Windows Systems Administrator #14000AD | Blizzard Entertainment | Irvine, California, United States
Windows Systems Administrator
IT - Network Operations
Office: Irvine, California, United States
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Blizzard Entertainment is seeking talented a Windows systems
administrator and we know we’re not alone in our search. So why Blizzard?
Because it’s a haven for our kind! Our unique blend of opportunity,
environment, and people all help make Blizzard the studio worthy of your
career. You’ll be joining a network operations team that attacks
challenges and crafts solutions with the same enthusiasm and creativity as our
players do in our games. We love keeping up with and getting to use the latest
technology, and take pride in protecting and gatekeeping some of the world’s
most popular and beloved gaming franchises. And just like the company as
a whole, our team is built on a culture of passion for who we are, what we
create, and who we support. We want to hear from skilled system admins ready
and eager to continue this adventure with us. If you like what you read below,
drop us a line!
What is Network Operations (BONS)?
Blizzard online network systems is the global network operations
team responsible for supporting ALL of Blizzard’s customer-facing IT systems and
services. Such services include
Battle.net, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and Heroes
of the Storm. In addition to managing
these IT Platforms, BONS also works closely with our development teams
throughout a product’s lifecycle. Our
team’s mission statement: Innovating and delivering global technology
solutions to power the most epic entertainment experience... Ever.
Understand your Responsibilities:
Improve and Implement:
As a system admin you will seek and destroy bugs and deficiencies in technology
implementations, and propose long term resolutions for more intricate problems.
In addition you will support our senior admins and engineers in integration of
complex and customized open source, and / or proprietary products to support
multi-thousand node production environments. Whether day to day optimizations
or analysis of complex problems, you’ll be the glue that keeps the environment
running.
Troubleshoot and Support:
As the bread-and-butter of an admin team, you will resolve critical environment
outages, whether hardware or software in nature, and develop solutions or automations
to prevent such problems from reoccurring. In this role you will also debug and
improve internal services, propose patches, maintain internal repository
branches, and manage internal package distribution. As with most IT groups you
will share off-hours duties for global on-call coverage on a rotational basis.
Security and Stability:
Security is everyone’s job. As the core backbone of operations, you will
identify security weaknesses and propose solutions that hold stability and
security in the forefront. Perform security audits, system patching, and
educate peers and internal / external customers on security practices and
principles.
Lead and Grow:
As a core member of our admin team, you will regularly construct and provide
training sessions on complex subjects or newly evolving technologies to peers
and internal customers, including upper management. In this position, you will
actively engage with peers to provide consultation and recommendations, as well
as develop documentation on new or old technologies and how it relates to
internal systems.
Technical Requirements:
Time in the field:
This position requires a minimum of 2 years’ experience supporting an
operations group which focuses on service stability, security, and customer
satisfaction.
The Technicalities:
You should hold fundamental knowledge of all-things Windows, from understanding
Active Directory management to advanced IIS configuration. In-depth knowledge of fundamental Internet
standards encompassing DHCP, PXE, DNS, SMTP, SNMP, HTTP and many other services
that stretch between the inter-tubes should hold a permanent slot in your array
of wisdom and experience.
Script and Develop:
Perhaps someday we’ll all be replaced by a script, but until that day, we do
the scripting. Understanding how to automate tasks with Powershell, VBscript,
batch scripting, or a combination of these is crucial. There won’t be a day
where a script can’t help you fix a problem faster and more accurately, or
where you can modify one that increases its effectiveness.
Networking and Inter-tubes:
Strong understanding of networking from principle to application. Experience
with TCP connectivity debugging is part of the job, from troubleshooting LAN
connectivity to understanding how an application interfaces with the local IP stack.
Thrive in our environment:
Our environment never stays the same. The perfect candidate should exhibit a
high attention to detail, adjust quickly to an ever-changing and evolving
environment, and poses sharp analytical competency for all-things-technology!
We like to travel while doing IT stuff, therefore occasional domestic, and / or
international travel is required.
A strong candidate will also bring to the table some of
the following:
- Experience with Active Directory, IIS 7+, Windows Imaging
(including WDS), DFS-R, and Group Policy
- Experience with WSUS, RabbitMQ / AMQP, Puppet, and Splunk
- Experience with Powershell, VBscript, and batch scripting
- Experience with CouchBase, MSSQL, MySQL, and Oracle
- Experience with virtualization, including VMWare ESXi,
and KVM
- Experience with LDAP, NFS, Apache, Tomcat, and OpenStack
also a huge benefit
- Passion for video games and technology!
Required Application Materials
- Resume
- Cover Letter which should include:
- Why you are interested in working at Blizzard
- What games or technology are you are currently playing
with
**Only submittals with Cover Letters will be considered.
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and its affiliated companies is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.
