About UMass Amherst
The flagship of the Commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity, and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship, and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges, and 100 undergraduate majors. We believe every member of our university community can contribute to our ongoing success by striving for the highest level of excellence as we seek breakthrough solutions to mounting environmental, social, economic, and technological challenges in our world.
Job Summary
The Senior IT Systems Analyst consults with end users and stakeholders (Project Managers, Utilities & Maintenance Managers, UMass IT, vendors, etc.) and conducts technical analysis of systems and network communications to design, build, configure, implement, test and maintain systems. Provides mentoring and training to IT system analysts and acts as primary technical resource for Help Desk staff and User Support Operations Manager. Investigates problems with existing systems and delivers solutions while maintaining system compatibility and enabling integration.
Essential Functions
- Analyzes application workflows to identify potential points of failure, especially those with possible life safety impacts. Recommends and implements applications, application configurations and procedures which mitigate operational and security risks.
- Ensures appropriate application availability, manageability, scalability and security by designing, implementing, maintaining, tuning and auditing applications and databases.
- Mentors and trains IT applications analysts to elevate the department’s ability to automate processes, integrate applications, and utilize the latest technology to increase efficiency with the use of ETL Tools (such as FME or Boomi) and scripting (such as SQL). Serves as primary applications resource for support technicians for complex problems and issues including configuring environments in which to test application compatibility and configurations and then developing a process to be used by staff to resolve issues.
- Works on multiple projects as a project leader to research, propose and implement strategies in the implementation, migration and upgrading of complex enterprise applications following a centralized enterprise model, including facilitating the configuration of networks and firewalls, migration of users and computers to new applications, migration of applications to centrally supported Microsoft SQL server database cluster, and migration of file server data.
- Analyzes application dependencies and develop and execute plans to migrate applications to new infrastructure such as virtual environments (VMware) and authentication systems (Active Directory, Azure, etc.).
- Keeps current with established and emerging computing technologies and techniques in order to recommend and utilize improvements to application manageability, configurations, integrations, and uptime.
Other Functions
- Performs related duties as assigned or required to meet Department, Executive Area/Division, and University goals and objectives.
Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)
- Bachelor’s Degree and 4 years of experience in a broad range of computer technologies.
- An equivalent combination of education and experience (8 years total) will also be considered.
- Expertise in a broad array of computing platforms and/or systems within a distributed computing environment, including, but not limited to: workstation software/applications, particularly those which run under MS-Windows; physical and virtual guest server operating systems, particularly Windows 2008. Must have practical experience with scripting languages such as powershell.
- Must have experience working with TCP/IP networking and an understanding of network firewalls.
- Demonstrated strong interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain harmonious relationships with co-workers and with a broad range of clients; ability to work well in a leadership role with peers.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively, in a highly organized manner, paying close attention to detail; accountability and reliability in meeting project deadlines and requirements.
- Excellent oral and written communications skills, especially as consultation and accurate communication with non-technical individuals on technical matters are a requirement for this staff member. Willingness to take on new and challenging tasks as they arise.
- Ability to pass Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) background check.
Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related area.
- Experience with Microsoft Active Directory Group Policies, managing layer 2 and layer 3 switches, Microsoft SQL or Oracle databases and other operating systems such as Linux.
Physical Demands/Working Conditions
- Balancing, carrying, pulling/pushing, repetitive movement, standing, bending, climbing, driving, reaching, sitting, twisting, and lifting.
- Other typical office environment.
Additional Details
Some off-hour/weekend work may be required to respond to critical services problems and modifications.
Work Schedule
- Monday - Friday, 8:30AM - 5:00PM.
- Position may be asked to participate in an on-call rotation.
- This position has the opportunity for a hybrid work schedule, which is defined by the University as an arrangement where an employee’s work is regularly performed at a location other than the campus workspace for a portion of the week. As this position falls within the Professional Staff Union, it is subject to the terms and conditions of the Professional Staff Union collective bargaining agreement.
Salary Information
Level 28
PSU Hiring Ranges
Special Instructions to Applicants
Along with the application, please submit a resume and cover letter. References will be checked at the finalist stage, please be prepared to provide contact information for three (3) professional references.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst welcomes all qualified applicants and complies with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws.