Database/Systems Administrator

Salary range: £29,750 to £37,525 per annum plus excellent benefits. Applications will be considered on an on-going basis.

We are seeking an experienced database/systems administrator to join the Mouse Informatics Group / Database Services Team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

As a core member of a project support team (this role + a Senior Software developer and a Helpdesk/Customer Support Engineer) the successful candidate will be expected to support the needs of our collaboration partners in piloting a Software as a Service (SaaS) laboratory management system (LIMS). The LIMS software has been developed at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) over the last 7 years and we are now rolling out provision of it to other high profile scientific establishments within the UK and Internationally.

What are we looking for?

If you are the ideal candidate, you will have strong understanding and experience of using Oracle technologies with detailed understanding of systems analysis, relational data modelling and database design and development. You will also be able to co-ordinate and perform systems administration activities with the core database/systems administrators on VMware VMs that hosts the Mouse Colony Management software for the collaborating scientific establishments. For this you will need excellent communication skills (verbal and written), enthusiasm to adapt to team and customer needs, willingness to work collaboratively in a team setting and a high degree of initiative and self-motivation. In addition you will have excellent customer facing skills and have a demonstrable track record in interpreting and realising the needs of scientific users.

Working as part of the dedicated project delivery team, you will be confident in providing second line technical support, fault diagnosis and rectification, as well as working with MIG and Database/Systems support services groups to further develop the system to support the needs of the wide user community.

In this project, there will be an occasional need for the candidate visit customer sites in London, Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow and potentially Edinburgh to discuss operation of the system and conduct training and requirements capture. However, the majority of the work will be conducted at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge. Essential Skills

The right candidate should have proven expertise and hands-on experience of using Oracle RDBMS technology and working knowledge / understanding of administering VMware VMs configured in Linux environment for both Oracle databases and Java web applications running within an Apache Tomcat environment.

You should also have experience and detailed understanding of systems analysis, relational data modelling and database design and development. You will be able to productively use SQL and diverse database management tools, and administer multiple databases in a proactive and efficient manner including backup and recovery, performance monitoring and database tuning. Experience in scripting languages e.g. shell scripting, Perl, PL/SQL for ongoing development, enhancement and maintenance of databases is also required.

The right candidate will have in-depth experience in troubleshooting/problem solving and in assisting customers on issues relating to RDBMS and SQL tuning in UNIX/Linux environment. You will have good understanding of virtualisation and experience in systems administration in such environments. This will include exposure to VMware management tools, Symantec NetBackup user tools and remote disaster recovery IT management techniques.

This position is fixed-term of 2 years in the first instance but will be extended subject to a successful pilot phase.