Position Function:
The Assistant System Administrator in the Computer Science and Engineering department provides system support and planning under supervision of the College of Engineering's System Administrator. The primary duties include the administration, installation, maintenance, and support of software systems, hardware systems, and networking infrastructure, user training, performance monitoring and configuration planning for faculty, staff, and students in the Computer Science and Engineering department.
Salary Grade: 15
Please see Staff Compensation Structure or Skilled Crafts and Service Maintenance Compensation Schedule for salary ranges. For salary grade UC, these positions are "Unclassified" and salary ranges are determined by the hiring department.
Department Profile:
Part of the Bagley College of Engineering, the department has approximately 680 undergraduate majors and 85 graduate students. The department offers undergraduate programs in Computer Science and Software Engineering, jointly administers an undergraduate program in Computer Engineering with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and is in the process to offer a Cybersecurity undergraduate program soon. At the graduate level, we offer M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and M.S. degree in Cyber Security and Operations, and the faculty directs graduate students in Computational Engineering. Certificates in Information Assurance, Cyber Operations and Computational Biology are also available. In the last fiscal year, research expenditures totaled to about $6 million dollars. Research core areas for the department are security and cryptography, artificial intelligence, computational science, visualization and graphics, bioinformatics, parallel and distributed computing, software engineering, human-robot interaction, augmented and virtual reality, and computer science education. Faculty in the department are active in many university research centers such as the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, the Center for Cyber Innovation, the Center for Computational Science and the Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing & Biotechnology. Mississippi State University has been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations, Cyber Defense Research and Cyber Defense Education by the National Security Agency. The High Performance Computing Collaboratory at Mississippi State University houses a collection of supercomputers, among which Orion is the 4th fastest in U.S. academia.
Anticipated Appointment Date:
August 2025.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
The following essential duties are representative of major duties of positions in this classification. The absence of specific statements of duties does not exclude those tasks from the position if the work is similar, related or a logical assignment of the position. Other duties may be assigned consistent with the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the job. Not all of the duties may be assigned to a position.
Duties & Responsibilities:
• Develop and document operational procedures for servers. network usage and access.
• Participation in long-range planning for upgrading software, hardware and network upgrades.
• Monitor server and network performance to insure quick response times and minimum down time of services to meet user needs.
• Configure, install and maintain on-premises instructional servers, cloud computing, and virtual clusters.
• Configure, install and maintain networking hardware used in instructional labs.
• Diagnose and repair hardware and software problems in both client and server environment as well as network infrastructure.
• Purchasing, installation and maintenance of server hardware, networking environment, and cloud resources.
• Assists with implementation and maintenance of the server, and as needed, serving as a backup.
• Administration of backup systems to provide daily backups for all servers and disaster recovery operations.
• Experience with local area networks including TCP/IP, firewalls, wireless and Ethernet
• Oversees or provides direction to student employees.
• Maintains a broad knowledge of state-of-the-art technology, equipment, and/or systems; participates in professional development activities as appropriate.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems or closely related field.
• Two years working experience with computer hardware and/or software.
• Previous experience working in some capacity as a computer technician or in a computer service environment.
Preferred Qualifications:
• Two years experience with Unix and Linux systems administration and programming.
• Two years experience in managing a Windows Active Directory environment.
• Experience in managing and maintaining distributed computing systems.
• Knowledge of cloud-based system solutions.
• Strong programming skills in Python, bash, and JAVA.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
• Knowledge of computer technologies and software applications including the latest Microsoft Windows Server OS's and Linux.
• Ability to diagnose and resolve hardware and software problems.
• Ability to diagnose and resolve networking issues.
• Knowledge of computer security procedures and protocol.
• Knowledge in one or more high-level programming languages such as C, C++, Java, Python.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, oral and written communication skills, and personal initiative.
• Self-motivated and goal oriented.
Working Conditions and Physical Effort
Occasional or medium lifting required. Limited exposure to elements such as heat, cold, noise, dust, dirt, chemicals, etc. May involve minor safety hazards where likely result would be cuts, bruises etc.
Routine deadlines; usually sufficient lead time; variance in work volume seasonal and predictable; priorities can be anticipated; some interruption are present; involves occasional exposures to demands and pressures from person other than supervisor.
Job frequently requires walking, sitting, reaching, talking, hearing, handling objects with
hands. Job occasionally requires standing, stooping/kneeling/crouching/crawling and lifting up to 75 pounds.
Vision requirements: ability to see information in print and/or electronically.
Instructions for Applying:
Link to apply: http://explore.msujobs.msstate.edu/
Apply online at www.msujobs.msstate.edu by completing the professional application and attaching a cover letter, resume, and compete contact information for a minimum of three professional references.
Screening Date:
August 19, 2025, until filled.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity institution. Discrimination is prohibited in university employment, programs or activities based on race, color, ethnicity, sex, pregnancy, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, or any other status to the extent protected by applicable law. Questions about equal opportunity programs or compliance should be directed to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance, 231 Famous Maroon Band Street, P.O. 6044, Mississippi State, MS 39762, (662) 325-5839.
What do I do if I need an accommodation?
In compliance with the ADA Amendments Act (ADA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position with Mississippi State University, please contact the Department of Human Resources Management at tel: (662) 325-3713 or ada@hrm.msstate.edu.
If you have any questions regarding this policy, contact the Department of Human Resources Management at (662) 325-3713 or ada@hrm.msstate.edu. Upon request, sections of this job listing are available in large print, and readers are available to assist the visually impaired.
