Position Detail - Academic Systems Administrator

Position Type: Staff Full-Time (Hybrid)

Hours per week: 37.5   

Weeks per year: 52

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm; occasional nights and/or weekends as needed 

The annual salary range for this position is $78,000-$82,000

Department Summary & Job Purpose:

The Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS) Division at Mount Holyoke College is committed to providing integrated information and technology services and resources that enable students, faculty, and staff to creatively and productively advance the College’s academic, administrative and co-curricular goals.

Reporting to the Head of Academic Technologies (AT), the Academic Systems Administrator is responsible for implementing, administering, and supporting academic-focused applications and technologies. This includes a variety of open-source and custom web applications, cloud and Linux hosted services, and other technology platforms. Working in a team-based environment, this position collaborates with individuals and departments within LITS and throughout campus in creating and supporting an outstanding technical environment for teaching, learning, researching, and managing digital collections.

This position is a member of the Technology Infrastructure and Systems Support (TISS) group, which focuses on providing the technology foundation and its accompanying framework for the infrastructure, resources, and services that support the College. The TISS group includes data center and PaaS operations, networking, web application support, business intelligence, academic technologies, and administrative computing.

Core Job Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Application Administration
  • Act as a lead for the management, configuration, integration, and maintenance of local and cloud-hosted applications that support the academic mission of the College.
  • Develop and maintain complete, accurate, and timely documentation for all applications and systems managed.
  • Perform work within a change management structure, including coordinating changes and communications with stakeholders.
  • Ensure technologies are deployed securely in alignment with industry best practices and the College’s IT and Data policies.
  • Implement, maintain, and help to interpret usage analytics to assist in making data-driven decisions. 
• System and Technology Administration
  • Participate in the administering of servers in VMware and PaaS hosting environments.
  • Perform ongoing maintenance, patching, and monitoring of academic-centered systems and applications.
  • Define and manage storage requirements and backup processes for applications such as digital repositories and other digital asset management tools.
  • Work in partnership with the Network, Systems, and Applications team in LITS, as well as application administrators in other areas of the LITS and the College, to coordinate and manage servers, services, and applications. 
• Consulting
  • Help service owners and stakeholders define and implement policies, support practices, and workflows.
  • Collect and analyze service owner and stakeholder needs to design and implement efficient and effective technical solutions.
  • Act as the IT liaison between faculty and regional/cloud-hosted high-performance computing environments. 
• Actively works with colleagues in LITS to create a welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and user-centered environment in which a diverse population of students, faculty, and staff can thrive.
• Serve as a member of project teams, working groups, and other LITS and College committees to plan and achieve TISS, LITS, and College goals and priorities, with an emphasis on collaboration and incorporating adaptive, responsive practices as needs and challenges arise.
• Participate in external organizations, communities of practice, and other professional activities related to the duties of the position, including the College, Five Colleges, and larger higher ed communities, as well as those around programming and development tools, processes, and specific products.
• Maintain a high level of quality customer service standards in dealing with and responding to questions and problems.
• Supervise and mentor student team members in identifying and executing projects.
• Ensure compliance with professional and technology standards; license and regulatory requirements; standards and practices for accessibility, privacy, and security; and other College standards, policies, and procedures.
• Attends and contributes to major campus-wide or LITS-sponsored events, which may be held at night, on weekends, or holidays, and which are part of every employee’s core responsibilities
• Conduct evening and weekend work as necessary, such as emergency system maintenance.
• Perform related duties as assigned. 

Qualifications: 

• Degree in an area that relates to information systems preferred, or a combination of education and experience that support the job functions and responsibilities.
• At least 3 years of progressively responsible technical experience managing Linux based web applications.
• Experience with routine system administration tasks in Linux server and/or containerized application environments, including configuration management, patching, monitoring, and implementing security controls.
• Experience with one or more web content or asset management applications such as Drupal, WordPress, ResourceSpace, DSpace, Islandora, or Omeka.
• Experience in working with database platforms including MariaDB, MySQL, or Microsoft's SQLServer.
• Familiarity with project management methodologies, especially Agile/Scrum, and the ability to create project timelines, and goals, and participate in the creation of project documentation.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in PaaS environments such as AWS or Azure.
• Experience with Git/GitHub, automated testing, and continuous integration and deployment.
• Experience with data analytics tools such as JupyterHub and R Studio.
• Facility with popular modern programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, and PHP
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with a diverse group of faculty, students, administrators, staff, and others.
• Enthusiastic service orientation with sensitivity to the needs of users at all skill levels; the ability to convey technical information to a non-technical audience is essential.
• Excellent oral and written communication, organization, and problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Maintain a professional and tactful approach in all interactions, ensuring confidentiality and a right to privacy regarding appropriate information.
• Flexibility to accept, manage and incorporate change and the ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities simultaneously and effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Creativity, with a passion for supporting a collaborative work environment.
• Ability to travel as needed to participate in consortia and professional meetings and events.

License/Certifications:

Compliance Requirements: 

Physical Demands: 

• Sedentary work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met.
• The employee is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; and extensive reading.
• Hearing: Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction. Ability to receive detailed information through oral communication, and to make the discriminations in sound.
• Sufficient clarity of speech required includes those which permit the employee to discern verbal instructions and communicate effectively in person and by telephone.
• This position may require travel to participate in consortial and professional meetings and events.

Working Conditions: 

• The employee is not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions (such as in typical office or administrative work).  

Background Checks:

Mount Holyoke College is committed to providing a safe and secure environment, supported by qualified employees that will allow all of its students, faculty, staff, and those associated with them to successfully carry out the mission of the college. As a condition of employment, the College will conduct appropriate background checks for all new hires. Mount Holyoke has designated the Office of Human Resources as the office responsible for ensuring that background checks (CORI, SORI, Credit History, & Driver Credential) are completed and utilized in the hiring process and Five College Office of Compliance and Risk Management as the office responsible for facilitating background checks as articulated in this policy.

Special Instructions for Applicants: 

Apply online; application materials must include:

1. A cover letter summarizing interests and qualifications
2. A complete resume or curriculum vitae
3. Contact information for 3 professional references

Mount Holyoke College is a women’s college that is gender diverse. The College is committed to providing equal access and opportunity in employment and education to all employees and students. In compliance with state and federal law, Mount Holyoke College does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, genetic information, sex, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, ancestry, veteran or military status, or any other legally protected status under federal, state or local law. The College does not discriminate on the basis of gender in the recruitment and admission of students to its graduate program.

Mount Holyoke College is an Equal Opportunity Employer.