System Administrator

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation; Perth; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) seeks a System Administrator to support and maintain large-scale storage platforms underpinning national research computing capability across Australia.

You will contribute to Ceph-based storage, Archival storage, Linux systems administration, and HPC environments, collaborating with researchers, vendors and colleagues. Training and ongoing professional development are encouraged within a dynamic research setting.

Qualifications

• Tertiary or graduate qualification in Science, Computing or Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Experience in Linux/Unix system administration.
• Willingness to learn related systems and tools.
• Excellent verbal and written communication to engage with colleagues and clients.

Responsibilities

• Supporting the operation and maintenance of large-scale storage and computing infrastructure.
• Administering Linux-based systems and storage platforms used by Australia's research community.
• Assisting with the operation of object storage, archival storage and associated infrastructure.
• Troubleshooting system issues and improving operational workflows.
• Responding to and resolving support requests within agreed service expectations.
• Developing and maintaining technical documentation and operating procedures.
• Contributing to continuous improvement initiatives and service enhancements.
• Working collaboratively with colleagues, researchers, vendors and stakeholders.
• Supporting the deployment, maintenance and optimisation of research computing services.
• Participating in hands-on infrastructure activities including hardware maintenance and equipment servicing where required.

Skills

Linux administration

Python

Documentation

Communication skills

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Science, Computing or Engineering

Tools

Ceph storage

OpenStack

Slurm / PBS Pro

Ansible

Jenkins

Job description

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CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation .

Role highlights

• Join one of Australia's leading supercomputing and research infrastructure organisations
• Support large-scale storage platforms used by researchers across Australia
• Be part of a highly skilled team delivering critical national research infrastructure

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

The opportunity

Join Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre's Scientific Platforms Team and help deliver the storage infrastructure that underpins Australia's national research computing capability.

As the System Administrator, you will support and maintain large-scale storage platforms used by researchers across Australia, helping to ensure the availability, resilience and performance of critical research data services. Working within a highly skilled team of systems specialists, you will contribute to the operation of Acacia, one of the world's largest research-focused object storage systems built on Ceph, and Banksia, a large-scale archival storage platform designed for the long-term preservation of research data.

This is an exciting opportunity to support and enhance nationally significant research infrastructure spanning enterprise-scale storage, cloud technologies, high-performance computing environments and Linux systems administration.

Your high-level duties will include:

• Supporting the operation and maintenance of large-scale storage and computing infrastructure.
• Administering Linux-based systems and storage platforms used by Australia's research community.
• Assisting with the operation of object storage, archival storage and associated infrastructure.
• Troubleshooting system issues and improving operational workflows.
• Responding to and resolving support requests within agreed service expectations.
• Developing and maintaining technical documentation and operating procedures.
• Contributing to continuous improvement initiatives and service enhancements.
• Working collaboratively with colleagues, researchers, vendors and stakeholders.
• Supporting the deployment, maintenance and optimisation of research computing services.
• Participating in hands-on infrastructure activities including hardware maintenance and equipment servicing where required.

Location: Kensington, Perth

Tenure: Specified term of 18 months, Full-time or Part-time

Reference: 103888

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

• Tertiary or graduate qualification in Science, Computing or Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Experience in the administration of Linux or Unix systems.
• The ability and willingness to spend time learning not only the specific systems you will be responsible for maintaining, but also the systems connected to those systems, and the tools associated with the main system and those related systems.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to use these skills to engage effectively with colleagues and clients.
• The ability to work effectively independently and as part of a team under the general guidance of senior technical staff.
• The ability and willingness to contribute novel ideas and approaches in support of providing computing services to researchers or clients.
• Knowledge of programming languages (such as Python) and source code management tools.
• Experience operating Ceph storage infrastructure, other storage technologies (e.g. tape-backed systems such as DMF, TSM, Versity ScoutAM), or OpenStack.
• Experience with Internet technologies such as web servers, database servers and mail servers.
• Exposure to High-Performance Computing environments (e.g. experience with workload schedulers such as Slurm or PBS Pro), high-performance filesystems (Lustre, VAST, Weka) or container orchestration environments.
• Demonstrated success in managing compute and storage systems in a research environment.
• Experience with automation, testing or provisioning technologies such as Ansible, MAAS, xCat, Redhat Satellite, HPE HPCM, goss and Jenkins.
• Exposure to the design and deployment of new services or platforms for use by researchers or clients.

Support and workplace adjustments

We offer a range of reasonable supports and workplace adjustments. Please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description if we can help you to equitably participate in our recruitment process or the role itself.

Not sure if you meet all the criteria?

While it is CSIRO policy that the successful candidate must meet all the essential criteria, there are many ways to demonstrate this. Don’t let the list discourage you. If you are unsure about applying, please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description.

Setting you up for success

We are committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please reach out to the contact on page 1 of the position description, to let us know how we can support you.

Life at CSIRO and flexible work arrangements

Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive teams where people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.

CSIRO holds Platinum Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.

Applications for this position are open to Australian Citizens, New Zealand Citizens and Australian Permanent Residents.

Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Child safety

CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View our Child Safe Policy .