Sidebar 2: UNIX Admin Job Descriptions

Novice System Administrator

Required skills:

Has strong interpersonal and communication skills; is capable of explaining simple procedures in writing or verbally, has good phone skills.
Is familiar with UNIX and its commands/utilities at a user level; can edit files, use a shell, find users' home directories, navigate through the file system, and use i/o redirection.
Is able to follow instructions well.

Required background:

Desirable:

A degree or certificate in computer science or a related field.
Previous experience in customer support, computer operations, system administration, or another related area. Motivated to advance in the profession.

Appropriate responsibilities:

Performs routine tasks under the direct supervision of a more experienced system administrator.
Acts as a front-line interface to users, accepting trouble reports and dispatching them to appropriate system administrators.

Junior System Administrator

Required skills:

Strong interpersonal and communication skills; capable of training users in applications and UNIX fundamentals and writing basic documentation.
High skill with most UNIX commands/utilities. Familiarity with most basic system administration tools and processes; for example, can boot/shutdown a machine, add and remove user accounts, use backup programs and fsck, maintain system database files (groups, hosts, aliases). Fundamental understanding of a UNIX-based operating system; for example, understands job control, soft and hard links, distinctions between the kernel and the shell.

Required background:

Desirable:

A degree in computer science or a related field.
Familiarity with networked/distributed computing environment concepts; for example, can use the route command, add a workstation to a network, and mount remote filesystems.
Ability to write scripts in some administrative language (Tk, Perl, a shell).
Programming experience in any applicable language.

Appropriate responsibilities:

Administers a small site alone or assists in the administration of a larger system. Works under the general supervision of a system administrator or computer systems manager.

Intermediate/Advanced System Administrator

Required skills:

Strong interpersonal and communication skills; capable of writing purchase justifications, training users in complex topics, making presentations to an internal audience, and interacting positively with upper management. Independent problem solving, self-direction.
Is comfortable with most aspects of UNIX systems administration; for example, configuration of mail systems, system installation and configuration, printing systems, fundamentals of security, installing third-party software.
A solid understanding of a UNIX-based operating system; understands paging and swapping, interprocess communication, devices and what device drivers do, file system concepts ("inode", "superblock").
Familiarity with fundamental networking/distributed computing environment concepts; can configure NFS and NIS, can use nslookup or dig to check information in the DNS; understands basic routing concepts.
Ability to write scripts in some administrative language (Tk, Perl, a shell).
Ability to do minimal debugging and modification of C programs.

Required background:

Desirable:

Appropriate responsibilities:

Receives general instructions for new responsibilities from supervisor.
Administers a mid-sized site alone or assists in the administration of a larger site.
Initiates some new responsibilities and helps to plan for the future of the site/network.
Manages novice system administrators or operators. Evaluates and/or recommends purchases; has strong influence on purchasing process.

Senior System Administrator

Required skills:

Strong interpersonal and communication skills; capable of writing proposals or papers, acting as a vendor liaison, making presentations to customer or client audiences or professional peers, and working closely with upper management.
Ability to solve problems quickly and and completely.
Ability to identify tasks that require automation and automate them.
A solid understanding of a UNIX-based operating system; understands paging and swapping, interprocess communication, devices and what device drivers do, file system concepts ("inode", "superblock"), can use perfomance analysis to tune systems.
A solid understanding of networking/distributed computing environment concepts; understands principles of routing, client/server programming, the design of consistent network-wide filesystem layouts.
Ability to program in an administrative language (Tk, Perl, a shell), to port C programs from one platform to another, and to write small C programs.

Required background:

Desirable:

Appropriate responsibilities:

Designs/implements complex local and wide-area networks of machines.
Manages a large site or network.
Works under general direction from senior management.
Establishes/recommends policies on system use and services.
Provides technical lead and/or supervises system administrators, system programmers, or others of equivalent seniority.
Has purchasing authority and responsibility for purchase justification.

Reproduced from "Job Descriptions for SAGE" USENIX Association: http://www.usenix.org/sage/jobs/ \
jobs-descriptions.html