Arc Senior Support Analyst
Job Category
M&P - AAPSJob Profile
AAPS Salaried - Information Systems and Technology, Level DJob Title
ARC Senior Support AnalystDepartment
Research Systems | Advanced Research ComputingCompensation Range
$8,305.08 - $12,952.33 CAD MonthlyThe Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.
Posting End Date
January 30, 2025Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.
Job End Date
This position is expected to be filled by promotion/reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.
At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.
Job Summary
The Senior Support Analyst identifies, researches, evaluates and supports established and emerging research technology support solutions for UBC Advanced Research Computing. The ARC Senior Support Analyst provides oversight for all incoming ARC support requests, analyzing requirements and developing processes and procedures. This includes engaging in consults with researchers and user groups to determine business needs and design solutions leveraging Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) resources and other technologies. The ARC Senior Support Analyst works in a collaborative and inclusive manner to foster an equitable experience for the UBC community.
The ARC Senior Support Analyst plays a key role in designing and providing support to UBC researchers on a wide-range of ARC platforms and services, such as Sockeye, Chinook, Globus and REDCap; and DRI resources and platforms provided by national partners through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. The position acts as the Queue Manager in re-assigning service requests, monitoring overall ticket resolution, and escalating incidents requiring further actions where necessary. The role is responsible for overseeing all incoming requests and incidents, and recommending enhancements to support excellence in customer support.
The ARC Senior Support Analyst has an expert level understanding of the computing activities of the UBC research community and expert-level knowledge of technical concepts and tasks, such as software installation and licensing, computer networking, terminal sessions, file transfer and authentication. The position centres on IT Service Management and assumes advanced knowledge of both the ServiceNow and OTRS platform. Expectations also include providing specialist advice to operating staff and client departments; and acting as project lead on support-focused ventures.
Organizational Status
This position has a particular role within the Advanced Research Computing team. Leading the units research support efforts, this position requires extensive contact with faculty, staff, and students system-wide as well as partner organizations. Advanced Research Computing is a centrally positioned unit within the Vice President, Research and Innovation portfolio, providing integrated support and operational management of centrally supported research computing technologies as well as supporting services provided through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.
Reports to the Manager, Research Infrastructure and Operations. This position works with other UBC departments on all campuses, research institutes, and partner organizations nationally and internationally; to provide researchers with access to state-of-the-art DRI system services required for computationally- and data-intensive research.
Work Performed
Specific Duties:
Analyzes pedagogical requirements, system features, integration requirements, analytic requirements, security requirements and scalability and performance requirements of research computing and data applications.
Working with faculties, researchers, graduate students and staff, identifies and analyzes functional and pedagogical gaps within UBC ARC's ecosystem.
Researches, analyzes and recommends strategies for addressing functional gaps in the Research Computing ecosystem, including investigation of new technologies, undertaking development projects and development of functional workaround approaches to support pedagogical goals.
Supports DRI users through the entire lifecycle of Sockeye and Chinook services, from application to review, onboarding, active usage and end of allocation and renewal stages, using the incident tracking system and other ARC systems of record.
Provides mentorship to student staff members and develops student training materials.
Conducts feasibility analyses and evaluations of pilot deployments; supports the implementation of pilots; ensures that project plans are in place and documented.
Provides consultation and assistance to UBC users in identifying and getting access to technology services and solutions available across the IT and technical service ecosystem at UBC.
Analyzes and evaluates the usage profile and pedagogic efficacy of established research technology for end-of-life decisions. Supports sunsetting processes including establishing mitigation strategies for impacted users.
Create and generate metrics, reports, dashboards, etc. to identify trends in service delivery outcomes, such as recurring service problems, frequent user requests, gaps in service offering.
In consultation with ARC managers, designs and implements improvements to ARC infrastructure and services based on metrics such as usage, system logs, automated analytics, and client feedback to better align with current and anticipated research needs.
Acquires and maintains a working knowledge of the technical architecture of research applications.
Contributes to the development, test and implementation of procedures and methodologies supporting the delivery of operational and user support for ARC services.
Contributes to the development and maintains technical user documentation (TUD) and research support knowledge content.
Keep abreast of current and emerging DRI services and platforms in support research computing.
Core Duties:
Designs and develops user support delivery strategies and solutions and implements approved recommendations.
Analyses user support processes, business tools, guidelines, procedures and methods of support delivery.
Identifies, reviews, and recommends emerging technologies, products and services in support delivery as well as the interface between UBC infrastructure and other networks. Provides technical support and troubleshooting in the use of information technology products and services.
May make presentations and prepare reports related to new and/or revised support or technical business and service plans, processes, procedures and technologies.
Collaborates with others within and across units to enhance the quality or efficiency of service and support
Contributes to the development of best practices, standards, procedures and quality objectives across systems infrastructure or platforms.
Maintains appropriate professional designations and up-to-date knowledge of current information technology techniques and tools.
Performs other related duties as required.
Consequence of Error/Judgement
Errors in the implementation and support of advanced research computing systems could cost the University many hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost productivity in research time and could impact the timely delivery of services to research community [e.g. faculty, staff, students, and the public]. Poor management or improper decisions could compromise the success of Advanced Research Computing efficiencies and have a negative impact on the credibility of the portfolio and the reputation of the university. Errors in implementation and support leading to breaches of security involving research systems or data could compromise the privacy and confidentiality of research subjects as well cause severe reputational damage to the University and could also feasibly terminate all existing and future data sharing agreements and research partnerships with collaborators and providers locally, nationally, and internationally.
Supervision Received
Reports to and works under the direction of the Manager, Research Infrastructure and Operations within ARC. Interacts closely with the ARC Systems Architect and ARC Cloud Architect.
Supervision Given
May supervise a number of co-op and work-learn students.
Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. In-depth knowledge of applications and the business requirements supporting them. Minimum of five years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one's own
- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion
Preferred Qualifications
Expert knowledge and experience of ServiceNow, OTRS, handling tickets and requests and developing processes and procedures.
Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with diverse colleagues, teams, clients, and central University offices.
Experience in supporting the academic research community and working in environments involving multiple stakeholders; with a developed ability to provide excellent customer service, effectively communicate and interact with empathy, understanding and, respect of diverse and divergent perspectives and behaviours.
Knowledge and experience working in academic research, in support of digital research infrastructure that supports computationally- and data-intensive research, such as High-Performance Compute, Large Storage Platforms, Data Analytics, research data software tools such as Globus, REDCap, and other data repository platforms.
Working knowledge of GNU/Linux, High Performance Computing, computer networks and system monitoring. Familiarity with GNU/Linux package installation and package management is an asset.
Ability to train staff and develop internal training materials. Experience mentoring students or junior colleagues from under-represented communities is considered an asset.
Ability to be flexible in adapting ways of working and engaging depending on the audience
Ability to work independently and in a team environment with minimal supervision, and to effectively manage multiples tasks and concurrent priority
Demonstrated willingness, ability, and enthusiasm to learn new processes, methodologies or technologies.
As this position involves extensive stakeholder interaction in person, via phone, Zoom, and email, as well as documentation creation, excellent written and verbal English communication skills are critical.
Candidate applications submitted without a cover letter may not be considered.