System Administrator

Job description

Primarily, you will be focused on carrying out the management of environments to support the operational requirements and on-going development of one of our business-critical underwriting platforms on behalf of our underwriting group, Pen Underwriting. This will include the provision and run and maintain of environments for the various work streams to build and test different code branches or projects, making sure data and code are in the appropriate state and data is obfuscated where necessary. You will also be responsible for migrating code and data between environments where necessary, minimising risk to production environments and making sure that all appropriate processes and controls are followed. You will play a key role in production support and be able to work proactively under pressure, supporting UK Business Hours (8am-6pm UK time) and be able to perform regular, out of hours production releases (8pm-10pm UK time) on average 2-3 times per month, as well as some weekend working.

Requirements

• Be proactive, motivated, and able to manage workload independently.

• Have demonstrable hands-on experience of executing code and software releases for applications hosted on Linux servers.

• Have demonstrable hands-on experience of supporting multi-tier web applications (preferably Java based), with relational DB’s (preferably MySQL or similar – though SQL Server would be advantageous for future projects).

• Be experienced in supporting Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Integration (ETL) installs.

• Have experience of installing, configuring, patching, upgrading, performance tuning and monitoring of application software and servers.

• Have experience of managing a landscape of environments to facilitate all stages of System Integration Test, UAT, Pre-Production/Staging and production, with a good understanding of SDLC processes and the types of testing required to ensure successful deployment.

• Have experience of Linux OS and application security patching to ensure environments remain secure (in accordance with CVSS and Cyber Essentials).

• Be available to deploy releases and software updates out of business hours (evenings and weekends).

• Have a solid understanding of release and change management processes.

• Be highly experienced in production environment support and incident management.

• An understanding of SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley), SSAE16/18 (SOC), or similar audit evidence provisioning requirements would be advantageous.

• Taking ownership of environments from the initial design and build to maintaining these environments in accordance with Projects and BAU work.

• Aligning environments to project plans, ensuring they are available and ready to avoid delays to the project schedule and go live.

• Ensure environments are provided with the correct data sets to support the testing that is being carried out within this environment.

• Manages configuration of the application servers.

• Working closely with the project and test managers ensuring processes and best practices are achieved with deployments moving from development to test. Maintaining repeatability and consistency across the estate.

• Takes the initiative to keep up to date on emerging technologies and to maintain an awareness of developments in IT.

• Ensures all environment technology remains security compliant (to Cyber Essentials standards)

• Develops relationships with third party vendors and resource providers where necessary.

• Interfacing with Test Managers, Delivery Managers, Sys Ops/Infrastructure on a regular basis.

• Provides advice, assistance around software release activities focusing on processes that are repeatable.

• Maintain and track third party users access to environments.

• Consider wider implications of requests from non-technical stakeholders are aligned with and maintain a robust set of environments.

• Carry out duties following internal policies and procedures in accordance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, good governance and Gallagher’s shared values, in particular, putting clients at the heart of our business.

• Provides evidence when required for regular SOX application technology and team process audits.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification in Computer Science, Engineering or Information Systems Management (or similar) is preferred.

• Knowledge and experience of Linux operating system and IT networks is essential.

• Experience of MySQL (or similar RDBMS) database configuration and administration is essential. • Experience and understanding of IT security, at network, server and application level.

• Excellent Communication skills; Understands, explains and presents complex technical ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences at all levels up to the highest in a persuasive and convincing manner.

• Diplomatic and a willingness to engage with others and listen and adopt views and ideas from a wide range of sources.

• Demonstrates a high level of professionalism, organisation, proactivity, self-motivation and a desire for self-improvement.

• Strong analytical skills in identifying problems and developing solutions.

• Understanding of server and application performance monitoring.

• Appreciation and understanding of software testing in the development and release lifecycle, and an understanding of the types of software testing that is performed on each environment.

• Understanding of technologies that are used to build the Development, Test and Production environments, such as application servers, web servers, virtualisation and relational databases.

• In depth knowledge of the full environments stack needed to deploy and test software changes from Development through to Production.

• Familiar with change management processes and tools.

• Knowledge of Ansible automation would be advantageous.

• Knowledge of APM monitoring software (Dynatrace or similar), would be of benefit.

• A good understanding of Service and Release Management processes and practices, particularly ITIL.

• Understanding of software deployment and configuration approaches either manual or automated and the ability to carry out ‘repeatable processes’ to ensure software changes move through environments in the same.

• Experience and understanding of software application architecture and supporting physical environments, in both web technologies and applications developed in Java.

• Able to maintain full details of software releases to environments through suitable documentation or through the use of tools such as Jira.

• Understanding of the risks and interdependencies when working with multiple software change streams running in parallel, demonstrating an ability to provide a constrained set of deployments to achieve delivery targets.

• Previous experience of providing audit evidence (preferably to SOX or SSAE16/18-SOC level), would be of benefit.

• Willingness and ability to cross skill with peers within team to eliminate key person risk.

• The ability to manage workload successfully; resolving issues, encouraging full participation, promoting good morale, sharing credit for success, supporting other members within a wider team.