Troy, MI

The Organization

The Kresge Foundation is metro Detroit’s largest private, national foundation with more than $3.6 billion in its endowment, a growing staff of nearly 100 employees and a mission to expand opportunities in America’s cities for low-income people. We do this through grant making and social investing nationally in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit.

The foundation’s state-of-the-art headquarters is located in metro Detroit. The modern facility is anchored by a 19th century farmhouse and a new expansion that houses both a cafeteria and a convening center. Kresge also operates an office in Detroit’s Midtown district.

The Kresge Foundation offers a competitive total compensation package including health, employer-paid dental and vision, basic life insurance, short- and long-term disability, generous paid time off and an attractive 401k plan with employer match and a 10 percent employer contribution. We also provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks daily for a nominal charge, robust professional development opportunities and tuition reimbursement. Kresge promotes and supports a healthy and green work environment and encourages intellectual curiosity, as we embrace and live out our values of creativity, respect, opportunity, partnership and stewardship.

Position Overview

About the position

The role of the System Administrator (SA) at The Kresge Foundation is to ensure that IT operations run smoothly on a day-to-day basis and all modifications made to the IT environment are seamless to the foundation. The SA is responsible for provisioning, installation/configuration, operation and maintenance of systems hardware, software and related infrastructure. This individual participates in technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the infrastructure. This individual ensures that system hardware, operating systems, software systems and related procedures adhere to organizational values, enabling the staff at the foundation.

The SA will assist all departments of the foundation with designing, implementing and resolving technical requests for both locally hosted and cloud-based solutions. These activities include the definition of needs, benefits and technical strategy; research and development; technical analysis and design; and executing, testing and rolling-out new solutions. Activities will also involve troubleshooting server, storage, network and application performance issues as needed plus environment monitoring, patching, backup and recovery. This individual should be proficient in both Linux and Windows operating systems, as well as cloud technologies.

Primary Responsibilities

• Serves as a thought partner to the Information Technology Management team.

• Serves as the lead system administrator of the foundation’s information management systems.

• Administers user setup and maintains user rights for various systems. Establishes and implements system security policies for users.

• Directs installation and testing of various systems, including application programming interfaces (APIs) and plug-ins.

• Determines systems and information objectives and develops user-driven specifications for new systems.

• Provides training for staff in use of various systems through in-house training or through external training providers.

• Tests and installs program updates and service packs when issued.

• Establishes and maintains preferences, codes and templates.

• Handles file system creation, deletion and modification.

• Handles system backups and recovery policies and procedures.

• Performs and monitors application logging providing corrective measures as needed, reporting anomalies or security concerns to management.

• Proposes and promotes integration opportunities for systems throughout the company.

• Defines custom report requirements with users and develops reports for various systems.

• Serves as a resource for primary users and coordinates the modification and improvement of systems maintained.

• Evaluates and implements enhancements to existing technology to increase effectiveness, accuracy and efficiency.

• Develops and implements policies, procedures and standards to ensure security and confidentiality of all records, accuracy, integrity and completeness of data.

• Strong commitment to the foundation’s vision and values. Ability to demonstrate that commitment in daily interactions.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.

• Seven to ten years of systems administration experience.

• Strong working knowledge of database management systems; MySQL preferred.

• Strong working knowledge of Crystal Reports or other custom reporting software and PC-based accounting software.

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite products and plug-ins.

• Proficient scripting experience in Ruby (preferred), Python, UNIX Shell, JavaScript or PHP.

• Proficient in Windows and Linux operating systems.

• Proficient with at least one Cloud provider (e.g. AWS, Azure, etc.) and various service models (e.g. SaaS & PaaS).

• Proficient with application logging and monitoring techniques and software.

• Basic experience with automated testing techniques and testing software.

• Basic experience with integration techniques including EAI and API.

• Experience with Fluxx or other grants management software helpful, but not required.

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a matrixed team environment.

• Ability to clearly communicate technical concepts in terms suitable and understandable to non-technical employees.

• Proven track record of maintaining positive vendor relationships.