Career Center

The University of Washington (UW) is proud to be one of the nation’s premier educational and research institutions.  Our people are the most important asset in our pursuit of achieving excellence in education, research, and community service.  Our staff not only enjoys outstanding benefits and professional growth opportunities, but also an environment noted for diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

The Department of Genome Sciences has an outstanding opportunity for a Linux System Administrator to join their team

The Department of Genome Sciences (GS) is part of the University of Washington School of Medicine (UW SoM) and is comprised of 31 labs addressing leading edge questions in biology and medicine by developing and applying genetic, genomic and computational approaches taking advantage of genomic information now available for a host of species. GS is making major contributions in the application of genome science to understand the fundamentals of biology and to improve human health and wellbeing. Genome Sciences is a collaborative department supported by very different academic disciplines. We work with a multitude of Program Investigators (PIs) in departments both on the UW campus as well as worldwide. The department has gone through significant expansion since its beginning in 2001 with annual grant awards of $68.5M in FY21.

The Department of Genome Sciences is committed to creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive. Our goal is to foster a place of learning and working where all members can thrive and where diversity is recognized and celebrated. At Genome Sciences, we aim to create supportive spaces for those who are marginalized in higher education or society. To achieve this, we recognize that it is our ongoing responsibility to understand, acknowledge, and challenge systems of privilege and disadvantage in higher education such as those based on race, color, creed, caste, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, or socioeconomic status.

As a Linux System Administrator you’ll provide engineering, administration, and support services as a member of Genome Sciences IT Services (GS-IT) Research Computing Team (RCT).  The successful candidate will join three system administrators and a team manager. RCT supports multiple high performance Linux clusters (8,800+ CPU cores in aggregate), 9PB of NAS/SAN storage from a variety of vendors, numerous large databases (Postgres, MySQL), custom Linux application servers, 1/10/100GbE networking, and large scale backup/archive services. This is a hybrid position with four days per week on-site and one day remote. There are no regularly scheduled on-call duties for this position but you may be contacted off-hours in rare circumstances during an emergency.

The Linux System Administrator will support all computational infrastructure for users within the Department of Genome Sciences as well as collaborators/affiliates world-wide. The majority of work will be focused on supporting large-scale, complex, and heterogeneous scientific computing environment.  This work addresses the rapidly evolving technical requirements associated with cutting edge genetic research while also complying with federal information security requirements. An ideal applicant would be curious, focused, able to define and complete projects, able to articulate complicated problems concisely, demonstrate effective troubleshooting skills, and provide secure solutions that scale well.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

70% Engineer solutions to existing complex computing operations issues.  Interface with users to investigate and solve problems, streamline procedures, and communicate results.  Solutions will need to directly address the functional requirements as determined by direct work with faculty, management, and the other members of the GS-IT team.

15% Work independently and as part of a team to design, prototype, and implement new systems and procedures including frequent systems programming using programming languages such as Perl, Python, or Bash.

5% Create concise technical documentation for complex systems.  Documentation will need to be constructed and maintained in a manner that will allow other system administrators to quickly understand the critical components of complex systems design and maintenance.

5% Work directly with faculty to determine functional requirements for labs.  The person will then use systems analysis techniques and procedures to design, specify, and implement systems to meet those needs.

5% Learn and explore new technologies that will add value to GS-IT and the department.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Informatics, or related field.

2 years’ experience supporting Linux (preferably CentOS/RHEL) in a professional environment.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Proficient oral and written communication skills. Collaborates well.

Ability to work independently, prioritize tasks, and communicate progress.

Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except where there are legal requirements such as license/certification/registration.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience supporting multiple investigators in a University or non-profit research environment.

Familiarity with large scale storage systems.

AWS/GCP or other cloud knowledge.

Familiarity with configuration management tools like Puppet and Ansible.

Experience with monitoring frameworks like Nagios.

RHCE certification.

Experience writing and maintaining scripts to automate tasks (e.g. Bash, Python, Perl).

An ability to see complex IT projects through to successful completion.

Solid understanding of information security best practices.

Applicants who are eager to learn that don’t possess all of above are still encouraged to apply!  This position presents a great opportunity for professional growth.

Application Process:   The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process.  These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others.  Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.