PURPOSE AND SCOPE:

Do you consider yourself and expert at running high volume web application data centers? Are you up for the challenge of optimizing technical operations for a multi-platform (web and mobile) social networking application company?  If these things excite you, then we would like to talk to you about our opportunity!

The Systems Operations Team Lead is senior position that will be responsible for leading the Systems team in day-to-day technical operation of our market leading social network applications. This would include multiple, high volume, high availability websites and multi-platform mobile companion applications.

The role will report to the CTO and be responsible for leading and directing the day to day priorities of a small team (4) of systems engineers. The successful candidate will be someone that has current experience in running high volume, high availability commercial websites across multiple data centers. Must be able to lead the team in efficient day-to-day operation and support, as well as drive ongoing technical operational improvement initiatives. Must have knowledge and skills in LAMP system admin as well as network and firewall management and configuration. Will need to work collaboratively with Product Development and QA organizations as part of regular production updates. This person will own and be responsible for working with and managing vendors and negotiating contracts where needed.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work under the high level direction of the CTO to maintain the overall stability and robustness and ongoing continuous improvement of the data center operations in support the business objectives.
• Serve as a hands on contributor to several key infrastructure projects, such as network and firewall upgrades, Linux webserver upgrade and configuration management.
• Provide oversight of all data center activities including new software production updates, new hardware and software installations, upgrades, and maintenance and risk mitigation.
• Responsible for coordinating and participating in compliance related activities including PCI compliance and routine security assessments and compliance.
• Take the lead to refine appropriate processes controls such as availability management, capacity management, change management, service level management, configuration management, incident and problem management
• Ensure proper level of management and oversight of vendor resource in meeting contracted support and delivery obligations.
• Cross-collaborate with the program and product development/QA team members to meet requirements of regular production site updates as part of our Agile development and deployment process.
• Define and execute annual budget in support of the systems operations. Participate in infrastructure meetings, including planning meetings, project meetings, vendor reviews and incident meetings. Continually review budget/spend to ensure budget goals are met.
• Lead and develop engineers in team. Manage and in some cases develop individual systems engineers. Be effective at delegating work to other Systems engineers. Ensure that critical skills and knowledge are distributed and backed up (e.g. primary and back-up resource) across the Systems Engineering team.
• Work collaboratively with QA and Development and Software Tools teams on supporting quality initiatives. This will involve both defining and driving key Systems level quality improvements, as well as supporting the needs of the QA Manager in driving overall IT wide Quality goals.
• Maintain and support where needed the 24x7 technical support process provided by the Systems Engineering team.  

EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

• BS degree required in computer science or related technical field.  

GENERAL TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS:

·          10 years + of experience in operating and maintaining a high volume commercial web site or data center. Desired experience working in an LAMP technology eCommerce and/or social networking web sites.

• Have broad operation data center operations background combined with quality, continuous improvement, high scale/high availability
• Must have a hands-on working knowledge of common systems (network, firewall and web/app server) configuration best practices and latest monitoring, and application tuning techniques. Specifically have experience with Linux web server environments with CentOS/Apache. Also have very strong knowledge of network (Brocade), router, switch, firewall (Cisco/Juniper) and Loadbalancers (F5) setup, installation, management, tuning and monitoring.
• Be proficient in monitoring and debugging systems environments at web server and network/switch/firewall/load balancer. Be capable of looking at log files as part of trouble shooting and root cause analysis.
• Must display a solid track record or leading technical teams in support of data center operations. Looking for proven experience to serve as ?player-coach? to lead and develop technical teams to higher levels of performance. Typically would be 70% hands on work and 30% team lead responsibilities.
• Experience with web based applications ? with technology experience with LAMP stack.
• Be familiar with Agile development process and rapid (2 week) release cycles.  Ability to be flexible and adapt to any given situation 
• Must have strong analytical and data driven problem-solving skills 
• Experience in leading and participating in data center governance (compliance, internal and external audit). Also have experience in managing strategic relationships with key IT product and service providers. This would include development of RFP?s, and negotiation of contracts and purchase agreements with key vendors.
• Ability to work under pressure and in high stress situations with a calm demeanor 

·          Willingness to work rare occasional evenings and weekends in support of deployments or in support of on-call escalations of production issues as part of technical support role provided by Systems Engineering team.