Job Posting: Systems Engineer at CCTV/Channel 17/ Town Meeting Television

May 17, 2018

CCTV is looking for a skilled and resourceful video and IT professional with hands-on experience in video engineering, desktop support, web application support, and network engineering. The Systems Engineer and Video Support Engineer will maintain and operate Channel 17/ Town Meeting TV’s current multimedia operations. This team will support the production and delivery of local public affairs content today and in a post-cable world.

JOB 1: Systems Engineer: Network Systems Administrator / Linux System Administrator - Full Time/ Exempt Position
 

Organizational Description: CCTV operates Channel 17/Town Meeting TV, which airs on local cable and internet streams, producing more than 1,000 hours of new hyperlocal programming annually, as well as live streaming public meetings and events. We maintain and are digitizing a video archive of about 35,000 programs. CCTV also operates the Civic Cloud, a small OpenStack cloud that serves the Civic Cloud Collaborative Members. CCTV Productions provides live video switching and streaming for events on a fee for service basis. CCTV also serves as an umbrella organization for Common Good Vermont, a statewide non-profit capacity building organization. CCTV/Channel ‘s 17 networks operate across multiple locations in Burlington, including a shared server room at The Media Factory.

Please your resume to Meghan O’Rourke, Channel 17/ Town Meeting TV Director at morourke [at] cctv [dot] org

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

1: Systems Engineer: Network Systems Administrator/ Linux System Administrator - Full Time/ Exempt Position

CCTV is looking for a creative problem solver with experience in network engineering/administration and Linux system administration. Job Responsibilities include planning, project management, and budgeting. Job Requirements include drive, curiosity, resourcefulness, and focus.

The Systems Engineer supports the organization’s networking infrastructure, the public cloud, and private cloud server infrastructure, as well as the internal and external facing application stacks that run on that server infrastructure. These application stacks, in turn, provide services to staff, the public, and collaborators.

The Systems Engineer oversees the four primary functions of CCTV's data and video operations: Gathering and acquiring video content (Acquisition/Storage), configuring content and aligning with current systems (Encoding/ Metadata), routing, computing, and storing content (Transport/ Networks), and ensuring that the video content is provided to the right customers and on time (Delivery/Linux/Web/OTT).

 

Supervises the work of the Video Support Engineer. Reports to: Channel Director

Job Responsibilities The Systems Engineer:

  • Provides technical leadership and management to the organization, ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of all aspects of technology operations. Offers innovative technology solutions.

  • Develops and manages web servers and applications utilizing Debian/Ubuntu GNU/Linux System Administration; Basic scripting and programming knowledge (Python, PHP, JavaScript, BASH); and LAMP, LEMP, and/or MEAN web stacks.

  • Designs and administrates network solutions in support of cloud hosting and virtualization, including the operation of physical servers in a data center environment; Creating and using virtual machines on cloud providers such as Digital Ocean, Rackspace, AWS; and Clustered and/or object-based storage systems.

  • Acts as the organization’s chief cybersecurity officer, the Systems Engineer will assess risks and implement protections against intrusion, and/or work with third-party security professionals.

  • Creates and manages annual capital budget including the capital equipment plan. Advise on the purchase of new computer hardware and software and the selection of vendors for special projects or support agreements. Participates in IT related planning and IT capital budgeting at with partner organizations.

  • Collaborates and coordinates with staff, volunteers, vendors, and partners to performing integrated functions. Negotiate contracts with service providers to obtain the best value and cost savings for the services obtained. Participate in managing projects with a team of staff from VCAM, CCTV, and RETN implemented internally by staff or by third parties.

  • Supervises the Technology Support Specialist in providing front-line desktop support and basic video engineering. Handles escalated tickets that cannot be resolved by the helpdesk team or facilitate their solution via subcontractors if necessary.

Core Competencies

  • Technical Expertise and Leadership: Know and apply the principles of a good, solid technology infrastructure design, make recommendations and evaluate alternatives for solutions that support the long and short-term needs of users and departments in service of our mission.

