RFP/Data center Engineer (Dallas)

Statement of Purpose
The Wikimedia Foundation maintains servers that host data for Wikipedia and its sister projects in data centers located in Dallas, Texas and Ashburn, Virginia (and elsewhere). We are looking for a part time Data center Engineer to work in our Dallas data center, with the primary focus to monitor, maintain, troubleshoot and build up the infrastructure there, and to perform basic system administration on the equipment.

Background Information
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property.

Scope of Work
Your duty is to maintain the Wikimedia Foundation's data center environments, and to perform both the physical and server software provisioning activities, required to support the infrastructure powering Wikimedia's projects. You will be working together with the Operations team, who are managing the infrastructure remotely.

Your responsibilities include:
 * Racking of servers, network devices and other equipment
 * Cabling, clean cable routing and cable management
 * Handling and resolving tasks provided via a ticket tracking system
 * Initial hardware configuration of equipment, enabling remote access for the Operations team to do their work
 * Data center logistics, assisting with hardware purchase, shipping and receiving, and decommissioning processes
 * Hardware problem identification and resolution, working with hardware vendor support teams
 * Asset and inventory management for accounting purposes
 * Inventory management of data center supplies
 * Emergency response to system outages
 * Junior level system administration tasks

Outcome and Performance Standards
You are expected to work in the data center between 20 to 30 hours a week on average. During these (flexible) hours you are required to be available online for collaboration with the international Wikimedia Foundation Operations team. Outside these hours, you may (very) incidentally be contacted for emergencies (e.g. during system outages).

Term of Contract
Your initial contract will be for a duration of 6 months, and will commence as soon as possible. Renegotiation at the termination of the contract is optional.

Payments, Incentives, and Penalties
Rate will be determined by level of experience and expertise.

Required qualifications

 * 1+ year of experience working in a professional data center environment
 * 1+ year of Linux/Unix system administration duties
 * You are responsible and dependable
 * Familiarity with data center power and cooling concepts
 * Ability to work independently without direct supervision, as part of a globally distributed team
 * Ability to lift a minimum of 50 lbs
 * Basic knowledge of network device configuration is a plus
 * Experience with electrical systems/cabling installation work is a plus

Points of contact for future correspondence
Mark Bergsma, Director of Technical Operations

rfp@wikimedia.org