Job Description

Staff - Non Union

Job Category M&P - AAPS

Job Profile AAPS Salaried - Information Systems and Technology, Level D

Job Title Sr Systems Analyst

Department Administrative Support | Department of Geography

Compensation Range $7,278.33 - $11,372.33 CAD Monthly

Posting End Date September 15, 2022

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the Posting End Date above.

Job End Date

Summary
This position is responsible for overseeing the management of IT for the Department of Geography located across two sites. Analyses, plans, designs, implements, secures and maintains IT solutions and strategies to enhance teaching, research, administrative and professional outreach initiatives. Provides leadership and mentorship to technology staff. Remains conversant on new technologies. Collaborates with other Faculty of Arts IT Managers to develop and implement faculty-wide strategic initiatives. Advocates for the IT needs of the Department with UBC IT. Performs other related duties.

Organizational Status
Reports to the Computing Committee. Interacts directly with faculty, staff, and students. Provides leadership and mentorship, and collaborates with other technology personnel in the department. Liaises with ArtsISIT managers for Faculty-wide initiatives and projects, and with UBC IT systems administrators regarding centrally provisioned services and infrastructure. Collaborates with external researchers and agencies as needed.

Work Performed

Determines, develops and monitors the appropriate information systems for department operations, including new technology implementation, customs applications, training needs, etc.

Ensures that the department's computer information system activities are consistent with UBC and federal copyright laws by liaising with appropriate UBC and communicating the expectations, procedures and objectives to the appropriate departmental members.

Develops policy and procedures related to IT, equipment and new technology.

Recommends information technology strategies, policies, and procedures by evaluating outcomes, identifying bottlenecks, assessing trends, and anticipating requirements.

Manages and maintains production and development, physical and virtual IT environments. Includes servers, desktops, copiers, printers, networking, and software frameworks.

Supports IT life cycle, applies and follows appropriate change management methodologies and best practices.

Maintains core data centre infrastructure and associated computer systems.

Preserves assets by implementing disaster recovery and back-up procedures and information security and control structures.

Plans, builds and manages high-performance computing clusters and high-capacity storage infrastructures along with computer-attached scientific equipment and data loggers.

Manages software licensing and distribution.

Provides technical expertise and consultation to research and teaching initiatives and projects

Performs feasibility and cost-benefit analysis of competing options to facilitate decision-making

Provides leadership in adopting emerging technologies and evolving software, researching best practices and mentoring other IT staff over transitions.

Initiates, coordinates, and enforces systems, security, privacy policies, procedures and requirements.

Develops strategic plans for the attrition, upgrading, and seamless replacement of IT infrastructure along with budgeting requirements.

Identifies bottlenecks, points of contention and confusion, and develops methodologies for improving procedures and coordinating system implementation.

Maintains a high-level understanding of current technical tool sets and architectures and future strategic directions by ongoing training and attendance at conferences.

Communicates upcoming priorities as well as urgent missives to alert users in a timely manner and enable them to smoothly maneuver around threats and over changes in the IT terrain

Communicates constantly the importance of shared vigilance and joint responsibility in maintaining a secure computing environment for the University.

Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related tasks as needed.

Liaises with vendors, UBC IT and ArtsISIT to plan, coordinate and complete hardware and software implementations and upgrades.

Works with ArtsISIT to identify commonalities and improve processes to better support IT initiatives, transitions, and needs of the Faculty.

Interacts with UBC IT, Digital Research Alliance of Canada and other external research facilities

Performs other related duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Poor performance and errors will affect the day-to-day work of faculty, researchers and students with loss of productivity. Possible equipment and data loss, as well as financial and reputational loss.

Judgment requires significant discretionary decision-making regarding services and operations, budgeting and balancing conflicting requirements coming from group labs and projects, departmental initiatives, University policy, and provincial and federal law and regulations.

Supervision Received
Works autonomously in close collaboration with the IT team and various groups as required.

Supervision Given

Provides consultancy, guidance, coaching, training and technical leadership to researchers, faculty, staff and students. Provides input recommendations into the hiring of technology staff.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. In-depth knowledge of applications and the business requirements supporting them. Minimum of five years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

Preferred Qualifications
University degree in Computer Science preferred. Experience managing a heterogeneous network and highly segmented firewall spanning multiple VLAN across several sites preferred. Knowledge of both Open Source and commercial software that are required by research, teaching and administrative groups. Working knowledge of cloud computing and virtual high performance computing. Five years of experience with various OS's including Linux, Mac and Windows, and their integration. Broad knowledge and ability to effectively use and understand all aspects of local and wide area networks, network standards, protocols, network hardware, configuration, network security, and prevailing networking technologies. Experience working with and demonstrated depth of knowledge of the following technologies including routing and switching, network security (firewalls, IDS, SSL, VPN), packet capture and analysis, network design, and management systems (SNMP, Intermapper, DNS, DHCP). Experience managing network services such as SMTP, IMAP, POP, Bind, NTP, LDAP, HTTP/HTTPS, SQL, Samba and related network security services. Experience in training and communicating with non-technical personnel and users. Ability to work with vendors, technical support staff and engineers, along with non-technical end users to isolate root causes and to devise solutions and workarounds. High level of organizational and time management skills, able to prioritize and work on multiple projects in order to meet deadlines. Foresight and proactive attitude to anticipate and plan for quick recovery from equipment failures. Ability to plan out and schedule transitions around enterprise commitments to minimize downtime and disruptions. Ability to seek cost-effective solutions to manage budgetary limitations. Effective oral and written communication. Strong attention to detail including accurate documentation. Ability to work well with faculty, researchers, administrative personnel as well as trade people, vendors, graduate and undergraduate students. Ability to recognize and capitalize on strengths and interests of team members to achieve optimal performance and job satisfaction. High level of motivation and enthusiasm for contributing to the learning environment of the University.