The University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering (Viterbi) seeks to recruit a mission-driven Research Systems Manager (Systems Administrator IV) to lead a new research systems division within Viterbi IT. We are looking for candidates with six or more years of experience in Linux systems engineering and a proven track record of building and leading successful teams. The ideal candidate for this position is strategic thinker with exceptional communications skills that has a proven capacity to work with various end users, partners, and critical stakeholders.

Viterbi IT maintains School-wide systems and executes continuous improvements to provide exceptional, full-service support to the students, faculty, and staff of the Viterbi School. The Research Systems Manager will build and lead a new team of engineers and technicians, creating a new Research IT Services (RITS) team within Viterbi IT.

The Research Systems Manager will lead the new RITS team to deliver on 4 key mandates:

Create flexible, transferable approaches to research IT consultation that address varied needs by research groups across the Viterbi School, avoid redundancy of efforts, and encourage faculty to develop joint solutions and work with third-party solution providers, where necessary, in ways that contribute to the development of sustainable and effective research IT solutions. Harness new and emerging information technologies to increase the productivity and visibility of researchers and their output. Support faculty in system configuration, setup, administration, security, and maintenance of diverse computer systems. Serve as the university's steward of information security for the School’s research enterprise, escalating potential issues or incidents that require information security expertise to the appropriate university contacts.

The Research Systems Manager will be expected to develop and oversee a high-performing RITS team, providing systems and services expertise while driving operational best practices. The Manager will work closely with researchers and other Viterbi IT staff to gather requirements; research, evaluate, design, plan, deploy, and support systems; and deploy open-source software platforms and related technologies in a world-class environment to meet the need of the demanding Viterbi research groups.

Primary Responsibilities Include:

Team Leadership & Strategy

• Develops and leads new Research IT Services (RITS) team within Viterbi IT. Aligns operational outcomes with strategic goals to ensure delivery of core RITS mandate. Works in partnership with Viterbi leadership, Viterbi IT, University IT, and other key stakeholders to execute core job functions.

• Manages departmental workforce planning and team performance to ensure high productivity. Oversees staff recruitment, performance, development, and compensation in partnership with Viterbi Human Resources.

• Recruits, screens, hires, and trains staff. Evaluates employee performance and provides guidance and feedback to assigned staff. Counsels and disciplines employees as required in partnership with Viterbi HR.

Operational Execution

• Works with key stakeholders and through subordinate staff to design and deliver creative solutions and resolve problems in a timely and proactive manner

• Makes recommendations, justifies, and implements improvements using an accepted change control methodology

• Defines, documents, and follows standards and best practices for systems design, testing, and implementation

• Maintains documentation to include, but not limited to, hardware and software logistics and asset management inventories, configurations, network charts, and cabling diagrams

• Installs, configures, deploys, troubleshoots, patches, and performance-tunes various variants of Linux, Windows, and macOS systems

• Provides support in the implementation and maintenance of cloud-based technologies

• Provides design and support services for backup and recovery systems; maintains logs of server events, maintenance, outages, and failures

• Drives scripting and automation to develop solutions to common problems and help scale operations

• Evaluates new hardware and software for compatibility with IT services and computing environments at USC

• Partners with data center engineering to help deploy new hardware as required

• Assists in hardening computer systems and account management practices consistent with security practices and established guidelines

• Participates in the testing and integration of all new or modified infrastructure operations, including migration to new, applicable cybersecurity standards

• Partners with other teams in Viterbi IT and ITS Security to research and resolve platform security risks quickly and efficiently

• Provides technical training for information technology personnel as needed

Job duties may be added or modified as needed.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to the mission of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Viterbi staff are expected to facilitate a culture of support and service, to model civility and respectful engagement at all times, and to maintain the highest ethical standards and to maintain strict confidentiality across all facets of their work.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or similar technical discipline, and 4+ years of systems engineering experience; or 6+ years of systems engineering experience in place of a degree

• Minimum three years in a management or leadership role

• Previous experience working in a Higher Education environment, either as an employee or as a consultant, is highly desired

• Extensive experience with Linux operating systems (e.g., Red Hat, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, etc.), applications and services (e.g., DNS, NIS, NFS, CIFS, Samba, Apache, Tomcat, Nginx, etc.)