  • Business Acumen and Organizational Awareness: Maintain a comprehensive awareness of CCTV’s work and organizational priorities in order to support our mission, vision, values, culture, and structure.

  • Strategic Thinking: Formulate objectives and priorities and implement plans consistent with the long-term interest of the organization in a global environment; capitalize on opportunities and manage risks.

  • Communication and Collaboration: Effectively exchange information in order to interpret and respond to the needs of relevant stakeholders, achieve user satisfaction, and teach varying levels of information technology to groups or individuals.

  • Project Management: Coordinate the diverse components of all IT related projects with project planning, execution and change control to achieve required balance of time, cost, and quality.

  • Intellectual Curiosity that leads to understanding the job requirements and technology needs of our staff and partners.

  • Customer Focus with customer service attitude and approach.


Qualifications

The ideal candidate for this position will possess many, if not all, of the following professional qualifications, competencies and personal qualities:

  • B.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, Networking, or proven work experience.

  • 5+  years’ relevant experience in IT System Administration, and experience working across a broad portfolio of technologies. More Technical Detail, below.

  • Able to understand business objectives and translate them into technology solutions.

  • Excellent technical skills demonstrated knowledge of emerging technologies, and enthusiasm for using technology to solve business problems.

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills including the ability to analyze problems, determine causes and initiate corrective action with a professional demeanor.

  • Demonstrated project management skills, including development and implementation of an annual organizational technology plan and budget.

  • Efficient and effective written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.
     

  • Excellent interpersonal skills, and the ability to work well with subcontractors, staff, volunteers, and management at partner organizations.  Understanding of non-violent communication strategies.
     

  • Knowledge of applicable laws and regulations as they relate to technology issues.

  • Interest in open media policy questions.

  • Basic understanding of community media, the purpose and mission of Access, and some of the challenges and opportunities our business model is faced with.

  • Ability to work independently

  • Able to work a flexible schedule that may include some evenings and weekends.

  • Ability to lift, move and install server and network equipment up to 30 lbs. - and periodically up to 50 lbs. with the assistance of others.
     

Technical Detail

The ideal candidate will be able to perform troubleshooting, maintenance, and optimization of IT infrastructure.
 

  • Experience working on systems administration in a Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS Linux environment, with experience in Qemu/KVM libvirt based virtualization.

  • Thorough understanding of network layers and protocols (TCP/IP suite and OSI model ) including familiarity with switches from multiple vendors, including Netgear, Cisco, and HP.

  • Experience with white label switches running Cumulus Linux a plus.

  • A basic understanding of physical layer technologies including Base-T, DAC, and Fiber.

  • Experience with firewall configuration QoS and basic security principles is required, Linux iptables and traffic control a plus.

  • Strong understanding of best practices surrounding network segmentation and security, including data encryption, access control, backups, and system updates.

  • Strong understanding of storage technology including SAN technologies, software-defined storage systems, and object-based storage systems.

  • Experience with load balancing and High Availability using nginx or haproxy.

  • Experience with running and/or using OpenStack and/or ceph is a plus.

  • Basic scripting and programming knowledge (Python, PHP, JavaScript, BASH); and LAMP, LEMP, and/or MEAN web stacks.

  • Experience with HTML and CSS

  • 2+ years experience with SQL and MySQL/MariaDB

  • Familiarity with key value stores, and NoSQL document databases a plus

  • Experience with Galera and/or cockroachdb a plus

  • Experience with Foreman/Puppet and/or Ansible desirable.

  • 2+ years experience monitoring networks, servers, virtual machines, and applications, experience with New Relic a plus.

  • Experience providing 'on call' support on a rotating basis to resolve infrastructure/application issues after normal business hours.
     

Please send your resume to Meghan O’Rourke, Channel 17/ Town Meeting TV Director at morourke [at] cctv [dot] org

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.