with needs established through communication with System Analysts.
• Windows Server Administration: Responsible for the installation and ongoing monitoring and maintenance of current Microsoft Windows operating system in accordance with needs established through communication with System Analysts.
• Server Hardware Administration: Responsible for the installation of new server hardware and for establishing storage connectivity of servers to external storage. Responsible for establishing network connectivity of servers to the LAN in standalone or load balanced configurations as well as ongoing hardware upgrades and repairs.
• Storage Management: Responsible for the configuration and management of the organization's Storage Area Network (SAN) as well as installation, configuration and management of NAS, SAN and JBOD storage systems using SCSI, iSCSI and fibre channel protocols. The incumbent will also ensure the installation, configuration and management of current backup and data protection and the installation of backup client software. Periodic testing is required to ensure reliability of backups.
• Network Operation: Monitor and maintain active network components in cooperation with the Network Engineer and maintain DHCP, RADIUS and NAT services.
• Email Administration: Monitoring and maintenance of an SMTP Postfix-based email backbone, including inbound and outbound gateways and Messaging Architects antivirus/antispam service.
• Cloud and Virtual Environments: Responsible for the architecture, configuration, and management of the university's on-premises virtualization infrastructure as well as any Laurier infrastructure deployed into any public Cloud providers.
• The incumbent is also required to analyze and forecast how different data center services initiatives will positively impact the university's data center environment, and will need to recommend which initiative (as well as when to implement) to have the biggest impact.

ICT Solution/Service Management

• The ICT infrastructure is a 7x24 operation requiring the incumbent to work with other team members to maintain an appropriate service model to ensure the team can respond to critical incidents as required
• Ensures that assigned technical support issues are managed to resolution. Responsible for ensuring issues are resolved to ICT service standards and works collaboratively with clients on problem-solving activities.
• Communicates with the user community (faculty, staff and students) relevant information about service availability and changes in services

ICT Business/Project Management

• Develops and recommends strategies for the acquisition, maintenance, support, and renewal of ICT infrastructure provisioned by the university
• Contributes to an information and communication technology strategy for the ICT department and ensures it is aligned with the university mission, vision and academic plan
• Investigates and keeps informed about new IT developments for academic environments
• Evaluates, plans, installs, tests, documents and maintains the University ICT infrastructure. The incumbent recommends equipment and services after consultation with vendors and the user community.
• Recommend server, storage, and operating environments to ICT leadership and Senior Administration, after consultation with the target user community
• Maintain a high level of understanding of current and future ICT infrastructure trends and developments. Liaises with external consultants and vendors about infrastructure acquisitions and upgrades to existing technologies. Investigates and researches the potential benefits of new technologies for the University.
• Monitors external sources of information for trends and new concepts, and evaluates their relevance to WLU. Recommends changes in direction of services and methods of service delivery in light of such evaluation
• Develops and guides the implementation of server administration and storage processes, procedures and solutions
• Advises ICT leadership and Senior Administration and the user community on issues related to the technical elements of information security
• The position is often consulted on a wide array of project deployments across multiple technologies. This often requires the incumbent to have multiple in-depth technical conversations regarding specific applications, and relying on relevant industry experience to develop practical guidance and solutions
• Other related responsibilities as may be assigned from time to time

Leadership

• As a senior member of the DCS team, this position requires the ability to provide leadership and mentoring to junior team members.
• Ability to communicate effectively with representatives from a variety of stakeholder groups in a multi campus environment
• Provides direction, support, and advice to the managers and staff on the ICT Team. This includes managers, staff and administrative support staff
• Develops and implements appropriate procedures, process, controls, key performance indicators and standards to ensure that ICT support evolves and improves over time
• Develops project management plans and completes project coordination activities, creating and distributing estimates of project costs, resource requirements, and operational impact. The incumbent is expected to lead project teams for Data Center initiatives.
• Will supervise various project team members from other units working on ICT projects

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Management or a closely related field
• Five years of professional work experience in a computer-related field as a System Architect and/or System Administrator in a heterogeneous environment
• Five years' experience designing and managing private/public cloud
• Minimum 5 years' experience with Windows Servers and Active Directory an asset
• Minimum 5 years' experience with Unix/Linux Server
• Five years' experience with network storage systems
• Five years' experience with a network-based backup system
• 2 years' experience with software-defined networking solutions, preferably from VMware
• Knowledge of network services such as DHCP, RADIUS and NAT
• Knowledge of SMTP based email systems, TCP/IP and 802.11x, fibre optic and copper network components
• Appropriate level of technical, business operations and leadership competency
• Expertise in the principles, application and understanding of the role of project management; Good project management skills
• Ability to develop business cases, cost estimates and total cost of ownership models for full system lifecycles
• Affinity with academic and administrative communities
• Strong communication, project management, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, and a commitment to customer service
• Strong interpersonal skills, particularly influencing, networking, and negotiation skills
• Effective verbal and written communication skills. Should be able to adapt communication style to suit different audiences.
• Proven flexibility and adaptability to an ever changing and unstructured work environment, and able to take action amidst ambiguity

Compensation

Position Grade: Level G

Rate of Pay: $48.59 - $55.53 per hour

Hours of Work: This is a full time, 6 month limited term position with an expected end date of 05/26/2024. The normal hours of work are 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday. Flexibility in hours will be required, including evening and/or weekend work due to events. When possible, the manager will adjust the work schedule so that no more than 35 hours are worked in a week.

This position has been deemed eligible for educational equivalencies.

Please refer to the attached link for details.

Job Evaluation Factor Scores

WLUSA/WLU Job Evaluation Factors Score Education

4

Experience 4 Interpersonal Skills 4 Applied Reasoning and Analytical Skills 6 Co-ordination and Planning 4.5 Accountability for Others 3 Impact of Decisions 3.5 Mental Effort 5 Level Physical Effort 2 Working Environment 1

Wilfrid Laurier University endeavors to fill positions with qualified candidates who have a combination of education, experience, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position while demonstrating Laurier's Employee Success Factors.

Equity, diversity and creating a culture of inclusion are part of Laurier's core values and central to the Laurier Strategy. Laurier is committed to increasing the diversity of faculty and staff and welcomes applications from candidates who identify as Indigenous, racialized, having disabilities, and from persons of any minority sexual and gender identities. Indigenous candidates who would like to learn more about equity and inclusive programing at Laurier are welcomed to contact the Office of Indigenous Initiatives. Candidates from other equity deserving groups who would like to learn more about equity and inclusive programing at Laurier are welcomed to contact Equity & Accessibility. We have strived to make our application process accessible, however if you require any assistance applying for a position or would like this job posting in an alternative format, please contact Human Resources. Contact information can be found at careers.wlu.ca/content/How-to-apply/

Should you be interested in learning more about this opportunity, please visit for additional information and the online application system. All applications must be submitted online. Please note, a resume and cover letter will be required in electronic form.