Senior Systems Administrator - Fastmail

Here at Fastmail, we're all about "better every day". Our awesome team is full of folks who are driven to serve our customers and love our product. We are now at a pivotal time for our business and want to add a passionate Senior Systems Administrator to our on-site team in Philadelphia.

Fastmail System Administrators are responsible for overseeing the infrastructure that powers Fastmail. This role involves managing servers, networks, deployments, and more to ensure our systems are running smoothly, securely, and efficiently. As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to maintain and improve our existing systems while also playing a crucial role in our exciting project of relocating our datacenter to Philadelphia.

As part of our work culture, we believe in fostering strong relationships within our team. That's why we encourage our entire team to be in the office three scheduled days a week. By working together in-person, we can build even stronger bonds. You'll have the pleasure of reporting to our friendly Head of Platform, who is based in Melbourne, Australia, where two other systems administrators are located. Additionally, you will be collaborating with another Systems Administrator working alongside you in Philadelphia.

Who are you?

As a platformer/systems engineer we are looking for you to demonstrate that:

• You love the prospect of working for a small business with a small team that is dedicated to their customers and their product
• You are a high performer, motivated by your specialisation and want to be recognised for being great at your craft
• You show resilience in the face of challenges and set backs, seeing everything as an opportunity to learn and bouncing back with greater determination and adaptability
• You are recognised for being proactive, always looking for opportunities to innovate and improve not waiting for instructions rather seeking ways to contribute and add value
• You are an excellent verbal and written communicator, articulating your ideas clearly and persuasively

Some other things that will definitely help:

• Always taking accountability for your actions and decisions, holding yourself to a high standard for your performance and outcomes
• Less focused on climbing a corporate ladder, rather focused on being a dedicated technical specialist
• You are adaptable and flexible in the face of change, embracing new situations and challenges with a positive attitude

Requirements

What level of qualifications and experience do you have?

• Qualifications in IT/Software Engineering or equivalent experience, ensuring a strong foundation for technical roles
• Very strong experience with GNU/Linux systems (we're primarily Debian), the ability to navigate production systems via SSH and command-line interfaces and make sense of what the system is doing and how it operates
• Strong experience with networked applications and their protocols, such as DNS, SSH, HTTP, SCP, POP, IMAP, SMTP.
• Experience with at least one structured configuration management system for server fleets
• Strong troubleshooting skills: you should be able to resolve intricate technical support issues, and be committed to seeing them through to a satisfactory resolution
• At least some software development with Bash, Perl or Python, as well as ancilliary tools like Git, Gitlab and CI/CD.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, you'll need to engage with both technical and non-technical team members.
• Bonus points for familiarity with Agile development methodologies

What are your responsibilities?

• Administer Linux servers, including scripting and config management for server management
• Deploy updates and patches to applications, networks, switches, etc.
• Participate in on-call incidents and troubleshooting production issues, collaborating with other team members to resolve outages quickly and safely.
• Make incremental changes to a mature production system, maintaining high standards and with minimal risk and downtime.
• Exhibit meticulous attention to detail and maintain high standards while being adaptable to working within the constraints of a mature grown system, implementing meaningful changes incrementally.
• Work independently with strong self-management skills, setting prorities and escalating if necessary.
• Communicate and co-operate with other team members, providing constructive feedback and resolving issues through negotiation and collaboration.
• Strong communication skills with text/chat, email, in-person, and written documentation, conveying information clearly and concisely while remaining open to feedback and alternative perspectives.

A typical day for you in this role might look like

• Checking what happened during the Australian shift and follow up any loose ends to make sure the systems are stable.
• Review your currently assigned tasks and update scripts or server configurations, committing those changes to git, reviewing CI/CD output and deploying them to the fleet.
• Investigate reports from our customer support agents and resolve any outstanding issues, providing an explanation that they can refer back to.
• Deploy an update to our systems, either with Ansible or by following a runbook, test those changes and make updates to the script/runbook if anything is amiss.
• Respond to an alert from our systems, investigate and take any actions necessary, usually investigating, checking the root cause with other platformers and taking remedial action, then writing up a postmortem report if necessary so that other people can learn from the issue.
• Answer questions from other Fastmailers about Fastmail systems, or what impact certain actions might have.

Benefits

We have amazing benefits at Fastmail! We provide health insurance, employer-matched retirement plans, flexible work options, and ongoing learning opportunities. PLUS everyone gets 4 weeks vacation leave each year, 10 days sick leave and a number of public holidays. We also greatly value the commitment from our team and provide long service leave just like our Australian team members.

Our team culture is really important to us which is why we work with all of our team members to build a great work environment that promotes high performance and fun!

Go ahead and hit that apply button to send us your application, cover letter, and breeze through a few questions about yourself! We're excited to hear from you!