I've noticed an occasional job posting for Operations roles in the who's-hiring threads, but it's very easy for them to get lost in the sheer volume. Who are the startups specifically looking for System Administrators, Network Engineers, DBAs, or any other kind of Ops-focused people?
ISDC Data Centre for Astrophysics - Geneva, Switzerland
The ISDC (http://www.isdc.unige.ch/) is looking for two system administrators in Geneva, Switzerland (telecommuting not possible). It's a data centre/research institute with about 50 scientists and exactly two sysadmins, both of whom are leaving very soon. You'll be doing everything from running 150 varied servers to advising on storage/compute architecture to 1st line helpdesk how-to-send-an-email/i-can't-print support. Most people are nice, with one notable and permanently-installed exception. Check out the links on the website for more information, and/or email me (address in profile) for more (honest) details.
Swiss or European candidates preferred (because there's red tape that takes time to cut and they need someone a.s.a.p) but strong candidates of other nationalities will be considered.
Very interesting -- I work at a very similar site in Canada as a systems administrator. We do storage/compute/processing on a vast array of archives. Reading the job description (http://www.isdc.unige.ch/documents/jobs/201010_sys_admin.txt) it looks like we are using very similar configurations. If you ever want to collaborate please drop me a note.
We use Bitpusher as our vendor for sysadmin/ops at Posterous. They're a great group of people to work with, and they get to see a lot of different environments since they specifically specialize in working with startup ops.
Well, whilst now a startup only in attitude rather than size, OpenMarket (formerly MX Telecom) is looking specifically for ops folk in the UK at the moment.
If you're based around London and want to get involved in a small but deadly ops team building out the global infrastructure for the UK & US's biggest mobile service provider (everything and anything to do with SMS/MMS/Voice/Video telephony, mobile payments and hosted applications), then please get in touch.
We're an entirely Linux shop, with a major preference for building tools (e.g. multi-datacenter apps hosting environment, monitoring systems, IRC bots...) to avoid the boring problems. Come and help us eliminate all the world's evils with a well-placed python/perl script or two. :) http://www.mxtelecom.com/uk/careers/roles/sysdev has the details.
It sounded exciting to me, until the "and pretty good with Win 2003/2008" part.
I do appreciate that you have a pretty comprehensive description of the technologies in use and the work environment. It helps everyone not waste time needlessly.
We need an additional Systems Administrator to support our growing high-performance computing facility, consisting of Linux clusters, servers and desktops, Microsoft Windows desktops and servers, as well as other architectures. We run many flavors of Linux, develop custom scripts and chew through truly massive data sets using parallel processing and associated technologies. We use Open Source tools when appropriate (love that Python!), and integrate COTS when necessary. To be eligible for this position, you must have current hands-on skills in most of the following areas: large-scale system and network planning and architecture; installation, troubleshooting, and integration of commercial packages; shell/Perl/Awk scripting; web server administration; firewall configuration and network management; large scale enterprise class storage systems including NAS/SAN devices, SCSI and ATA Raid systems; data backup and recovery on both Linux and Windows platforms; and experience with enterprise class tape autoloaders preferred. Programming experience in any cross-platform OO language (Python, C++, JAVA, PHP, etc.) is a big plus. A Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related field or a minimum of four years of directly related experience or training may be acceptable. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and selected applicants will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.
Have you started responding to job applications yet?
I've had friends apply for positions (with amazing, enticing and fun cover letters), and then, after a week or so of hearing nothing following up to ensure that you've received their application only to to continue to hear complete silence.
Sending even a form rejection email takes no time at all, especially if you create a task reminding you to do so. Not responding when someone has put in a large amount of effort to create a tailored resume and unique & fun cover letter is extremely rude.
I switched task manager over this treatment and makes me embarrassed to call myself an Aussie.
We used to have the following on our jobs page, to try and let people know what to expect: "If you send us your resume, we'll try to get back to you within 5 business days if there's interest. (We'd love to be able to respond to everyone, but we're pretty swamped with email every day.)"
We realised, of course, that this led to a pretty crummy experience (as your friend found out, sorry!). Not everyone saw that message, and those that did likely still wondered if anyone had actually seen their application.
We recently removed that message from our site, and now respond individually to each email (typically within 24 hours) to confirm receipt and let the sender know when we expect to have reviewed their application by. We definitely appreciate the effort that many applicants go to, and want to keep people much better informed throughout the process (we learnt our lesson on this!). Please pass on my apologies to your friend!
Cloudera's looking for an Operations Engineer. From our job description: Cloudera is looking for an Operations Engineer to join our engineering team. You must have a strong understanding of Linux system deployment, configuration and management. IP network design, administration and security are part of your expertise. Strong communications and troubleshooting skills are critical for success in this role.
... that description is full of shit. I'll have to talk to my manager about that.
Basically, we need three things from a sysadmin candidate:
We're a Debian/Ubuntu shop, with huge deployments of MySQL. Some of the job is day-to-day management of servers. You should know how to manage databases and handle replication.
We also require solid networking knowledge. You should know about the difference between TCP and UDP, and be able to explain Spanning Tree or ARP. (It actually shocks me how many sysadmins don't have this knowledge.)
The third part is programming ability. Most of what ops does is in Perl, but we also have to interact with other systems, so any knowledge of Python, PHP, etc. will enhance your appeal.
We're doing pretty awesome things, and only getting bigger and better. Come work with me! :-)
(E-Mail to treed@imvu.com if you have any questions or whatever.)
We are pretty thoroughly MySQL. You'd have to be very convincing, although one of the four of us on ops already has expressed a preference for Postgres.
