Systems Administrator

Building the space between proven and possible, MDA Space (TSX:MDA) is a trusted mission partner to the global space industry. A robotics, satellite systems and Geointelligence pioneer with a 55-year+ story of world firsts and more than 450 missions, MDA Space is a global leader in communications satellites, Earth and space observation, and space exploration and infrastructure. The MDA Space team of more than 3,000 space experts in Canada, the US and the UK has the knowledge and know-how to turn an audacious customer vision into an achievable mission – bringing to bear a one-of-a-kind mix of experience, engineering excellence and wide-eyed wonder that's been in our DNA since day one. For those who dream big and push boundaries on the ground and in the stars to change the world for the better, we'll take you there.

Are you ready to launch the next stage of your career in the new space economy? We would love to hear from you

Summary:

MDA Geospatial Services is strengthening its Information Technology team in support of RADARSAT-2 (R2) and RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) satellites operations as well as preparation and support for the upcoming CHORUS mission. In this context, we are seeking an experienced and versatile IT specialist to join our team in St. Hubert, QC.

 MDA is seeking a bright and capable System Administrator to join our team of Information Technology (IT) professionals operating and maintaining the RADAR satellite missions Ground Systems. Your position in the IT operations team will leverage your skills honed over several years of active practice, your solid self-management skills, and the professional attitude required to work within large teams and across departments. You will be a member of the team, which maintains the posture of the various systems throughout their operational life cycle. The RCM is a multi-site system and comprises a wide range of information technologies, including many that are specifically related to cyber security. You will be participating in protecting a system that is important to Canada's national security interest. 

This position is located at the MDA Control Centre, Canadian Space Agency Headquarters, in St Hubert, PQ.

 Responsibilities:

• Maintain operational workflows
• Key contributor to system network and hardware maintenance.
• Installation of hardware, networking and operating systems.
• Troubleshooting system and network issues.
• Developing strategies and approaches to integrating on-premise systems and cloud-deployed systems including upgrades and enhancements, in the areas of networking and security, cost monitoring and minimization, and system management and maintenance.
• Working together with stakeholders to develop solutions that satisfy customer requirements, system constraints, security concerns, project needs and corporate IT policies.
• Updating and developing tools, processes, and best practices that contribute to the continual improvement of development, deployment, and maintenance activities such as automated scripts, test procedures, installation plans, etc.
• Developing, maintaining and documenting operational procedures and the on-site network/hardware inventory.
• Maintaining configuration control of all system components (HW and COTS SW), track components, media and data within classified systems and support audits of the system
• Provide product in-service support for equipment fielded with customers, both on customer sites and in factory, including: incoming HW inspections, diagnosis, repair, testing, formal-testing with QA witness, and test report generation.
• Participating in the procurement, installation, configuration and administration of specialized computer systems.

Requirements:

• A Diploma, Degree or equivalent experience in computer systems, computer science, Information Systems or related fields, and 5+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Have a solid understanding and System Administration experience on operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and VMware
• Experience in command line interfaces in Windows and Linux-based operating systems.
• Experience in Active Directory Services, DHCP, DNS and IIS.
• Experience in Virtual environments.
• Experience in high availability and disaster recovery.
• Experience installing firewalls and enterprise managed network switches.
• Experience with monitoring tools for troubleshooting and performance reporting.
• Ability to physically install equipment such as racking servers, storage, power distribution, air conditioning, network equipment, workstations and monitors.  This includes lifting heavy equipment (approx. 50lb), climbing ladders and running cables including under subfloors.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to quickly learn on the job and leverage your experiences and knowledge.
• Excellent general trouble shooting, problem-solving, creative and critical thinking skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication.
• Ability to work in teams as well as with minimum supervision.
• Ability to take initiative on issues that arise.

Desirable:

• Experience in IT project management
• Experience architecting complex systems deployed in on-premise and/or cloud infrastructure, including:
  • Network infrastructure such as firewalls, load balancing, virtual networks
  • Compute infrastructure including VM management, storage mechanisms, scaling mechanisms
  • Security design and best practices
• Experience with hybrid environments that require interaction between systems running in the cloud and on-premise.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g. Terraform, AWS CloudFormation).
• Experience with shell scripting (e.g. bash, Powershell).
• Experience with enterprise backup software systems.
• Experience with configuration management systems (e.g. Git).
• Experience in Operating System and Active Directory security hardening.
• General knowledge of programming and software development.
• An understanding of modern software architectures, network architectures, security principles, and software deployment patterns.
• Experience with highly secure environments following NIST and/or CIS guidelines.
• Experience in partially air-gapped environments with limited internet access.

Comments/Special Considerations:

• Successful candidates must obtain and hold security clearance at the secret status level, and pass security assessment for the Controlled Goods Program (CGP)
• While MDA support 2 days WFH policy, this position is mostly requiring on site presence 5 days per week.