IT System Administrator

Job ID/Title :IT System Administrator - UNODC
Brand :UN Organization
Application Deadline : 08-Jun-12
Duty Station :     Ramallah, with frequent travel to Reform & Rehabilitation Centers (RRCs) locations in WB
Type of Contract : Service Contract
Languages Required :Arabic, English,   
Duration of Initial Contract :     1 year
Expected Duration of Assignment :1 year

Background:
UNODC has designed project PSEX 21 to build on Phase I of its prison reform project through activities which are (i) a logical continuation of activities undertaken in Phase I and (ii) supportive elements identified by CRCD, PCP, MoI and UNODC to build on the achievements of Phase I. Building on the achievements of Phase I UNODC will enhance its efforts to further develop capacity through developing the main components of an electronic prisoner records system.
One of the program’s components relates to supporting CRCD in the creation of an electronic system for maintaining prisoner files. The presence of complete, accurate and accessible prisoner files is not only a pre-requisite for effective prison management and strategic planning, but also an essential tool for ensuring that the human rights of prisoners are respected and upheld.
Therefore, the overall purpose of the assignment is for the incumbent to administrate and develop the main components of an electronic prisoner records system, building on the achievement of Phase I by adding further functions to the prisoner file management system and expanding it to all CRCs, in line with the roadmap developed in phase I of the project it will form an important step towards the ultimate objective of a tailor-made, unified, and inter-connected IT system for prisoner data management in all civil prisons and CRCD Headquarters.
More specifically, and following close consultations with CRCD, PCP and other stakeholders, the incumbent will be seconded to / based in the IT Department of the PCP (ITD-PCP), working under the direct supervision of the Chief of the Department. This approach takes into account the current lack of IT development capacity in CRCD as well as the comprehensive requirement analysis on the development of a prison management software system that was conducted by ITD-PCP.
The ICT team at PCP is responsible for managing and administering all aspects of PCP IT and communications systems including CRCD. The Systems Administrator will be involved from the design stage through production troubleshooting, from DNS to networking to application behavior and is ultimately responsible for making sure the production systems are reliable and perform well.
This position requires a deep understanding of networks, operating systems, multi-tiered Internet services, and the ability to learn new applications and concepts quickly. Strong scripting skills are essential.

Description of Responsibilities:
1-building out overall systems architecture to ensure that internal office needs and software development and production needs are stable and secure through …
-Architecting solutions to business needs and requirements. Designing and documenting the
environment, hardware specifications, and software layers to provide for a reliable, scalable,
secure and highly available Systems Environment across multiple geographical locations
-Developing and maintaining documentation related to the design, installation,
administration, and maintenance of systems
-Designing and maintaining a repeatable, documented patch deployment methodology for
administrators to implement
-Primary systems administrator and IT support for all office infrastructure
-Maintaining and deploying all development, test and production servers, clusters, services;
administration including configuration, troubleshooting, and automation
-Maintaining, creating and distributing internal packages for Linux systems to deploy common
settings and tools, maintaining private Debian repository for local software builds
-Maintaining and deploying switches, routers and other network equipment; administration
including configuration, troubleshooting, and automation
-Ensuring systems adhere to IT security policies
-Administering, maintaining and deploying desktop machines, terminals and other network
equipment like printers
-Understanding the entire software stack in use, from kernel issues to application deployment
-As needed, performing database administration duties, including setup/configurations, data
population, access control, monitoring, replication and backups, load balancing and
automatic fail-over, tuning indexes and DB/OS-level parameters to optimize performance, etc

2-Ensure Building and deploying new servers for projects by …
-Supporting off-site disaster recovery efforts by participating in routine disaster recovery tests
-Automating and maintaining scheduled backups of important office and production data
-Ensuring stability, availability, performance and maintenance of the 24/7 mission-critical
production environment
-Improving stability and fault tolerance of our systems and network infrastructure
-Managing system performance, making recommendations to improve and implement system
wide changes to enhance overall system proficiency

3-Help and ensure Capacity planning, troubleshooting, and monitoring systems and applications in achieving the following:
-Performing root cause analysis for service interruption recovery; create preventative measures and present to management.
-Assisting team members in general troubleshooting, software installation, and support
(Windows and Linux clients)
-Preventing and reducing the impact of customer-impacting incidents
-Guiding lower-level Administrators and Support personnel
-Providing for Level 3 escalations. Lead the L1/L2 teams, to find a solution and a create
implementation plan

4-Ensures Cooperating, staying informed, researching and recommending use of best-in-class industry solutions and new technologies by …
-Working with other service/Telco providers on network connectivity, multicast routing, etc
-Working with partners, developers, and users to improve systems and plan for future needs
-Working with project managers and technical staff in defining and documenting technical
project requirements
-Interfacing with hardware and software support vendors

