Senior IT Specialist

UCD School of Earth Sciences.; Dublin; On-site; EUR 54,000 - 73,000; Full time

Job summary

UCD School of Earth Sciences in Ireland seeks a senior IT systems administrator to support day-to-day IT needs of students, staff and research teams. You will manage hardware, software, network access, backups and security in collaboration with UCD IT services, including HPC, servers and AV systems.

Minimum 4 years’ IT experience and a related undergraduate degree are required. The role offers growth within a leading university environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 4 years’ professional IT experience in a large organisation or third level institution.
• Undergraduate degree in a related IT/Computing field.
• Experience supporting computationally heavy research IT operations and infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical IT support for students, researchers, teaching and admin staff in line with UCD IT Services.
• Procure, install, and commission new IT hardware and software as required.
• Maintain teaching and research workstations and refresh for new cohorts.
• Comply with GDPR, data confidentiality, software licences and copyright conditions.
• Facilitate secure access to workstations, licensed software, networks and servers.
• Monitor and optimise system and server performance and plan future IT needs.
• Administer software installations, licences, renewals, and hardware maintenance.
• Manage data archiving, backups and off-site storage.
• Oversee IT security and health checks in collaboration with UCD IT Services.
• Maintain AV systems and lecture-capture facilities; liaise with IT services.

Skills

Unix

Linux

Windows OS

Virtual Server Mgmt

SAN Mgmt

LDAP

AD

AWS

Azure

HPC

Networking

VPN / Firewall

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/Computing

Tools

Proxmox

TrueNAS

Office 365

Google Cloud Platform

Job description

Senior IT Specialist within the School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin, Ireland

UCD School of Earth Sciences seeks to recruit a senior IT systems administrator to support the day-to-day IT requirements of the School’s students, staff and research teams, to facilitate access to hardware and software, and to maintain and oversee the development and security of the School’s strategic IT infrastructure in collaboration with UCD IT services. The school runs its own secure network, HPC and general and storage server architecture and benefits from access to a wide range of licenced third‑party software for 3D subsurface interpretation and modelling software, open‑source and in‑house software, and generic packages made available via UCD IT services.

The IT administrator will provide expert and timely support for: (1) mainly (but not exclusively) Windows‑based, office, classroom, field, and workstation, associated software; (2) specialist geoscience (geophysical, geospatial, geomodelling) and 3D interpretation software and associated hardware; (3) management of the School’s network, licences, firewall and dedicated servers; (4) storage and off‑site back‑up facilities, and (5) classroom audio‑visual and video‑capture equipment.

95 Admin Officer I_2010 (0172_X) Salary Scale: €53,876 - €72,929 per annum

Appointment will be made on scale and in accordance with the Department of Finance guidelines

Closing date: 12:00 noon (local Irish time) on 26 November 2026

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide technical IT support to School of Earth Science students, researchers, teaching and admin staff aligned with UCD IT Services
• Procure, install, and commission new IT hardware and software, as required.
• Maintain teaching and research workstations, purging and refreshing them for incoming researchers and student cohorts.
• Comply with third‑party data confidentiality and comply with GDPR regulations, copyright and software licence conditions and ensure researchers are aware of software licence conditions.
• Facilitate, manage, and monitor secure access to school workstations, licensed software, networks and servers for staff and researchers as appropriate and in accordance with license obligations and UCD IT protocols.
• Monitor and optimise system and server performance, and anticipate and plan for future IT system requirements.
• Carry out administrative duties relating to software installations, licences, and renewals, and hardware maintenance.
• Manage data archiving, regular system backups and upgrades, and secure off‑site storage.
• Have overall responsibility for the IT security and accessibility of the School’s IT systems and regular health checks across the network in collaboration with UCD IT Services.
• Maintain the AV systems and lecture‑capture facilities in the School’s teaching rooms.o Liaise with UCD IT services and committees. o Other duties and responsibilities as specified by the Head of School.

Experience and Qualifications

• Minimum 4 years’ professional experience working in an IT‑related role in either a large organisation and/or a third level institution.
• Hold at minimum an undergraduate degree in a related field to this position.
• Successful track record of supporting computationally heavy research‑related IT operations and infrastructure.Functional Competencies

Functional Competencies

• Technical authority/ knowledge of one or more of the following areas: Unix OS, Linux, Windows OS, Virtual Server Mgt, SAN Mgt, LDAP, AD, AWS, Azure, HPC, Gsuite or Microsoft suite, Google Cloud Platform and Office 365, programming languages. Deep understanding of server and storage hardware specifications.
• Technical authority/ knowledge of one or more of the following areas: Networking, TCPIP, DNS, DHCP, Intrusion Detection, Endpoint Security, Security Awareness, Security Policy, Security Auditing/Risk Assessment, and Security Incident Response.
• Understands best practice in data management, data governance practices and technology issues related to management of enterprise and academic research information including business, scientific, cultural & GIS data.
• Knowledge in HPC and servers (e.g. Proxmox, virtual VLAN management, Linux, hardware, NVIDIA cGPU equipped, storage operating systems e.g. TrueNAS) and networking (e.g. firewall management, VPN tunnelling, security, segmentation, network switching), and server physical maintenance.
• Network licencing server access management (e.g. Imtools, S&P licencing, Schlumberger etc.)

Core Competencies

• Ability to engage in written and oral communication that is clear, unambiguous, transparent, and consistent with UCD’s Values, to convey and share information and ideas with others, listen carefully, clarify understanding and consider different viewpoints.
• Ability to plan and organise own work effectively, set clear priorities and ensure deadlines are met and to organise activities, separate and combine tasks to deliver outputs according to a clear timeframe to realise School/Unit/College/University objectives.
• Ability to take a positive approach to tackling work, embrace change and invite feedback relating to performance and deal constructively with it.
• Ability to build effective working relationships within own area and more broadly, to encourage cooperation and collaboration in others and foster partnerships to achieve results.
• Ability to ensure project or programme goals, purpose, and criteria for success are clearly defined at the outset, to clarify related roles and responsibilities, deliverables, milestones and to build a detailed project plan and to carefully monitor progress against it.
• Candidates must demonstrate an awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.