Systems and Security Operations Engineer

Benefits
Current Benefits
Colgate University is proud to offer in-depth, competitive benefits that support the health and wellbeing of our employees and their family. The majority of benefits are effective on the date of hire.
We pride ourselves on the scope and quality of the benefits offered to our employees. We invite candidates to visit our Benefits page to learn more about our generous benefits package, which includes but is not limited to:

Health and Wellness:
Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, behavioral health benefits, disability and life insurance, 403 B Retirement with employer core and matching contributions.

Paid Time Off:
Vacation time (varies based on position classification), sick time, 13.5 holidays including a Winter Recess between Christmas and New Year's and 3 floating holidays.

Paid Family Leave:
After six months of employment, employees become eligible for up to 12 weeks of paid time off up to 67% of salary to a state maximum for bonding with a newborn, adopted or foster child, caring for a family member with a serious health condition or to help after a family member has been deployed to active military duty abroad.

Continuing Education and Professional Development:
Employees and their spouse/domestic partner may take up to 2 courses per semester at Colgate, tuition free with a $20 per course registration fee.
Funding for work related courses to obtain an undergraduate or graduate degree related to your current position.
After 7 years of service in an eligible position an employee's eligible children may be awarded up to half of Colgate's tuition to attend an accredited college, university or trade school of their choice.

Along with a generous benefits package, additional perks unique to Colgate University include but are not limited to free on campus parking, free gym membership with discounts for family members, reduced Seven Oaks Golf Course memberships, University Bookstore discount, free library access, 3 free tickets for any regular season athletic home event, access to Colgate owned Bewkes Center and Glendening Boathouse, free access to all cultural events.

Department Statement
Colgate Information Technology Services (ITS) is a dynamic organization that serves the diverse technology needs of the University community. ITS prides itself on exceptional customer service and building creative solutions to meet the unique needs of our liberal arts campus. ITS endeavors to foster an inclusive environment that values diversity, professional development, creativity, and innovation to support the growth of individuals and the organization. ITS is embarking on a strategic planning process to align services and resources with several exciting new initiatives identified in Colgate's Third Century Plan.
More information can be found at https://www.colgate.edu/about/third-century-plan

The position supports Colgate University's mission by collaborating with the Associate Director of Research and High-Performance Computing to facilitate the maintenance and security of research computing resources offered to faculty, staff, and students. This involves architecting, maintaining, and securing hardware and software. The position is also responsible for providing ongoing support to faculty, staff, and students with their research computing needs which include assisting with installing, configuring, and maintaining research computing software, but mostly excluding code refactoring and debugging.

Accountabilities
The Systems and Security Operations Engineer will:

• Support faculty, staff, and students by installing and maintaining research computing software, troubleshooting managed research computing pipelines, and assisting with data backups and recovery where needed.
• Assist Information Technology Services in adopting research computing best practices and automating research computing pipelines through serverless or server web services.
• Optimize research computing services by improving user experience, usefulness, performance, availability, and resilience.
• Perform other related duties and projects assigned by the Associate Director of Research and High-Performance Computing.

Technical Competencies

Server Administration

Demonstrated skills sufficient to manage day-to-day maintenance of physical and virtual servers. Demonstrated working knowledge of LAMP stack. Familiarity with Unix, and REHL/CentOS and Ubuntu Linux flavors. Demonstrated ability to install, configure, and backup servers. Ability to troubleshoot and evaluate performance issues with assigned service areas. Familiarity with cloud infrastructure as a service. Familiarity with Docker and/or Singularity. Working knowledge of Bash/Zsh scripting.

Customer Service

Displays empathy and patience with users of all levels of sophistication. Demonstrated ability to assess user sophistication and communicate (oral and written) with clients in an appropriate level of detail. Demonstrated ability to convey confidence to the user in ITS ability to solve issues.

Network Administration and Security

Demonstrated ability to manage incidents from start to completion including, but not limited to, event correlation, vulnerability & attack identification/classification, incident reporting, incident containment, and remediation. Demonstrated skills in Linux Iptables and network routing/switching. IPv4 required; IPv6 preferred. Ability to troubleshoot and evaluate network and system performance issues.

Programming

Demonstrates ability to research, recommend, and implement software solutions. Develops relatively simple applications, and programs based on published API documentation and uses Git as a code repository.

Behavioral Competencies

Personal Accountability for Results

Takes responsibility for decisions, performance, and outcomes; behaves in a responsible manner with a positive attitude; shows self-awareness and openness to feedback.

Effective Communication

Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills; shares information and seeks input from others; adapts communication to diverse audiences; protects private and confidential information.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

Analyzes and prioritizes situations to identify and solve problems; generates solutions to improve efficiency and quality; involves others in solving problems and making decisions; factors organizational goals into decisions; makes clear, transparent, and timely decisions.

Change Management

Responds positively to changing university initiatives and readily adapts behavior to maintain effective performance; understands the long-term direction of the university and can relate this to departmental area; adapts to new methodologies; identifies and acts on areas where change is appropriate.

Leadership and Teamwork

Applies skills and knowledge to provide a climate to achieve departmental and organizational success; balances individual and department goals; helps others perform at their best; builds productive relationships to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness; treats others with respect; resolves conflicts among team members.

Creativity and Innovation

Generates, explores, encourages, and implements innovative ways of creating strategic value for the university, division, department, and individual level; critically assesses the effectiveness of new initiatives.

