About UMass Amherst

UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship campus, is a nationally ranked public research university offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, and offers a rich cultural environment in a bucolic setting close to major urban centers. In addition, the University is part of the Five Colleges (including Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College), which adds to the intellectual energy of the region.

Job Summary

Under the general direction of the Administrative Infrastructure Database Manager, the Database Systems Administrator has primary responsibility for the reliable and secure operation of the PeopleSoft software, Oracle database, and related software components underlying the PeopleSoft Student Administration software and other administrative information systems. Installs, implements, and supports PeopleSoft application software, Oracle databases, and related third party software. Provides on-going support, including software tuning, installing upgrades and fixes, and maintains software for 24x7 availability. Provides systems administration for a variety of related applications under multiple operating systems. Contributes to policies and procedures designed to ensure consistent data architecture to promote high quality, maintainable application components. Contributes to the design and implementation of a security plan for these systems.

Essential Functions

• Participate in software development, testing, and release management cycles for PeopleSoft application software and underlying Oracle databases so they occur in a reliable, predictable, and maintainable manner leading to high availability and integrity of the system. Ensures that all operating system, database, and application software updates and patches are applied in a timely and well documented manner that is coordinated with development, testing, and production requirements. Maintain source code control libraries and other release management software as necessary.
• Manage multiple PeopleSoft and database instances as needed to rigorously separate development, testing, training, and production phases of the applications software.
• Act as technical resource and primary support for other third party software such as the University's document management system ImageNow, Oracle EPM Data Warehouse, job scheduling software Control-M and others.
• Create and maintain regression testing plan and associated test programs, scripts, and data which covers both vendor supplied and locally developed software.
• Establish administrative and technical design standards for application developers and technical support staff to ensure the performance, reliability, audibility and maintainability of the PeopleSoft environment. This includes detailed coding style guides, naming specifications, and technical documentation standards. Coordinate periodic reviews to verify compliance with standards.
• Lead/participate in group reviews for testing plans, documentation, and configuration.
• Liaison with other IT units to ensure systems administration is done according to approved standards and best practices.

Other Functions

• Participate in technical reviews to ensure that application design decisions meet the long-term objectives of the PeopleSoft technical architecture.
• Develop back-up and recovery plan; monitors compliance.
• Serve as primary technical contact with software vendors for system upgrades, fixes, and problem resolution.
• Participate in off-hours on-call rotation for urgent problem resolution.
• Provide training in the use of databases, tools, application development tools, and reporting tools.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 4 years of relevant experience or an associate degree with 6 years of relevant experience.
• Experience with vendor ERP software, including installation, implementation and administration.
• Experience with Oracle or SQL Server database. 
• Experience and knowledge of Linux or Windows Operating Systems 
• Demonstrated ability to work well in team environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience and ability to develop and maintain source code libraries, and manage formal software releases for production environments. 
• Experience with Oracle database administration using Oracle administrative tools.
• Experience with replication and clustering.
• Experience with PeopleSoft software application strongly preferred
• Experience with using DevOps tools such as Ansible, Puppet, Jenkins, GitLab, Vagrant, etc.
• Experience using packet analyzer such as Wireshark, tcpdump, etc.

Work Schedule

• 37.5 hours Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm.
• Participate in off-hours on-call rotation.
• Some nights and weekend hours required.

Salary Information

PSU Level 29

Special Instructions to Applicants

Submit a resume, cover letter and contact information for three (3) professional references by January 1st, 2020 in order to ensure consideration; however, applications will be accepted until the position has been filled.

UMass Amherst is committed to a policy of equal opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, age, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military status, or genetic information in employment, admission to and participation in academic programs, activities, and services, and the selection of vendors who provide services or products to the University.  To fulfill that policy, UMass Amherst is further committed to a program of affirmative action to eliminate or mitigate artificial barriers and to increase opportunities for the recruitment and advancement of qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans.  It is the policy of the UMass Amherst to comply with the applicable federal and state statutes, rules, and regulations concerning equal opportunity and affirmative action.