Your main responsibility will be to maintain Bytemark’s critical software platforms under the guidance of the Platform team. You will execute well-documented operational plans in response to alerts and escalate issues to the rest of the team.

You'll help an expanding team of engineers deploy our internal software frequently and ensure that our thousands of customers get the highest reliability for all their online services across Bytemark's two UK data centres.

If you're keen to get involved in the growing department and bring modern system administration experience to a mature hosting company, we want you to apply.

Your duties would include:

• Handling alerts raised across Bytemark's systems, particularly to the Bytemark Cloud platform
• Installing, configuring and reasoning about Linux, database and cluster systems
• Executing software deployments as part of routine software launches
• Assisting in maintenance of Bytemark's performance, monitoring and alerting systems
• Working to break down risks and operational requirements
• Assisting in cementing operational standards across Bytemark through documentation & automation
• Assistance in diagnosing new operational issues as they occur through Bytemark's estate
• Communication the Platform Team's work to the public & internally through clear public RFOs
• Participating in bug triage and negotiation with Engineering team on software launches
• Participating in daily meetings, post-mortems and other key Platform meetings to move the department's goals on.

Out of hours rota

Bytemark currently has a single out-of-hours rota among our Support team, covering customer, hardware and data centre issues.

In the future we are planning to expand this with a second-line rota for Platform issues, which you will need to be ready to cover on a 1-in-4 basis as part of your work.

What kind of company is Bytemark?

Bytemark is 34-person strong hosting company founded 15 years ago, with over 2400 customers. Our head office is in beautiful, historic York. Our mission is to provide solid, reliable hosting with a strong focus on the UK market. We have a deep appreciation for the free software movement and as we've grown, made sure that our recruitment and management are truly equal-opportunity, providing a flexible 37.5-hour average work week and family-friendly employment policies.

Whilst we have a mix of staff in traditionally "technical" and "non-technical" roles, everyone in the company is encouraged to excel in their field, regardless of their position or workflow.

Our two largest teams are currently Engineering & Customer Support - building things and helping our customers use them is where we spend most of our time. However, our Platform Team inherits much from our Engineering team.

We're currently replacing our oldest hosting services with newer, automated, better-featured ones and bringing them all together on a single control panel. There are many aspects of this that need pulling apart and rebuilding.  

Career progression

The Platform Manager will work closely with you and the HR Director to establish your learning needs and ensure that you have the training and resources you need.

We would like you to have a commitment to your own professional development and actively seek learning opportunities. Bytemark will pay for 5 days of conference or training (including expenses) each year to pique your interest and further your skill-set.

Skills we're seeking

For this position

• Operational caution tempered with a firm desire to get things done
• Practical experience of maintaining Linux systems, distributions and the container ecosystem
• Working knowledge of TCP/IP networking
• Understanding the principles of systems automation software (e.g. ansible)
• Basic knowledge of git, bug trackers & team-based software development tools
• Basic programming experience - either Bourne shell or Ruby
• Understanding of PC hardware issues and how they manifest themselves in a running system
• Writing, clearly and expressively
• Team-based problem-solving and tact that doesn't dissolve under pressure
• Openness to professional development opportunities

Location

This position will be based at our York offices. Our company has been split between York, Manchester and several fully remote workers for years, so we have various ways of working.

Our whole team comes to our York HQ three times per year for a meal, catch-up and talks, but each department meets up on a much more regular basis.

Employment benefits

• Standard holiday allowance: 25 days holiday + UK bank holidays
• Extra holiday allowance: 1 day per full year of employment up to 32 days
• Allowance for home broadband service
• Group Personal Pension Scheme
• Annual health cash plan & private health care
• Enhanced Maternity - 16 weeks pay + 8 weeks 50% pay
• Enhanced Paternity - 2 weeks pay + 2 weeks 50% pay
• Childcare voucher scheme
• 5 days per year allowance for training purposes

Our policies and benefits enable every staff member to balance both family and work commitments, without sacrificing individual ambition or professional development.

Before you apply

Please understand these points before applying:

• You must already be eligible to work in the UK - we are not sponsoring visas for this position.
• We will request and review references from successful candidates
  
• We would ask successful candidates to complete a Basic Disclosure Scotland check (which will be reimbursed)

What are you waiting for?!

There's no "cultural fit" requirement. If you're a keen learner, customer focused and can work well within a team, we'd love to have you on-board!