Senior Systems Administrator

Caltech; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Onsite counseling

Job summary

Caltech is seeking a solution architect to design and deploy scalable systems, manage Linux servers, and guide cloud and on-prem infrastructure. You will lead cross-functional projects, ensure security and performance, and plan upgrades and new services in alignment with Caltech IT policies.

The role requires strong experience with Redhat Linux, AWS services, and monitoring tools, plus the ability to collaborate across teams and support during on-call rotations.

Qualifications

• BS/BA in a technical field or equivalent required.
• 6 years of system administration experience.
• 5+ years on Linux environments and AWS cloud.
• Strong communication and customer relations skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain scalable, fault-tolerant systems.
• Define server, network, and storage architectures for on-prem and cloud.
• Lead cross-functional projects for management, monitoring, backups, and DR.
• Research emerging technologies to improve IMSS/Caltech services.
• Manage Linux servers, authentication services, and application servers.

Skills

Troubleshooting

Customer relations

On-call support

Team collaboration

Networking concepts

Security

Documentation

Scripting basics

Education

B.S. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent

Tools

AWS (EC2, S3, IAM, VPC)

OpenSearch/ELK stack

Terraform

Ansible

Salt

Redhat Linux

Tomcat/Java apps

Shibboleth IdP/SP

SAML integration

Redhat Satellite

Job description

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

Job Summary

Provide solution architect functions. This includes but is not limited to, architecting and designing solutions, planning and organizing new software installations, upgrades to operating systems and layered software packages, and ensuring security of data and networks. Forecast future architect function needs.

Essential Job Duties

• Designing and deploying scalable, highly available, fault tolerant, and reliable systems.
• Formulate the design of the server, network, and storage architecture for hardware, virtualized and cloud-based infrastructures and application services.
• Lead projects across functional teams to help develop solutions for management, monitoring, testing, backup, disaster recovery, etc.
• Continually research emerging technologies and services to evaluate and determine value to IMSS and Caltech community.
• Stay informed about various service models and delivery methods to allow IMSS to match them to specific project requirements and use cases
• Manage operations of Redhat Linux servers; including database, web servers, ldap servers.
• Manage Identity Provider and authentication services, Redhat Satellite services, and configuration management services like Ansible and Salt
• Manage Tomcat servers and Java applications
• Plan and schedule software installations and upgrades to operating systems in accordance with established IT policies and procedures; develop and deploy new services as appropriate.
• Ensure systems achieve optimum performance levels.
• Responsible for system security and integrity by evaluating, implementing, and managing appropriate software and hardware solutions.
• Develop and promote standard operating procedures.
• Develop and document internal processes.
• Responsible for hardware and software audits of servers to ensure compliance with established policies, standards, and configuration guidelines.
• Responsible for planning and organizing the installations of new applications, distributing software upgrades, monitoring daily activity, enforcing licensing agreements, developing storage management, and providing routine backups.
• Oversee programs in administrative languages such as Python, Perl, Java Script, and shell scripts.
• Collaborate with team members on the design, implementation, and support of standardized automation systems.
• Lead projects with team members on design, deployment, and support infrastructure services.
• Collaborate with team members in the development of new projects and services arising from the academic and technical needs of supported groups.
• Participation in an on-call rotation and after-hours support is required.
• Excellent troubleshooting, debugging, and diagnostic skills.
• Solid understanding of networking concepts, including routing, subnets, DNS, and software firewall configurations.
• Familiarity with containers and API scripting.
• Forecast infrastructure needs for long term plan.
• Experience administering and managing OpenSearch or ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack, including deployment, configuration, performance tuning, and monitoring.

Basic Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent is required.
• 6 years of experience with system administration
• Five years of experience using and supporting the Linux operating system is required
• Five years of hands‑on experience managing and supporting AWS cloud environments, including core services such as EC2, S3, IAM, and VPC.
• Must have excellent customer relations, written, and oral communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• M.S. Preferred.
• Experience administering and supporting Shibboleth Identity Provider (IdP) and Service Provider (SP) systems, including configuration, maintenance, and integration with SAML‑based authentication services.
• Demonstrated expertise in architecting AWS solutions, automating cloud infrastructure and services using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools (e.g., Terraform).

Required Documents

• Resume.

Hiring Range

$135,100 to $155,300 per year

As one of the largest employers in Pasadena, CA, Caltech is committed to providing comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Our benefits package includes competitive compensation, health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans, generous paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, bereavement, etc.), tuition reimbursement, and more. Non‑benefit eligible employees will have access to some benefits such as onsite counseling and sick time.

EEO Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Caltech is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

Disability Accommodations

Caltech complies with the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We consider reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for eligible applicants and employees to perform the essential functions of a position.

If you would like to request an accommodation to complete this application, interview, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please contact Caltech Recruiting at

Additionally, if you do not meet the basic qualifications of a role but believe you can perform the essential functions of the job with reasonable accommodation, please reach out to Caltech Recruiting at