Senior System Engineer, Scientific Systems - Allen Institute

Senior Information System Engineer, Scientific Systems

The mission of the Allen Institute is to unlock the complexities of bioscience and advance our knowledge to improve human health. Using an open science, multi-scale, team-oriented approach, the Allen Institute focuses on accelerating foundational research, developing standards and models, and cultivating new ideas to make a broad, transformational impact on science.

The mission of the Allen Institute administration team is to provide support and structure to the scientific divisions. Coinciding with the team science approach, administration helps facilitate team learning and the overall mission of the Institute.

As a key member of the IT Infrastructure Team, you are an experienced Linux System Engineer who enjoys solving problems and building systems using a combination of creativity and technical rigor. This role will be involved with cloud-based integrations, server patching, cybersecurity management and designing and deploying IT infrastructure. You don't have to know everything (that's why you're on a team), but we do expect good judgement and a desire to learn.

The Allen Institute believes that team science significantly benefits from the participation of diverse voices, experiences and backgrounds. High-quality science can only be produced when it includes different perspectives. We are committed to increasing diversity across every team and encourage people from all backgrounds to apply for this role.

Essential Functions

• Manage a Linux-based research environment with over 400 servers and workstations and 30 PB of storage
• Architect, deploy, and upgrade IT infrastructure products and services supporting scientific computing
• Lead hardware and software lifecycle management
• Manage patch deployment and troubleshooting on workstations and servers
• Develop system standards, policies, and procedures
• Manage scientific systems cybersecurity software agents and monitoring systems
• Manage and monitor system performance and plan for future scaling
• Participate in migration of on-premise workloads to public cloud

Note: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This description reflects management’s assignment of essential functions; it does not proscribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent combination of degree and experience
• Minimum 5 years of professional UNIX/Linux system administration experience
• History of supporting highly available IT services in a 100+ server environment
• Minimum 3 years of experience with centralized storage systems such as Ceph, Isilon, VAST Data, or NetApp
• Practical experience managing production cloud services in AWS or GCP
• Operational automation skills using shell, Perl, or Python

Preferred Education and Experience

• 15+ of professional system administration experience preferred
• Familiarity with virtualization frameworks such as OpenStack, oVirt, or VMware
• Experience using and managing Docker containers in a Kubernetes environment
• Understanding of TCP/IP networking fundamentals
• Familiarity with configuration management systems such as Salt, Ansible, or CFEngine
• Knowledge of high-performance computing (HPC) schedulers such as Slurm
• Customer-focused mindset
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Ability to balance competing priorities

Work Environment

• Data Center

Physical Demands

• Occasional lifting to 30 pounds
• Fine motor movements in fingers/hands to operate computers and other office equipment;
• Push/pull up to 50 lbs
• Stooping, bending, crouching, reaching

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

• This is an essential job and expected to report for work regardless of weather and/or other conditions
• Rotating evening and weekend on-call coverage
• Occasional evening and weekend hours required
• This role is currently able to work both remotely and onsite in a hybrid work environment. We are a Washington State employer, and the primary work location for all Allen Institute employees is 615 Westlake Ave N.; any remote work must be performed in Washington State.

Travel

• Occasional local travel to alternate locations such as warehouse or data center

Annualized Salary Range

• $165,350 - $206,650*

Final salary depends on the required education for the role, experience, level of skills relevant to the role, and work location, where applicable.

Benefits

• Employees (and their families) are eligible to enroll in benefits per eligibility rules outline in the Allen Institute’s Benefits Guide. These benefits include medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance. Employees are also eligible to enroll in the Allen Institute’s 401k plan. Paid time off is also available as outlined in the Allen Institutes Benefits Guide. Details on the Allen Institute’s benefits offering are located at the following link to the Benefits Guide: https://alleninstitute.org/careers/benefits.

It is the policy of the Allen Institute to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, the Allen Institute will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.