Systems Engineer, Products and Platforms

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Department:

Products & Platforms

Time Type:

Full time

Work Modality:

Hybrid 01 (On Campus 3-4 Days/Week)

Union:

Job Description:

About the Department/Unit:

WAMU 88.5 is the leading public radio station in the greater Washington, D.C. area. We provide in-depth and enterprise reporting alongside essential daily news and information that aims to reflect and serve the diverse communities of our region. We believe in news as a public service and put our current and future audience at the center of our work.

Summary:

This position is responsible for designing, managing, and monitoring the technical infrastructure and performance of the systems that power WAMU's digital products and platforms. This role will perform web and app infrastructure and content management systems tasks, and is responsible for configuring vendor integrations including but not limited to podcasting, advertising, and fundraising systems that are built on WordPress, Amazon Web Services, AdsWizz, NPR, and many other integrated systems. This incumbent is accountable for service reliability and application performance as key performance indicators for success in providing consistent service to internal partners and external stakeholders such as listeners, donors and station affiliates.

Essential Functions:

• Systems administration: Management, maintenance, monitoring of an array of web, audio, and internal platforms. This role acts as the chief user of digital platforms, maintaining expertise on the most productive, secure, and sustainable ways to leverage our digital publishing, planning, and fundraising tools to maximum effect. Day-to-day responsibilities includes administrating web, podcasting, and audio streaming services, managing, and validating backups, testing and patching for security, optimizing caching layers and database performance, migrating and converting data, and configuring DNS. Escalate time sensitive and business impact issues to support business continuity and service.
  
  
• Collaboration & Communication: Collaborate with digital media stakeholders such as journalists, producers, fundraisers, and Advertising teams to deeply understand system operation workflows and expectations. Monitor and read systems release notes, test, and respond with direct actions, training, and communications to impacted users as necessary. Regularly review messages from various systems to promptly respond to emerging and changing needs. Act as system expert and respond to end user requests for help and support.
  
  
• Systems Design: Architect creative and reliable solutions to business needs by improving existing services and systems integrations and developing new ones. Use cloud platforms (including "serverless" cloud functions / lambdas) to engineer the technology infrastructure required by digital product goals. Use expertise to design and configuration AWS or Google systems, develop APIs, scripting of service functions, testing, and implementation to resolve issues or enhance performance.
  
  
• Other: Technical support as required. Expected duties include creating and improving logging, metrics, and telemetry systems for product improvement, creating reports, documenting work, estimating, and coordinating system billing, and optimizing the software development experience with tooling and automation.
  
  

Competencies:

• Acquiring and Analyzing Information
  
  
• Evaluating and Implementing Ideas
  
  
• Displaying Creativity
  
  
• Developing Plans
  
  
• Making Accurate Judgments and Decisions
  
  
• Acting Strategically
  
  
• Driving Continuous Improvement
  
  
• Managing Performance
  
  

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent.
  
  
• The incumbent is expected to competently perform most essential duties independently and with efficiency consistent with 2 to 4 years of professional experience.
  
  
• Experience should include designing, creating, and maintaining technical solutions using cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google advertising and optimization platforms, caching systems, CDNs, asset optimization and management, system monitoring and event logging, and encryption, authentication, and identity standards.
  
  
• Previous experience managing complex WordPress application hosting is required.
  
  
• General proficiency with Linux server administration is essential to the role. Basic scripting proficiency with Javascript or other languages is also required.
  
  

Preferred Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in computer or information technology field strongly preferred.
  
  
• Cloud Certification preferred.
  
  
• Professional experience in public media a plus, ideally familiar with NPR content and internal products and platforms.
  
  
• Preferred experience with audio formats, streaming protocols, and major platforms including smart speakers and digital assistants, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
  
  
• Previous experience with PCI compliance, email platforms, and CRM systems such as Engaging Networks and Salesforce preferred. 3 to 5 years of professional experience in a similar role is preferred.
  
  

Supervisory Responsibility:

• No supervisory responsibilities. Incumbent will collaborate directly with product stakeholders, developers, broadcast engineers, and other partners to deliver results that satisfy business objectives.
  
  

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work:

• Full Time, 35 hours/week.
  
  
• WAMU is a 24/7 radio broadcaster. Occasional evening and weekend work is required to meet expectations.
  
  

Salary Range:

• $80,000 - $90,000/year.
  
  

Additional Eligibility Qualifications:

• Experience working in an agile methodology.
  
  
• Strong experience following SDLC and iterative processes, as well as understanding and active participation in change management procedures, preferred.
  
  

Benefits

AU offers a competitive benefits package including a 200% matching retirement plan, tuition benefits for full-time staff and their families, several leadership development certificates, and has been recognized by the American Heart Association as a fit-friendly worksite. Click here to learn about American University's unique benefit options .

Other Details

• Hiring offers for this position are contingent on successful completion of a background check.
  
  
• Employees in staff positions at American University must deliver their services to the university from either the District of Columbia, Maryland, or Virginia, or perform work on-site at the university.
  
  
• Please note this job announcement is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
  
  
• American University is an E-Verify employer.
  
  

Current American University Employees

American University current employees must apply through their employee Workday account. If you are a current employee at American University, please log into Workday and select the Find Jobs report which will take you to our internal career listings.

Contact Us

For more information or assistance with the American University careers site, email theworkline@american.edu .

American University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution that operates in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The university does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, personal appearance, gender identity and expression, family responsibilities, political affiliation, source of income, veteran status, an individual’s genetic information or any other bases under federal or local laws (collectively "Protected Bases") in its programs and activities.