• Experience with Linux system administration in physical and virtualized environments

• Ability to automate routine tasks using shell or programming languages (e.g., Bash, Python, Java, etc.)

• Experience and a good understanding of IT security concepts for computing environments containing varied computer types and operating systems

• Networking experience in IPv4, switching, routing, firewalls, and HA architecture

• Experience with hardware (i.e., racking, troubleshooting, swapping components)

• Exposure to Data Center Inventory Management tooling: tracking of assets, dependency mapping, and rack allocation considerations is a plus

• Experience with computer virtualization (e.g., VMware, KVM, etc.)

• Working knowledge of cloud computing environments: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform

• Understanding and working knowledge of information security fundamentals and risk-based approach to information security would be beneficial

• Must be comfortable working with sensitive research systems, with a sense of urgency appropriate to the responsibilities

• Must have strong interpersonal and communication skills, including being a solid team player and articulating technical requirements, concepts, and ideas to business and technology partners

• Must be analytical and excellent at diagnosing, troubleshooting, and problem analysis with the ability to communicate results to non-technical stakeholders and IT support teams to resolve issues both quickly and effectively

• Energetic, self‐starter with demonstrated ability to work well both in collaborative, cross‐functional teams, and independently with excellent personal initiative

• Ability to preserve credibility with the team and external constituents through sustained industry knowledge

• Ability to handle changing priorities and manage multiple projects simultaneously in a deadline-driven environment.

• Ability to participate in occasional project activities in off-hours, including weekends and holidays

• Ability to participate in a 24x7 on-call rotation

Additional Information:

This is a hybrid position. The Research Systems Manager will be expected to work onsite for a minimum of three days per week and is expected to modify their schedule on an as-needed basis. The Research Systems Manager will be required to participate in on-call rotation to handle urgent after-hours work when necessary, and to performs evening, weekend, or holiday work on an as-need basis meet critical deadlines or solve urgent problems. The Research Systems Manager may be asked to work fully onsite to execute projects and/or during high volume periods of activity. This position is not eligible for fully remote work.  

The annual base salary range for this position is $125,875.66 - $139,404.33. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope of responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.

Required Applicant Documents:

A resume/CV and a cover letter are required. Please feel free to upload your application materials in a single document.

USC and the Viterbi School:

The University of Southern California (USC), founded in 1880, is in the heart of downtown L.A. and is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. As an employee of USC, you will be a part of a world-class research university and a member of the “Trojan Family,” which is comprised of the faculty, students, and staff that make the university what it is.

Founded in 1905, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is named for Andrew Viterbi who developed an algorithm to connect the world’s citizens. Similarly, the school, located in Los Angeles, a global center for arts, technology and international business in the heart of the Pacific Rim, is a hub for entrepreneurship that connects students from 64 countries.

USC Viterbi is a pioneer in restoring sight to the blind; restoring memory to sufferers of Alzheimer’s; and socially assistive robots to aid seniors with stroke or children with autism. It is the home of the first operational quantum computing center in academia. Our alumni include Neil Armstrong, first human on the moon; A.C. Mike Markkula, co-founder of Apple; and Wanda Austin, former CEO of the Aerospace Corporation.

The USC Viterbi School is consistently ranked among the top graduate programs (U.S. News and World Report). Under the leadership of Dean Yannis C. Yortsos, the school helped re-imagine the 21st century engineer, pioneering the Grand Challenge Scholars Program in schools across the globe. Our mission is to serve California, the nation and the world. At USC Viterbi, we call this the enabling power of Engineering+.

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About University of Southern California (USC)

USC is the leading private research university in Los Angeles—a global center for arts, technology and international business. With more than 47,500 students, we are located primarily in Los Angeles but also in various US and global satellite locations. As the largest private employer in Los Angeles, responsible for $8 billion annually in economic activity in the region, we offer the opportunity to work in a dynamic and diverse environment, in careers that span a broad spectrum of talents and skills across a variety of academic and professional schools and administrative units. As a USC employee and member of the Trojan Family—the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who make USC a great place to work—you will enjoy excellent benefits, including a variety of well-being programs designed to help individuals achieve work-life balance.

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