Diversity and Inclusion

Demonstrates respect for people and their differences; understands the benefits of a diverse workforce; earns the trust and respect of others; includes and welcomes others; works to understand the perspective of others; promotes opportunities to experience diversity within our community.

Sustainability

Understands the impact of decision making and personal behavior in achieving the university's commitment to a sustainable and carbon-neutral campus; supports and advances the university's sustainability initiatives; influences others to use sustainable practices.

Requirements

Professional Experience/ Qualifications

• Three or more years of professional experience in Linux/Unix systems administration, operational security, shell scripting, and the Python programming language.
• Demonstrated experience in customer support, problem-solving, and communication skills, with the ability to diffuse challenging situations and remain calm and focused.
• Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize tasks with minimal supervision and have experience working in a higher education setting with diverse staff, faculty, and student populations.
• Knowledgeable of requirements gathering specific to academic research domains and the ability to translate research data analysis needs into practical computing solutions.
• Demonstrated ability in coordinating customer support, planning, reporting on requirements and constraints, and collaborating across information technology teams.
• Ability to work both independently and within a team, be willing to collaborate, share ideas openly, and be comfortable with constant changes in the working environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of, sensitivity to, and respect for the academic, cultural, and social diversity in the Colgate University community.
• Incident response - ability to perform incident handling function from start to completion including, but not limited to, event correlation, vulnerability & attack identification/classification, incident reporting, incident containment, and remediation.
• Linux scripting: working knowledge of Bash/Zsh scripting is required.
• Firewall/Network management: Linux Iptables, Network routing/switching. IPv4 required; IPv6 preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AWS, GCP, and/or Azure Cloud Compute is desired
• Access Management: Active Directory, familiarity with LDAP, and Microsoft AD integration via realm and sssd is preferred, but not required. Familiarity with Grouper is preferred.
• Containerization: Familiarity with Docker and/or Singularity.
• Familiarity with Python and R is preferred.
• Familiarity with web development using Django and Symphony frameworks is preferred.
• SecDevOps mindset is desired.

Education
A Bachelor's degree is required, preferably in computer science or a related field.

A Master's degree in computer science or related field desired, or equivalent professional experience in essential duties and responsibilities.

Certifications
Physical Requirements
Ability to occasionally lift up to 50 lbs.

Other Information

Posting Detail Information

Requisition Number 2024S031Posting
Temporary No
Work Schedule
Full Time
Monday - Friday
37.5 hours/week

Job Open Date 04/17/2024
Job Close Date
Open Until Filled Yes
Special Instructions Summary
Please share a diversity statement with us that highlights your commitment to inclusion.
Colgate is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse faculty, staff, and student population. We strive to be an inclusive community - one that embraces and values diversity (in the broadest sense possible) in an environment of mutual respect, communication, and engagement. A variety of cultures and perspectives enriches the quality of campus life, and the opportunity to share different views and experiences is at the core of Colgate's educational enterprise. These differences can include but are not limited to: race; ethnicity; gender and gender expression; sexual orientation; socioeconomic status; geographic background; national origin; culture; age; mental, cognitive, and physical abilities; religious beliefs; and political beliefs. As a result, we ask all candidates seeking consideration for the Classroom and Event Support Specialist position to submit a diversity statement with their application materials. You can upload the statement under the Diversity Statement document heading. A diversity statement may be any length (e.g. a short paragraph, a page) explaining your experiences, contributions, and/or commitments related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Examples of topics you may discuss include (but are not limited to): 1) how your experiences or competencies might serve to advance the university's commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive campus, 2) your experiences working with diverse populations, or 3) how you will contribute to the university's strategic initiatives in this area (see "Colgate's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan":https://www.colgate.edu/about/third-century-plan/plan-diversity-equity-and-inclusion).

For guidance, please refer to the Office and Equity and Diversity Website for a Diversity Statement Guide
https://www.colgate.edu/about/offices-centers-institutes/provost-and-dean-faculty/equity-and-diversity

Some guidance on crafting Diversity Statements

https://www.colgate.edu/sites/default/files/2021-06/Some-Guidance-on-Crafting-Diversity-Statements-Colgate.pdf

EEO Statement
It is the policy of Colgate University not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of their race, color, creed, religion, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, marital status, disability, protected Veteran Status, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, genetic information, victims of domestic violence and stalking, familial status, and all other categories covered by law. This policy shall apply to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, upgrading, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, recall, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation and selection for training at all levels of employment. Colgate University will not discharge or discriminate against employees or applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose their own compensation or the compensation of another employee or applicant. Colgate University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities/Females/Persons with Disabilities/Protected Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Clery Act
CAMPUS CRIME REPORTING AND STATISTICS

The Department of Campus Safety will provide upon request a copy of Colgate's Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. This report includes statistics as reported to the United States Department of Education for the previous three years concerning reported: 1. crimes that occurred on-campus; in certain off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by Colgate University; and on public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from, the campus and 2. fires that occurred in student housing facilities. The report also includes institutional policies concerning campus security and fire safety, such as policies concerning sexual assault, life safety systems, and other related matters. You may access the report from the Clery Compliance web page at: https://www.colgate.edu/about/offices-centers-institutes/dean-college/campus-safety-staff/clery-compliance. Printed copies of this report may be obtained upon request from the Department of Campus Safety via e-mail at cusafety@colgate.edu.