[linuxjobs] Systems Admin in Bristol (Contract)

[Alex Howells]

Greetings,

Apologies to anyone reading this twice, it was posted elsewhere too!

I need to bring in someone for a fixed-term contract of
about six months. Posting here in case anyone is interested.

I'm pretty sure we have to put this work through Manpower,
however you'd be working at Hewlett-Packard in Stoke Gifford.
You would need to be on-site for 85-90% of the time, but I'm
not going to be too fussed about a few mornings/afternoons
working remotely. Flexible working hours but this is full-time.

If you need to check where we're located then 'BS34 8QZ' gets you
pretty close with Bing. For whatever reason Google Maps are pretty out
of date for our particular area.

In terms of skills required -

    *  Absolutely must be comfortable working from a shell.
       None of this namby-pamby GUI-only lark please.

    *  Decent familiarity with operating both Debian and CentOS
       servers in a production guise. Probably no typing 'reboot'
       in the middle of the day, unless it's a dire emergency!

    *  A small bit of the job is installing/removing some hardware
       from racks, and running SMF/MMF/Cat6 cables under the floor.
       If you're just a desk jockey, don't apply.

    *  Need to know the limits of your knowledge.
       Need to be able to ask smart questions, and intepret answers.
       Need to be personable and take guidance/input as appropriate.

    *  Need some degree of scripting experience, in any language,
       but preference given to Bash or Perl. Will take Python/Ruby.

Then there are also skills which would be nice -

    *  Any experience working with cloud systems on Amazon AWS would
        be a large advantage - in particular this means Amazon EC2/S3.

    *  Background doing little changes to networks would be a plus.
        We've got network engineers but being able to start diagnosis
        when problems occur would be a nice notch in your belt.

    *  Any experience working with fiber-channel storage is a plus.
        We have a small amount of Brocade SAN and EVA arrays in here.

    *  Should know your way around most 'common' stuff -

         1)  basic applications written in PHP or similar
         2)  more complex applications in Java running via Tomcat
         3)  sending and receiving mail via SMTP/IMAP/POP3
         4)  monitoring service state using Nagios
         5)  graphing what boxes are up to with Munin/Cacti/Ganglia
         6)  backups of key data using Data Protector

    *  Any familiarity with configuration management tools such as
        Puppet, Chef or CFengine would be useful.

    *  Provisioning experience using PXE and Kickstart/Preseeding,
        or any expertise with HP CMU would be useful.

    *  Used to working with large numbers of servers.

Ideal candidate is going to be someone with a few years of experience
under their belt and a 'can do' attitude.

I don't care one iota whether you have a degree, or certifications.
I want to talk to smart people. Paperwork is an optional extra.

We're a very fun bunch of people to work with and I'm prepared to pay
a fair rate based on your experience, you will be expected to provide
some references and be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Our salary bands are extremely broad. I cannot discuss exact amounts
until I see your CV and we've had a phone screen completed.

For the right candidate the opportunity to go permanent with HP does
exist after your contract expires.

If anyone wants to ask questions or apply, please get in touch.

Cheerio,
 - Alex