Senior Systems Administrator / Solution Architect

Company: Whipcord

Department: Network Operations Center (NOC)

Location: Calgary or Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Whipcord is looking for a bright, positive and energetic person to join our team as a Senior Systems Administrator / Solution Architect. This is an exciting opportunity with a company very focused on growth. The role of the Senior Systems Administrator / Solution Architect is to design, implement, direct, and manage customer solutions. A Solutions Architect serves as a technical expert on systems administration in large and complex computing environments. This position serves as a staff specialist on multiple operating systems and platforms supporting enterprise-wide or large-scale computing. This role is customer focused and will define solutions aligning to client requirements in areas of cloud, virtual environments, backup and replication environments, and storage solutions. The successful candidate will play an integral part of the team, while also providing day-to-day support for our clients.

Background

Whipcord, an Alberta-based company, owns and operates a Tier 3 designed data centre in Lethbridge, and other facilities in Vancouver and Toronto. Since 2011, Whipcord has established itself as a national provider of IT services and we are proud of our supportive, loyal customer base. We currently have sales offices in Calgary and Vancouver and are heavily focused on growth.

We are a high-performance infrastructure company offering IT services that are fast and flexible within our four areas of specialization: Infrastructure as a Service (Cloud); Backup & Disaster Recovery as a Service Solutions; Colocation; and Network Connectivity. We are also building world class infrastructure solutions for the Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain industries as we strive to be on the leading edge of tomorrow’s digital world.

Key Responsibilities and Tasks:

Operate, maintain, and expand Whipcord’s data centre facilities, infrastructure, and services
Define client solutions including architecture, functionality, and products
Research and recommend innovative and, where possible, automated approaches for system administration tasks.
Identify approaches that leverage our resources and provide economies of scale
Maintain operational, configuration, or other documented procedures
Provide capacity reports and forecasting
Assist with daily IT operations (service provisioning, customer service, ticket management, troubleshooting, monitoring, etc.)
Provide end-user support to both Whipcord customers and employees
Apply OS patches and upgrades on a regular basis, and upgrade administrative tools and utilities
Configure / add new services as necessary
Assist with design and implementation of new systems and services
Responsibility for training other team members on solutions and documenting processes
Participate in on-call rotation for after-hours support

Requirements and Skills:

Significant practical experience in the following areas:

VMWare vSphere 6.x architecture and administration
HyperV
Veeam Backup and Replication
Windows system administration
Powershell scripting
Storage administration (including FC/FCoE, iSCSI, and NAS protocols)

Proficiency in the following would be an asset:

IP networks (including LAN, WAN, BGP, VPN, and wireless technologies)
Linux / Solaris / *BSD system administration
Database administration (PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL, MySQL)
Experience in data centre infrastructure (power, cooling, BMS/DCIM) is considered an asset, but not necessary

Specific technologies / vendor experience desired:

VMware vSphere
Veeam Backup and Replication
Juniper Networks/Arista
Microsoft Server and Active Directory environments

Competencies:

Positive, self-motivated individual who can complete tasks independently
Analytical problem solving
Strong communications with clear written and verbal acumen
Customer focused
Cooperative teamwork
Industry standards
Innovation
Technological orientation

Qualifications:

C.E.T, BS or MS with a major in computer science or similar preferred (or equivalent industry certification such as A+, MCSE, CCNA/CCNP, VCP, etc.)
VMWare VCP would be an asset
Minimum 4 to 6 years relevant industry experience

APPLICATION

If you are looking to join a great team, please submit your resume via the form below or email us at careers@whipcord.com. We thank everyone for their interest in this exciting opportunity, however, only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted.