Compensation: Hourly + Retainer, TBD
Part Time Contract Position
We’re an established, innovative digital marketing and application development agency that provides dedicated and managed hosting solutions as well as SaaS solutions to our clients. We’re seeking a motivated and talented part time / contract IT Manager and System Administrator to assist us in maintaining a number of co-located Linux servers running mostly a LAMP stack, a three Windows Servers, as well as custom web applications using those services. We employ virtualization on some servers using Xen, and Docker to create and maintain application containers.
This is a part time position requiring on average 5 hours of work per week, although this can fluctuate. You would team up with and back up our existing IT manager. Candidates must be available during business hours and after hours, and available to respond to emergency issues after hours as well.
Ideal candidates are working to create their own freelance IT / system administration practice, or may be currently employed but have flexible scheduling.
Description of the Position:
Tasks include:
- Configuring new Linux servers for clients – usually VMs via Xen, but occasionally a physical server
- Monitoring the health of our 12+ co-located servers and responding proactively
- Server hardware upgrades
- Server patches and updates (of both the LAMP environment and installed software like content management systems)
- Assisting with implementation of web projects that cross the IT/software divide, such as mysql and apache performance optimization, or configuring and testing cron jobs that interface with web applications
- Configure and manage servers running in a unique system architecture to secure certain data sets
- Respond to emergencies such as servers down, etc. If necessary, be willing and able to travel to our data center in Waltham, MA
- Cisco Firewall adjustments and tuning to accommodate clients with unique security needs
- Disaster recovery (restoring backed up sites, servers, mail, etc.)
- New computer installation and setup on our internal LAN
- Assisting clients with IT needs (under subcontract)
- Develop network / server configuration plans
- Keep up to date documentation on processes or server configurations in our knowledgebase
Requirements:
- 5+ years of LAMP system administration experience with web facing applications, LAMP server administration experience, networking, and also security experience, with an emphasis on strong command line experience
- 3+ years experience with Postfix
- 3+ years experience with virtualization (experience with Xen is a plus)
- 3+ years experience with application development tools and infrastructure such as Git, Vagrant, Docker. SVN experience a plus but not required.
- Familiarity with collaboration, ticketing and project management systems. Specific expertise with JIRA, Confluence and Freshdesk a plus but not required.
- Available during business hours and occasional off hours, and be able to support us off hours in the event of emergencies.
- Able to charge a reasonable hourly rate to start in line with the long term commitment we offer
- Excellent communication skills (e.g., advise us of ETAs, keep track of deadlines, be proactive, etc.)
- Take responsibility and be accountable for your work
- Use time well (e.g., setup automated tasks in parallel)
- Have a car and be able to travel to both our office just north of Boston and our data center in the metro west area.
Please respond with your:
- Cover letter
- Resume
We will contact parties that are a good fit for the requirements. No phone calls please.
