{"id":4046092,"url":"https://alion.io/job/mcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud","title":"Systems Administrator - Cloud","company":{"id":5757,"name":"McGill University","domain":"mcgill.ca","url":"https://alion.io/company/mcgill","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":97,"open_postings":18,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.333,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":19,"computed_at":"2026-11-10T06:52:35Z"}},"role":"DevOps","role_family":"DevOps","seniority":"middle","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Canada"],"countries":["CA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":73470,"max":91840,"currency":"CAD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":64706},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Ansible","optional":false},{"name":"Bash","optional":false},{"name":"Debian","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Grafana","optional":false},{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"KVM","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"MySQL","optional":false},{"name":"OpenStack","optional":false},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"QEMU","optional":false},{"name":"RabbitMQ","optional":false},{"name":"Ubuntu","optional":false},{"name":"VLAN","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-10T23:57:10Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-10","last_verified_at":"2026-11-10T23:57:10Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply.\nIf you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at McGill University), do not apply through this Career Site. Login to your McGill Workday account and apply to this posting using the Find Jobs report (type Find Jobs in the search bar).\nPosition Summary:\nMcGill University is seeking a Systems Administrator, Cloud (OpenStack), to operate, maintain and evolve its research cloud platform within the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) environment.\nReporting to the Associate Director, Operations, the incumbent will be one of three systems administrators on the cloud team, which is part of Calcul Québec's operations team of 14 systems administrators distributed across McGill, Université de Montréal, Université Laval, Université de Sherbrooke and ÉTS.\nCalcul Québec is a consortium of Québec universities, of which McGill is a founding member, and a regional partner of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. It provides advanced research computing resources and expertise to research groups across Québec. This role is dedicated to the OpenStack research cloud, which operates alongside HPC clusters, multi-petabyte Lustre parallel storage, and multi-petabyte tape storage for backup and archiving.\nWhy join us\nRun a production cloud used by researchers across Québec and Canada, in a wide range of fields including genomics, climate science, artificial intelligence and the digital humanities.\nWork with open-source technologies (OpenStack, Ceph, OVN), with opportunities to contribute upstream.\nJoin a distributed team of experienced specialists, in a hybrid work arrangement.\nPrimary Responsibilities:\n Operations and support\nEnsure the daily operation, availability and performance of the OpenStack platform and its Ceph storage, including CephFS and Rados Gateway.\nProvide level 2 and 3 support at the infrastructure level (OpenStack services, virtual networking, and access to Ceph and CephFS storage). The operating systems and applications inside virtual machines remain the users' responsibility.\nTune and optimize the platform so that virtual machines and their storage access run reliably and efficiently.\nDiagnose hardware and software problems, working with vendors and colleagues as needed.\nWork closely with the Associate Director, Operations, and fellow systems administrators to plan maintenance and coordinate responses to outages and security events, keeping the Associate Director informed to support communication with users.\nPlatform evolution\nPlan and carry out upgrades, patching and lifecycle management of OpenStack, Ceph and CephFS.\nEvaluate, pilot and recommend new hardware and software solutions, and contribute to acquisition planning.\nPropose improvements to procedures and service quality.\nAutomation, monitoring and documentation\nAutomate repetitive tasks and document procedures so that operational work can be shared within the cloud team.\nSet up and maintain performance and security monitoring.\nMaintain documentation of services, configurations and procedures.\nContribute features and bug fixes to relevant open-source projects.\nCollaboration\nWork with colleagues across Calcul Québec and the Alliance on regional and national cloud initiatives.\n Other Qualifying Skills and/or Abilities 3+ years bachelor’s degree in computer science, Computer Engineering or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience administering production Linux infrastructure at scale (Debian/Ubuntu).\nHands-on experience operating OpenStack in production.\nSolid hands-on experience with Ceph administration, including CephFS.\nDeployment and configuration with Ansible (openstack-ansible an asset).\nScripting in Bash and Python.\nGit-based workflows, including code review.\nKnowledge of OVN, Open vSwitch (OVS), VLAN, VXLAN and virtual networking.\nVirtualization (libvirt/QEMU-KVM) and Linux containers (LXC/LXD or Incus). MySQL/\nGalera.\nRabbitMQ.\nPrometheus/Grafana or similar monitoring tools.\nExperience in a research or academic computing environment.\nStrong sense of ownership over the reliability of the systems you run.\nAdvanced problem-solving skills in complex, multi-layered environments.\nAbility to manage competing priorities and work independently within a clear direction.\nCollaborative mindset in a distributed team; willingness to act as a technical resource for colleagues.\nCuriosity and a demonstrated ability to learn new technologies quickly.\nGood oral and written communication in French and English\nAs one of Montreal's Top Employers, here is what we offer:\nCompetitive benefits package (Health, Dental, Life Insurance) (if eligible)\nDefined contribution pension plan (with employer contribution up to 10%) (if eligible)\nGroup Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA)\nCompetitive vacation policy\nTwo (2) personal days\nTwo (2) floating holidays\nNine (9) \"Summer Fridays\" - paid days off between the St-Jean Baptiste holiday and Labour Day\nPaid time off over the December holiday period\nTuition waiver for regular employees and their dependents\nUp to two (2) days of remote work per week where the position permits\nBefore applying, please note that to work at McGill University, you must be both authorized to work in Canada and willing to work in the province of Quebec at the campus where the position is based / located.\nKnowledge of English: McGill University is an English-language university where day to day duties may require English communication both verbally and in writing. The level of English required for this position has been assessed at a level #3 (qualifier) on a scale of 0-4.\nFor a definition of our language proficiency levels, please clickhere.\nMinimum Education and Experience:\nBachelor's Degree 3 Years Related Experience /Annual Salary:\n(MPEX Grade 05) $73,470.00 - $91,840.00 - $110,210.00Job Profile:\nMPEX-IST2F - IT Infrastructure & Operations - Professional 2Hours per Week:\n33.75 (Full time)Supervisor:\nAssociate Director OperationsPosition End Date (If applicable):\n2027-11-30Deadline to Apply:\n2026-11-25McGill University hires on the basis of merit and is strongly committed to equity and diversity within its community. We welcome applications from racialized persons/visible minorities, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and persons of minority sexual orientations and gender identities, as well as from all qualified candidates with the skills and knowledge to productively engage with diverse communities. McGill implements an employment equity program and encourages members of designated groups to self-identify. Persons with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations for any part of the application process may contact, in confidence, .","description_format":"text","description_chars":6909,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"French","level":"Upper-Intermediate (B2)","optional":false},{"language":"English","level":"Upper-Intermediate (B2)","optional":false}]},"benefits":["Equity","Hybrid work","Life insurance","Retirement plans"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Canada","iso":"CA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Higher Education"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-10T23:57:10Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:2","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-11T02:46:44Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":64706,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/mcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/mcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-11T02:46:44Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1282,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-12T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":5757},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=5757"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/mcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmcgill-university-systems-administrator-cloud"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4046092}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"mcgill.ca","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4046092},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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