PEOPLESOFT & DATA BASE PLATFORM ADMINISTRATOR

At McMaster University, our people are our most valuable asset. We strive to attract, develop, and retain talented faculty and staff, and to foster inclusive excellence which values the strengths, perspectives, and contributions of each individual. McMaster’s profile and stature has evolved to one of the Top 70 Universities in the World and we are recognized as Canada’s Most Research Intensive University. McMaster is also recognized as one of the top employers in the Hamilton/Niagara region and has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top Diversity employers in each of 2019, 2020,  2021 and 2022.

Our University Technology Services team mission is to provide exceptional customer service and a high level of support to the McMaster community. Critical to the success of this role we stand by and value integrity, mutual respect, collaboration and cooperation in support of the University’s IT Strategic Vision of a connected One IT community.

As part of University Technology Services (UTS) with a mission to provide exceptional customer service and a high level of IT support to McMaster community. Our goal is to ensure transparency, innovation and accountability in the service provision and support. We stand by and value integrity, mutual respect, collaboration, and cooperation.

About the position

McMaster University has been operating a full suite solution ERP for over 7 years. The modules implemented include PeopleSoft Finance, Student (Campus Solutions), Human Capital Management (HCM) and Research Administration. Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE), Hyperion, and Interaction Hub (Portal).

Are you the right candidate?

University Technology Services seeks a very experienced and highly skilled individual to work in our PeopleSoft Administration / Database Administration unit reporting to the Senior Manager of IT, Database & PeopleSoft Platforms, as an expert PeopleSoft Administrator Oracle DBA. The successful candidate would be required to work with a team of specialists to support, maintain, automate, and initiate process improvement, efficiency, and change. The primary focus initially will be on the PeopleSoft Administration including the migration of those environments to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This would require expert level knowledge of front end and batch processing servers, Linux, OS Patching and troubleshooting, compute instance creation, integration broker, database connectivity and lifecycle maintenance and management to name a few.

The purpose of this job is to manage the on-going support of the various PeopleSoft modules and environments as required and ensure the proper function of the entire PeopleSoft Internet Architecture (PIA).

Job Technical Competencies 

• ITIL Standards: Thorough understanding of ITIL standards as they relate to Incident Management, Change Management, Problem Management, and other core ITIL processes.
• Server Technology: Working knowledge of server and storage technology trends and methods. Ability to provide input on server and storage technology development in the organization.
• Network/Security Technology: Knowledge of network and security technology trends and methods. 
• Database: Expert knowledge Oracle with a particular focus on PeopleSoft modules and tools. Knowledge of Data Warehouse, enterprise level ETL tools and the RAC environment a definite plus.
• IT Architecture: Knowledge and ability to apply architecture theories, principles, concepts, practices, methodologies, and frameworks.
• IT Project Management: Knowledge and ability to apply formal basic project management knowledge, principles, and practices.
• Hybrid Data Centre Operations: Knowledge and ability to perform all aspects of job in on prem and cloud data centre operations. 

Job Accountabilities

• COMMUNICATING: Clearly, frequently and consistently exchanges the organizational knowledge, plans and decisions which are necessary for meaningful participation and optimal work by team members; listens actively – with insight and respect – to others’ perspectives, and perceives and reacts sensitively to others’ non-verbal cues; builds relationships and attracts support; gives recognition to groups and individuals who contribute to the University’s achievement.
• DEVELOPING PEOPLE: Advocates and enables continuous learning opportunities for all employees; encourages employee involvement in decision making as an integral part of the developmental process; active in self-development.
• LEADING: Known for achievement; recognizes achievement requires the leading others, and; therefore, recruits the right people; engages them in the vision of McMaster; solves problems that arise; evaluates progress towards goals and objectives; negotiates resolutions to conflicts; protects/heals the organization during times of change; integrates stakeholders to achieve synergies.
• EMBRACING CHANGE: Exhibits a passion for building a creative, innovative, and excellent university.  Works effectively with ambiguity and complex issues while searching for innovations and improvements to make tomorrow’s workplace better than todays.
• OPTIMIZING SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS: Identifies, builds, and manages relationships which are service-oriented, student-centered, and will systematically create positive current and future benefits for the University.

Key Responsibilities

• Create, install, and maintain directly, and in concert with the team, PeopleSoft/Oracle test, development, and production environments on premise and in the OCI Cloud. 
• Adhere to established strategies for System Administration and Production Support activities such as quality control, backups, disaster recovery, security, identity management, patch implementation and upgrades while fostering continuous improvement.  This will entail knowledge of Grid Control, OEM and RMAN procedures.
• System performance and monitoring activities (stats, logs, archiving, performance, disk space) through Grid Control and other appropriate processes.
• Work with Systems Integrators, developers, other DBA team members and systems/storage teams to ensure optimal performance of the various environments.
• Maintaining system documentation (code/customizations, change control)
• Maintaining application/data interfaces
• Establish project framework and identify project milestones to ensure the project is completed according to project specifications and within specified timelines.
• Perform advanced levels of analysis and problem solving to formulate solutions to complex problems.
• Provide technical assistance to developers, other DBA team members, operational staff and when appropriate, those in the user community.
• Establish and maintain a level of Knowledge transfer of PeopleSoft technical and cloud (OCI) skills to other DBA team members.
• Working knowledge of on-prem, cloud and hybrid technical environments such as OCI & Azure as McMaster offers hybrid solutions to our clients.
• Understanding/knowledge of subscription-based costing models to assist in Oracle Costing tagging controls and reporting.
• Creating front end compute topologies such as servers and storage to run cloud applications such as PeopleSoft, WebLogic, tuxedo, java.