Data Center Technician

 Position starts as a 6-month contract-to-hire (40+ hours a week). 

 Must be willing to work on-site at our client's location in either Antigo or Neenah, Wisconsin. 

JOB SUMMARY

Assists Data Center Engineers with managing the day-to-day data center operations and maintenance, including facility infrastructure and network or virtualization systems for high availability and system security in accordance with Our Client policies, procedures, and standards. Works with other Information Systems (IS) teams to ensure servers, applications and infrastructure are configured to best meet the needs of the Our Client mission, while maintaining appropriate levels of security in accordance with Our Client, NIST, NCUA, and FFIEC requirements.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

1. Job Knowledge: Effectively applies required knowledge, skills, and education to job functions. Understands and adheres to CVCU policies and procedures as they apply to job functions. Updates and expands knowledge, skills, training, and/or education. Understands how individual job performance furthers Our Client objectives.

1. Works to learn a knowledge of operations, storage, virtualization, networking and engineering required for system functions in medium to large sized data centers including convergence strategies.  Specific technologies that maybe used are; VMware ESXi, Cisco UCS, Nexus Switching, and Server technologies (SAN/FC/Disk/OS).

2. Is aware that best practices exist for server and network security strategies or protocols to provide a secure data center environment that meets regulatory and compliance guidelines including basic firewall configuration, setup of server OS (Microsoft) as well as 

3. Is familiar with and adheres to all aspects and provisions of regulations and policies as they pertain to the individual’s assigned job duties.

4. Maintains the confidentiality of Our Client's information.

1. Productivity: Work output or efficiency meets or exceeds standard job expectation and/or others in similar roles. Uses time and resources well.

1. Administers and implements information technology infrastructure with minimum disruption to supported systems including administration and configuration.

2. Provides project coordination and daily management of tasks.

3. Performs daily monitoring of various server related tools for potential server issues.

4. Performs daily review of logs for assigned systems.

5. Assists Data Center Engineer’s in designing, configuring, and documenting of cabling within the data center and Enterprise Data Storage systems.

6. Assists Data Center Engineer’s in designing, configuring, and documenting of virtual environment and system monitoring tools.

7. Provides recommendations for improvements and optimization of data center systems.

8. Assists with semi-annual disaster testing of Our Client information systems using our Hot Site systems.

1. Teamwork & Cooperation: Promotes a collaborative, cooperative, and productive working environment. Responds to others in the department and also to those in other departments or branches. Demonstrates sensitivity, team building, support, and respect.

1. Partners with other IS managers and departments to resolve incidents and respond to service requests.

2. Partners with the various business units to ensure data center systems meet the needs of the organization.

3. Supports training for data center technicians as needed.

4. Keeps IS up-to-date on any changes and implementations.

1. Initiative: Performs job responsibilities independently and responsibly while keeping the best interest of the Our Client and members in mind. Proactively completes tasks, solves problems, shares ideas, improves processes, enhances products, and/or extends services within assigned range of authority.

1. Assists in taking proactive ownership of core ITIL processes including change management, incident response for data center assets, and problem resolution.

2. Identifies opportunities for continuing process improvement.

3. Contributes solutions to the definition of infrastructure services, system consolidation initiatives, and proactive application refresh efforts.

4. Researches system enhancements/problems.

1. Quality: Consistently performs work assignments free from mistakes or errors.

1. Provides high availability (99.9%) around the clock for supported systems and servers.

2. Implements and supports disaster recovery for supported systems through mirrored or replication strategies at the remote data center to provide system failover for catastrophic failure.

3. Ensures that all scheduled and ad hoc jobs are processed without error.

4. Investigates and resolves processing errors with the assistance of other IS&T staff and vendors as required.

5. Ensures that back-ups and job creations/modifications are verified including proper documentation, processing without error with the proper output, and running as scheduled.

1. Decision Making/Judgment: Makes prudent decisions that are timely, well thought out, and that reflect awareness of impact to the Our Client, the member, and/or others involved.

   1. Assists in maintaining the Disaster Recovery Plan for the data center hardware and assists in annual testing.

   2. Performs investigation, evaluation, and recommendation of new types of hardware, software, and operations methods in relation to the Data Center.

   3. Uses industry best practices in troubleshooting issues and makes decisions based on all available information.

QUALIFICATIONS

Top 3 skills required: 

1. VMware
2. Cisco UCS
3.  Server technologies (SAN/FC/Disk/OS)

EDUCATION/CERTIFICATION: Associate’s degree in networking (network specialist), computer programming or equivalent relevant work experience with relevant certificates such as Cisco or Microsoft. 

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE: Working knowledge of hardware such as Cisco networking, UCS, Cisco Fiber Channel, IBM Enterprise SAN storage, IBM Blade Center, HP Blade Center, Brocade fiber switching.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: VMware ESXi experience is preferred.  Experience with VMware vCenter, Veeam Backup and Recovery, and SolarWinds is not required but recommended. Server OS experience is highly desired.  

SKILLS/ABILITIES: Strong communication skills, written and verbal.

Ability to process complex information, analyze and solve complex technical problems.

Ability to organize and prioritize work and work accurately under pressure.

Ability to work irregular hours including nights, weekends and holidays if needed.

Other Notes: Once converted to an FTE, you would receive our clien'ts FTE benefits.