IT Application and Infrastructure Support Professional

Chartered by the state of Georgia in 1785, the University of Georgia is the birthplace of public higher education in America and is the state's flagship university (https://www.uga.edu/). The proof is in our more than 240 years of academic and professional achievements and our continual commitment to higher education. UGA is currently ranked among the top 20 public universities in U.S. News & World Report. The University's main campus is located in Athens, approximately 65 miles northeast of Atlanta, with extended campuses in Atlanta, Griffin, Gwinnett, and Tifton. UGA employs approximately 3,100 faculty and more than 7,700 full-time staff. The University's enrollment exceeds 41,000 students including over 31,000 undergraduates and over 10,000 graduate and professional students. Academic programs reside in 19 schools and colleges, including our newly established School of Medicine.

The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1946, is dedicated to training future veterinarians, providing services to animal owners and veterinarians, and conducting investigations to improve the health of animals as well as people. The college benefits pets and their owners, food-producing animals, and wildlife by offering the highest quality hospital and diagnostic laboratory services. Equipped with the most technologically advanced facilities located on a university campus, the college is dedicated to safeguarding public health by studying emerging infectious diseases that affect both animal and human health.

The College of Veterinary Medicine values all members of the university community, recognizing that differences in experience and culture can only lead to a more well-rounded, accepting academic environment as embodied in our Principles of Community.

Monday - Friday
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Off hours and holidays as necessary

The University of Georgia is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or veteran status or other protected status. Persons needing accommodations or assistance with the accessibility of materials related to this search are encouraged to contact Central HR ( hrweb@uga.edu).

The University System of Georgia is comprised of our 26 institutions of higher education and learning, as well as the System Office. Our USG Statement of Core Values are Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect. These values serve as the foundation for all that we do as an organization, and each USG community member is responsible for demonstrating and upholding these standards. More details on the USG Statement of Core Values and Code of Conduct are available in USG Board Policy 8.2.18.1.2 and can be found online at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section8/C224/#p8.2.18_personnel_conduct.

Additionally, USG supports Freedom of Expression as stated in Board Policy 6.5 Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom found online at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section6/C2653.

The College of Veterinary Medicine expects the delivery of exceptional IT service and support to our faculty, staff, and student clients alike. An important aspect of that support is the implementation and maintenance of our internal on-site virtual server farm, our storage assets, and the third party vendor relationships that provide services to the college. This IT Applications and Infrastructure Support Professional role functions under the management of our Colleges' IT Services organization. Our primary resources include multiple VMWare ESXi server clusters in three different facilities in Athens, GA and one in Tifton, GA. Additionally, our storage assets are primarily Dell PowerVault repositories, HPE Alletra block storage, and Qumulo data storage. A centerpiece of our on premise computing capacity is our hyperconverged Dell VxRail solution. The use of Veeam and Starfish software is an important part of our Backup and Disaster Recovery strategy and we utilize on prem appliances for Load Balancing where it adds a performance benefit to our enterprise application software environments.

This position will primarily be responsible for administering, managing, leveraging, and monitoring these server, storage, and software assets with secondary assistance from other team members. Additionally, there are a few stand-alone, non-virtualized environments that will command attention.

Demonstrated competency and experience with VMWare virtualization, Dell Server host and Dell, HPE, and Qumulo data storage asset monitoring and management (or equivalent). Experience constructing hybrid 3rd party cloud integration of on-premise environments and ability to develop, refine, implement, and support Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans. Data analytics and query construction skills are also useful. Experience applying web server load balancing concepts in virtual or appliance based settings.

Occasional light lifting (<50lbs)

Be advised a credit check will be required for all positions with financial responsibilities. For additional information about the credit check criteria, visit the UGA Credit Background Check website.

Offers of employment are contingent upon completion of a background investigation including, a criminal background check demonstrating your eligibility for employment with the University of Georgia; confirmation of the credentials and employment history reflected in your application materials (including reference checks) as they relate to the job-based requirements of the position applied for; and, if applicable, a satisfactory credit check. You may also be subject to a pre-employment drug test for positions with high-risk responsibilities, if applicable. Please visit the UGA Background Check website.

Server Host/Virtual Infrastructure Deployment & Management:

Administration of physical/virtual server farm comprised of Dell VxRails environment, VMware vSphere ESXi hosts, Windows and Linux servers running production and development application servers, databases, management services, etc.

Deployment, configuration, upgrade/patch management and troubleshooting Windows server operating systems (20xx), Linux operating systems (Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu) and ESXi hypervisors.

Active Directory related administration and tasks (group policies, security groups, computer and user account management.)

Provide Technical Thought Leadership and Existing Infrastructure Support. Support our server farm, storage farm and database infrastructure. Continue to provide insight and testing related to adoption of cloud computing and virtual computing environments as opportunities come to be known. Become the most knowledgeable staff member and coach on these technical directions through continued training and exploration.

Storage & Networking Administration:

Configuration and management of networked storage arrays, (Dell PowerVault, HPE Alletra, Qumulo) housing iSCSI volumes, VMDKs and department/user file shares.

Basic network administration involving switch configuration (mostly on premise server to server related), knowledge of protocols ( TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, Subnetting, VLAN's, etc.), network security and troubleshooting.

Backup & Recovery Management:

Manage and perform backup and recovery procedures to ensure data redundancy, full data retrieval and disaster recovery ( VEEAM/Starfish, snapshots, scheduled backups).

Knowledge of best practices for data security, replication, data center architecture, disaster
recovery (DR) and business continuity planning ( BCP).

Documentation, Analytics, and Architecture planning:

Document relevant infrastructure, system application configurations, and update with changes as needed.

Analyze data, provide reports and metrics as needed to support engineering requirements, analysis and forecasting.

Propose and plan project tasks applying knowledge of networking, storage, and systems configuration along with research in new technologies and techniques
( AWS/cloud services, BackBlaze, automation tools, and optimization).

Research and Service Organization Support:

Provide administrative management support and coordinate vendor interaction for software application suites deployed in our Research environments.

Assist in identifying and implementing solutions that may employ Artificial Intelligence for process efficiencies and discovery.

Active Communication with Leadership:

Participate, as needed, in regular CVM Departmental Meetings and work in close coordination with the IT Manager, Applications and Infrastructure and the Director, IT Services on key technical and process improvement initiatives in the College.Other duties and activities as necessary and required by the Director, IT Services.