System Administrator

Date Posted: 06/23/2026
Req ID: 48866
Faculty/Division: Faculty of Arts & Science
Department: Citizen Lab
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)
Position Number: 00052607
Existing Vacancy: Yes

Description:

About us:

The Faculty of Arts & Science is the heart of Canada’s leading university and one of the most comprehensive and diverse academic divisions in the world. The strength of Arts & Science derives from our combined teaching and research excellence in the humanities, sciences and social sciences across 29 departments, seven colleges and 46 interdisciplinary centres, institutes and programs.

We can only realize our mission with the dedication and excellence of engaged staff and faculty. The diversity of opportunities and perspectives within the Faculty reflect the local and global landscape and the need for curiosity, innovative thinking and collaboration. At Arts & Science, we take pride in our legacy of innovation and discovery that has changed the way we think about the world.

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.

We use a “mixed methods” approach to research combining practices from political science, law, computer science, and area studies. Our research includes: investigating digital espionage against civil society, documenting Internet filtering and other technologies and practices that impact freedom of expression online, analyzing privacy, security, and information controls of popular applications, and examining transparency and accountability mechanisms relevant to the relationship between corporations and state agencies regarding personal data and other surveillance activities.

Your opportunity:

Under the direction of the Systems & Security Technical Lead, the incumbent serves as a technical resource to the Citizen Lab by supporting and maintaining the group’s computer and network systems and by providing end-user technical support. The Administrator configures, maintains and monitors the network server and operating systems of the lab, runs diagnostics and assists with repairs. The incumbent will remotely support researchers and contractors in different time zones.

The System Administrator ensures to take the utmost care in ensuring the security of the lab’s devices and technical research. Attention to detail, procedural discipline, and a strong understanding of security standards are essential for this role, as deviations from protocol may significantly compromise system integrity or data protection.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Monitoring the performance and integrity of servers, including cloud SaaS applications.
• Troubleshooting networking issues.
• Troubleshooting and resolving server/systems issues.
• Conducting detailed analysis of system performance to inform management decision making.
• Generating concise diagnostic reports.
• Making minor equipment repairs.
• Introducing variations to established practices to resolve end-user issues.
• Probing for information to establish needs.

Essential Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related discipline or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum three years or recent and related experience in a similar complex networked research computing environment, supporting administrative, academic and active research staff who work in the fields of law, political science and information technology/security.
• Demonstrated ability to adhere to detailed, multi-step procedures for administering security protocols on work-issued equipment used by others.
• Demonstrated skills in consistently following established guidelines for system access, configuration, monitoring, and compliance, ensuring that all actions are performed accurately and in the prescribed sequence.
• Working knowledge of a range of computing equipment and operating software including Apple Mac laptops, iPhones, iPads (macOS, iOS/iPadOS), PC compatibles (Windows 7, 10, 11 and specialized builds like Windows Server or LTSC), Unix/Linux servers and workstations (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Alma, Rocky and derivatives), disk drives, NAS appliances, monitors, docks, KVM switches, ILOM controllers, Windows (workstation, server, terminal services), , TCP/IP, SMB, NFS, DNS, Internet services (HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, TLS/SSL, etc.), Ansible, Palo-Alto firewall, Switches, GitLab, GitHub, Mosyle Apple Mobile Device Management, Google Workspace, Linux KVM virtual machines (e.g., ProxMox or QEMU), containers (e.g., Docker or Podman), and a variety of programming/scripting languages (e.g., Perl, Python PHP, shell, C) and database monitoring, backup and administration (e.g., SQLite, PostgreSQL, mySQL).
• Working knowledge and experience with Google Workspace administration, monitoring and security features/functionality, including Gmail, Google Calendar, GDrive and Google Meet.
• Working knowledge and experience supporting and managing password and secret/credential managers (e.g., Bitwarden, KeePass, 1Password, Hashicorp Vault).
• Experience with router and switch configuration and security, creating and supporting VLANs and VPNs, including WireGuard, and network monitoring.
• Experience with SIEM and log analytics platforms, such as Kibana or Grafana.
• Experience with fleet management and orchestration tools such as Puppet, Ansible, Chef and Salt. Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) technologies and languages such as AWS CloudFormation, Bicep and Terraform.
• Experience with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python) and LEMP (Linux, nginx, MySQL, PHP/Python) open source web server stacks, including cloud deployments, CI/CD pipelines, and automated SSL/TLS certificate management, provisioning and deployment using ACME (e.g., certbot).
• Demonstrated understanding of networks, network management techniques, networking equipment (routers, switches, hubs, bridges, firewalls and proxy servers, fibre-optic and copper/Ethernet connections, etc.) and supporting general productivity software packages on macOS and iOS (e.g., Microsoft Office online and desktop/mobile apps, Adobe suite, SaaS applications and services such as MailChimp).
• Demonstrated understanding of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography concepts, such as digital signatures, private and public keys and certificates.
• Demonstrated understanding of Apple ecosystem (macOS, iOS, iPadOS, iCloud encryption and recovery key management, etc) security features, including firmware locking, whole disk encryption (FileVault), and secure boot process.
• Strong commitment to high quality service and must be able to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
• Strong initiative and the ability to work independently, while exercising sound judgment to know when to escalate issues or seek guidance.
• Strong analytical skills, energetic, enthusiastic attitude, and time management skills to permit simultaneous action on many tasks, many of which will demand timely completion.
• Ability to handle, lift and manipulate computer hardware and electronic equipment and relevant testing equipment.

To be successful in this role you will be:

• Communicator
• Analytical
• Proactive
• Problem solver
• Responsible

Please Note:

• Internal applicants may request a job description at adminhr.artsci@utoronto.ca
• Occasional overtime on weekdays and weekend will be required

Closing Date: 07/06/2026, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: USW
Appointment Type: Grant - Continuing
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone:
USW Pay Band 09 -- $67,916. with an annual step progression to a maximum of $86,855. Pay scale and job class assignment is subject to determination pursuant to the Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Maintenance Protocol.
Job Category: Information Technology (IT)
Recruiter: Daniel Hoverd

Lived Experience Statement
Candidates who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups are encouraged to apply, and their lived experience shall be taken into consideration as applicable to the posted position.

Job descriptions are available upon request for internal applicants.