5-Ensure Mentoring and supervising resources through …
-Monitoring of the systems and network infrastructure, including writing custom checks
-Establishing and improving performance metrics and system usage gathering with trends
-Finding gaps in the Systems Environment and to offer a solution
-Writing scripts for task automation, resource monitoring and performance monitoring
-Helping automating and streamlining deployment, monitoring, and maintenance tasks for a
production environment with multiple racks of machines
-Developing scripts to batch and automate systems tasks
-Analyzing complex system behavior, performance, and application issues

Impact of Results
The key results have an impact on the success of project implantation at all levels, achieving the project portfolios goals and objectives. In particular, the key results have an impact on the development of the main components of an electronic and unified prisoner files management system for CRCD, and the production systems are reliable and perform well.
Results Expected:
-Design and document all systems configuration and set-up using best practices
-Design and document disaster recovery procedures and practices
-Design, document and execute systems tests to complement the technical testing process
-Design, document and implement security controls

Competencies :
Corporate Competencies:
-Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards
-Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
-Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP/ UNODC
-Treats all people fairly without favoritism

Functional Competencies:
Knowledge Management and Learning
-Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the working place
-In-depth knowledge on administrative and development issues
-Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills

Development and Operational Effectiveness

-Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting
-Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects, mobilize resources
-Good knowledge of the Results Management Guide and Toolkit.
-Ability to lead implementation of new systems. Ability to meet deadlines and prioritize multiple tasks.

Management and Leadership

-Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback
-Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills
-Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors
-Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
-Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Qualifications :
Education:
Bachelor's degree (BA) in Computer Science, Information Systems.

Experience:
Technical
Minimum of 2 years hands-on systems experience, including most of the following:

General
-Server setup, monitoring, optimization, and maintenance
-Experience developing or administering scalable applications on a LAMP stack in a multi server environment
-Extensive experience using and managing 50+ node clusters
-Experience in administration of 100+ users and computers
-Experience in a high-volume or critical production service environment
-Data center experience running enterprise grade Linux
Operating Systems (OS)
-Strong experience with Debian Linux system administration
-Deep knowledge of system internals (scheduling, memory management, TCP/IP stack, etc.)
-Experience and knowledge in Linux Clustering and High-Availability environments
-Experience in a high-volume or critical production environment with responsibility for at
least 20 Linux/UNIX servers
-Experience in Linux Storage Area Networks
-Some experience with Windows XP administration

Programming and administration
-Solid knowledge of some scripting languages (BASH, Perl, Ruby, python, etc) to automate administration tasks
-Knowledge of Kickstart or Preseed procedures
-Create/maintain source DEB’s
-Development experience with at least one major programming language
-Experience developing/debugging web applications
-Experience scripting/debugging in PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python, Java or any other advanced language
-Programming and troubleshooting skills in C/C++ and/or Java a plus
-A history of using and contributing to Free Software

Networking
-Strong understanding of networks including: IPv4, IPv6, Iptables, VLANs, VPN
-In-depth knowledge and experience of routers and switches with enterprise-level network equipment
-Good knowledge of Networking technologies (from systems perspective), Ethernet, TCP/IP, VLAN tagging, etc.
-IP networking, including the functionality, operating, and failure modes of networks.
-Familiarity with common network topologies, protocols, and tools; have some notion of common network security exploits -- and their remedies; understanding of troubleshooting at the packet level
Services
-Strong understanding and in-depth knowledge of servers, including: Apache, Open LDAP, DNS, DHCP, NTP, NFS, Samba, IMAP, Postfix SMTP, kickstart/preseed, Kerberos, cluster file systems
-Configuring and maintaining a user directory using LDAP
-Backup systems:
-PXE, Linux terminal services (LTSP)
-Working knowledge in databases like Oracle/PostgreSQL/MySQL and servers like Tomcat, Jboss
-Working knowledge in Asterisk
-Experience with SAMBA v3 and Open LDAP integration

Virtualization
-Experience with virtualization, preferably Xen
Troubleshooting and performance analysis
-DNS and networking fundamentals including diagnostics with Unix tools
-Understanding of how to isolate, diagnose, and resolve service delivery components (service
delivery components include servers, networks, and applications)
-Be familiar with the functionality, operating, and failure modes of key networking devices (routers, switches, bridges, firewalls, hardware load balancers)
-Be able to identify networking as the potential cause of a service issue using server-resident tools to generate this data (tcpdump, ping, traceroute, etc.); familiarity in interpreting the output of these tools
-Proven technical troubleshooting and performance analysis and tuning experience with Linux

Other
-Asset management/budgeting
-Supplier/vendor relations
Language Requirements:
Native Arabic speaker, good spoken and written English

            
“UNDP/PAPP is an equal opportunity employer: applications from both internal and external men and women will be considered equally”
UNDP actively supports the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted by the United Nations General Assembly

Important message to all applicants!
-Please be aware that the UNDP/PAPP will review your application only if you have uploaded Personal History Form (P.11) to your application. Please download the form from the following link: http://jobs.undp.ps.
-You will get the opportunity to upload the P-11 at when you apply for the position.
-Incomplete applications or applications received after the closing date will not be given consideration. Please note that only applications that are under consideration will be contacted.

For more detailed information about UNDP/PAPP please visit our website at www.undp.ps.