System Administrator - SSRL

Position Overview

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) is a national scientific user facility and a Directorate of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. SSRL operates an electron accelerator servicing approximately 30 x-ray and ultraviolet beamlines to support research in microelectronics, energy storage, biological and medical sciences, Earth science, and materials science. This position is within the SSRL Computer Operations group. The team manages IT and OT infrastructure for accelerator operations and beamline data acquisition and control systems.

Specific Roles and Responsibilities

• Configure and maintain Network-Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Networks (SAN) systems.
• Provision physical and virtual systems for various Linux distributions and Windows operating systems.
• Perform hypervisor administration to support virtual machine (VM) management.
• Configure storage, datastores, and network settings for virtual systems.
• Maintain systems by applying necessary patches and firmware updates accordingly.
• Monitor and optimize performance for storage systems, virtualized environments and physical servers to ensure availability, reliability and resource efficiency.
• Implement cyber security and compliance measures.
• Create and manage user accounts, security groups, and access permissions.
• Maintain and optimize backup and disaster recovery systems to ensure data integrity for operational continuity.
• Assist with storage capacity planning by analyzing data usage trends.
• Troubleshoot and resolve hardware and software failures.
• Document system architecture, configurations and procedures.
• Participate in cross-division operations meetings to coordinate support and maintenance efforts.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer information systems, computer engineering, or related field.
• 5 years of relevant experience in system administration.
• Experience with complex multi-system platforms and vendors.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Windows operating systems and various Linux distributions.
• Sufficient networking knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, LAN switching, WAN routing, and firewalls.
• Ability to take initiative independently while maintaining broad communication with team members.
• Advanced knowledge of security trends, best practices, and security protocols.
• Knowledge and understanding of remote access tools and applications.
• Shell/command line capabilities via Windows and Linux distributions.
• Experience with LDAP and Active Directory.
• Ability to identify and manage priorities.
• Strong conceptual, logical, and critical thinking skills.
• In-depth understanding of data center infrastructure that includes HVAC and electrical systems.