Systems Administrator – DevOps

Description

• The University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) system is the largest academic library in Canada and is ranked in the top five among peer institutions in North America. The system comprises 40 libraries located across three university campuses: St.George, Mississauga, and Scarborough. This diverse and extensive network of college libraries, special collections, and specialized information centres plays a pivotal role in supporting the teaching, scholarly, and research needs of nearly 100,000 students enrolled in a wide array of graduate, professional, and undergraduate programs.

• The library system provides access to millions of resources in various formats, including electronic, print, audio-visual, data and geospatial materials. UTL also boasts impressive holdings of archival material and substantial digital collections, securely preserved in the libraries' data centre. The staff at UTL are integral to the academic and scholarly enterprise, working closely with faculty and students to support their teaching, learning, and research requirements. They are subject matter experts; they are skilled in research data management, collections, statistics, GIS, metadata, digital preservation, scholarly communications, copyright, teaching, knowledge synthesis, open access and much more. Our work is grounded in our commitment to support equity, diversity, and inclusion. UTL continuously evolves to meet the changing academic priorities and pressures at the University and within the broader landscape of higher education.

• Your opportunity

• Scholars Portal, a department of the University of Toronto Libraries, is the digital service arm of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), delivering shared infrastructure, technology, and services that support Ontario’s 21 university libraries. The Scholars Portal team of librarians, developers, and systems staff supports a broad portfolio of services spanning research and member services, data and geospatial services, digital collections, and digital preservation.

• Reporting to the Associate Director, the Systems Administrator – DevOps will play a key role in supporting Scholaris, Canada's national shared institutional repository service. The position will focus on maintaining and improving the infrastructure, deployment processes, and operational systems that support Scholaris, with an emphasis on automation, reliability, security, and performance.

• Working closely with developers, Systems team members, and other colleagues, the successful candidate will support application deployments, configuration management, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, troubleshooting, and ongoing system maintenance. The role will also contribute to improving automation, streamlining operational processes, and supporting the continuous development and enhancement of Scholaris. As part of a collaborative technical team, the incumbent will help ensure that Scholaris remains a secure, reliable, and sustainable service that meets the evolving needs of the Canadian research community.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Developing and programming network applications
• Customizing open source web applications
• Analyzing and installing networking equipment (Linux based servers and infrastructure services)
• Configuring system applications according to needs
• Troubleshooting complex computer system problems
• Creating complex and technical documentation and user support guides

Essential Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree (Computer Science, Information Technology or a related field) or acceptable combination of equivalent experience.
• Minimum 5 years' related experience
• Demonstrated experience administering and maintaining Linux-based systems (e.g., Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or equivalent)
• Experience with configuration management and automation tools (e.g., Ansible, Chef, Puppet, or equivalent)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or equivalent)
• Proficiency in scripting and automation using Python, Bash, or similar languages
• Proficiency in scripting and automation using Python, Bash, or similar languagesExperience administering web servers and reverse proxies (e.g., Apache, Nginx, HAProxy, or equivalent)
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, or equivalent)
• Familiarity with on-premises virtualization and infrastructure platforms (e.g., KVM, OpenStack, or equivalent)
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting tools used to support production services
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, firewalls, and load balancing
• Understanding of secure systems administration practices, including patch management, access control, backup, and recovery
• Familiarity with databases and backend services (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, MarkLogic, or equivalent) is an asset
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work independently and collaboratively with technical and non-technical colleagues
• Demonstrated commitment to the values of inclusivity, diversity, anti-racism, equity and accessibility
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills

To be successful in this role you will be:

• Adaptable

• Communicator

• Goal oriented

• Organized

• Problem solver

• Team player

• Closing

Experience

• Statement

• Candidates who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups are encouraged to apply, and their lived experience shall be taken into consideration as applicable to the posted position.

• Job descriptions are available upon request for internal applicants.

• Diversity Statement

• The University of Toronto embraces Diversity and is building a culture of belonging that increases our capacity to effectively address and serve the interests of our global community. We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized persons, women, persons with disabilities, and people of diverse sexual and gender identities. We value applicants who have demonstrated a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and recognize that diverse perspectives, experiences, and expertise are essential to strengthening our academic mission.

• As part of your application, you will be asked to complete a brief Diversity Survey. This survey is voluntary. Any information directly related to you is confidential and cannot be accessed by search committees or human resources staff. Results will be aggregated for institutional planning purposes. For more information, please see the Diversity Survey page.

• Accessibility Statement

• The University strives to be an equitable and inclusive community, and proactively seeks to increase diversity among its community members. Our values regarding equity and diversity are linked with our unwavering commitment to excellence in the pursuit of our academic mission.

• The University is committed to the principles of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). As such, we strive to make our recruitment, assessment and selection processes as accessible as possible and provide accommodations as required for applicants with disabilities.

• Indigenous Substantiation Process

• The University of Toronto has implemented a process to substantiate Indigenous Membership/Citizenship/Enrolment for candidates who identify as Indigenous. For more information about this process, please refer to the Indigenous Substantiation Website.

Job Segment:

• Open Source, Data Center, Auto, System Administrator, GIS, Technology, Creative