JOB DESCRIPTION
Ref: 50000991
Note: This job description does not form part of the employee’s contract of
employment but is provided for guidance, the precise duties and responsibilities of
any job may be expected to change over time, job holders should be consulted over
any proposed changes to this job description before implementation.
Job Title:
Senior Systems Development Officer - Storage and Virtualisation
Reports to: Team Leader – Open Systems
Department: Information Services
Purpose:
To take a significant role in the support and continuous development of
the University’s central enterprise storage and virtualisation
infrastructure and its services.
Principal accountabilities:
The principal areas of activity and responsibility follow:
 Take a leading role in the development and operational support of enterprise
storage and virtualisation.
 Take a leading role in the development and operational support of backup and
disaster recovery
 Contribute to strategic planning in areas of specific expertise or responsibility.
Enhance and develop procedures for automated management and
performance monitoring.
 Respond in a timely manner to 2nd and 3rd line support queries from the
Service Desk.
 Document and write technical guides as appropriate.
 Provide training for other Information Services staff as appropriate.
 Undertake any other duties as appropriate within their competence as
required by the Team Leader – Open Systems from time to time.
Context of the post
The University’s enterprise service and systems infrastructure is delivered using a
mix of externally hosted or Cloud based solutions and in-house provision, based on
commercial off-the-shelf and open source software. There are two data centres
(Central London and Harrow) with real-time replication between both sites for
resilience and business continuity. Services are provided to on-campus and remote
users. Specific elements are:
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A virtual server “farm” comprising over 500 guests, running a mix of
Windows, Linux and Netware, providing core infrastructure and
application services.
VMware's vSphere with storage provided by EMC VPLEX/VNX, and
backup using Commvault Simpana
A policy of “virtual first” – using virtual servers instead of physical servers
wherever possible, to decrease the University’s carbon footprint, whilst
improving business continuity
Server operating systems: Windows, Linux (RedHat, SuSE, Debian &
Ubuntu), Mac OS X, Novell OES & Netware
Infrastructure services including: MS Active Directory, MS IIS, MS SQL,
Citrix XenApp, Novell eDir & IDM, Apache, Tomcat, Oracle 11g, MySQL,
Exim, Nagios, Infoblox
Data storage: ‘Home’ and ‘shared’ drive storage for staff and students
(EMC and Novell); Google Apps for collaborative working; and Alfresco for
electronic document management
The post holder will take a senior role within our storage and virtualisation support
and development team and will work closely with other members of the Infrastructure
team. S/he will be key in the development and support of systems and applications,
in the context the University’s Information Strategy, and in a way in which enables
the University to take advantage of leading edge developments in IT.
The Storage and Virtualisation team use the following to support the University
services:
 Storage: EMC VNX Block and File; VPLEX
 Virtualisation: VMware vSphere
 Backup: Commvault Simpana
This provides the infrastructure which underpins the University’s in-house IT.
Day to day duties, will included the normal systems administration storage and
virtualisation to ensure that they are running normally, are secure and have current
and regularly backups. Regular checking and responding to queries from the
Service Desk in the form of 2nd and 3rd line calls in a timely manner (based upon an
ITIL framework).
The postholder is expected to provide a contribution to strategic planning of storage
and virtualisation infrastructure, by their involvement in a range of projects, which
can range from small one week roll outs of a new service, to much longer and large
scale system deployments. S/he may be expected to help manage some of these
projects using the department’s Project Management Methodology (a form of
Prince2).
S/he will be expected to follow and monitor the change control procedures that are
used within the University.
The post holder is expected to take every opportunity to foster cross-team project
working and to develop a culture of sharing knowledge and information throughout
Information Services. It is expected that, within Information Services, the post holder
will work closely with members of the other Infrastructure and IT support teams and
that outside of the department close working relations will be developed with the
Faculty of Science & Technology, and with other professionals within the UK Higher
Education community.
The post will be based at Cavendish Campus but all Information Services
appointments are made on the understanding that staff will serve at any of the
service points should the need arise. Information Services has a service standards
document, and the post holder must work in accordance with the agreed levels in it.
Dimensions of the post
Staffing: The post holder will be one of 5 FTE staff in the Open Systems Team (part
of the wider Infrastructure team) and may have some supervisory responsibilities
over the work of other team members; s/he may also be involved in mentoring and
training colleagues in his/her own areas of knowledge or expertise.
Budgets: The post holder will not normally have control of a specific budget(s) for
their area(s) of responsibility. S/he may have responsibility for the deployment of
project budget(s) and/or for associated financial records.
The post holder will work 35 hours per week providing support between the core
hours of 08:00 and 18:00. The Open Systems Team also offers an out-of-hours
service based on a weekly roster process which the post holder will be expected to
participate in. The post holder will be expected to work as required within the
specified hours.
The salary scale applicable to this post is NG7 £42,844 inclusive of London
Weighting.
Prepared by: Suzanne Enright, Director Information Services
Date: 2 November 2012
PERSON SPECIFICATION
SENIOR SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER – Storage and Virtualisation
Short-listing is carried out on the basis of the evidence candidates offer in all areas
of this specification.
Qualifications
Essential
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Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
Desirable
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A qualification in computing at professional level or equivalent experience.
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VMware or EMC certified, or similar.
Training and experience
Essential
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Significant experience of systems development and support, in a multi-server
environment.
Experience of administration of virtualisation and enterprise storage.
Experience of writing scripts to automate reporting and maintenance activities.
Understanding and experience of current virtualisation technologies and their
potential developments.
Ability to establish and manage priorities.
Desirable
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Experience of networking and mixed infrastructure environments (VMware,
Microsoft, Unix, Novell).
Project management experience.
Experience of working in an ITIL based environment with emphasis on project
management, change control, incident management, etc.
Experience of physical infrastructure in data centre environments
Aptitudes and abilities
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Ability to work effectively as a member of a team or individually
A customer-orientated and innovative approach to service design and delivery.
Ability to articulate technical options both orally and in written form.
Ability to work to set objectives and agreed timescales.
Ability to cope with rapid change.
A positive attitude with initiative and drive.
Patience with an orderly approach to problem solving.
Ability to cope effectively with pressure.
Ability to learn new skills quickly.
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Ability to interact effectively, using good interpersonal skills.