Linux Sysadmin
September 18, 2006 8:38 PM

Want to work for the most innovative news organization in the country, if not the world? Want to join a team of the best and brightest online media developers? Want to get paid to create award-winning web sites?

Well, have I got the job for you: World Online is looking for a kick-ass systems administrator to join our team.

About the job

Until now, we've been a small enough team that we've not needed a dedicated sysadmin. We've grown, however, and we now need someone to look after our small (but growing) server room.

Right now we've got around 15 servers running a variety of LAMP-style software. The core technologies are Ubuntu Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, Python, and Django. We want a sysadmin who can look after that stack and help us make it scream.

The job also involves helping us develop and maintain backup systems, deployment scripts, and such.

If everything goes according to plan, a big part of the job will be helping us build and roll out a hosted services environment. We want someone who will bring us strong opinions about the "right" way to do this.

Our team is very small so we all pitch in where needed. "Not my job" is an unknown mentality here.

About you

We're looking for someone with experience administering LAMP-style systems. We're not too picky about particular skills -- we're expecting to train where needed. However, at a bare minimum we'd expect:

* Experience administering a *nix. Bonus points for Ubuntu/Debian experience.

* Understanding of how medium- to large-scale LAMP stacks work ("n-tier," if you want a buzzword).

* Some skills in a scripting language (especially as used to write sysadmin-type scripts). Bonus points for Python, but Perl or even Bash is fine.

* At least a basic understanding of administering databases. Bonus points for experience with PostgreSQL, and double-plus-extra points if you have PostgreSQL tuning skillz. MySQL experience will help you get the job, but will also make us mock you.

More than anything, we're looking for someone with the ability to quickly learn new skills. If you can prove to us that you'll be able to learn what we need you to know, you're in.

About the company

World Online is the online division of the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper in Lawrence, KS. We're widely known as one of the most innovative new media operations in the news industry. Our sites -- lawrence.com (music), ljworld.com (news), and kusports.com (sports) -- have won many awards.

We take great pleasure in overkill. We don't just cover little-league baseball games with a story or two in the Sunday paper; we treat T-ball like it's the World Series. We devote an entire print publication and Web site to youth sports, complete with cell-phone updates, weblogs and intensive team, league, and field databases.

The company goes to this effort not only because it's successful (it is) but because they feel a strong commitment to the community. Unlike most other newspapers the company does not demand huge profit margins, but instead demands that we serve our community. The owner is fond of saying that if we take care of Lawrence, Lawrence will take care of us. The company is family-owned, and that family is incredibly kind, will know your name, say hello to you in the halls, and listen very carefully to your opinions.

About the town

Lawrence could be one of the coolest towns in America. If you take every negative stereotype of Kansas and turn them on their heads, you'd get Lawrence. We have an amazing local music scene (which lawrence.com exhaustively covers) and a downtown so vibrant it put a mall out of business. Lawrence's reputation as a "music town" reaches far and wide, and so we get great national acts that bypass most towns ten times Lawrence's size.

If you're used to the insane cost of living in most big cities, Lawrence will blow your mind. You'll easily be able to afford a brand new apartment, or one within walking distance of downtown, or a turn-of-the-century house. Food's incredibly cheap, too; the best barbecue dinner of your life is less than ten bucks.

We will cover reasonable moving expenses for out-of-town candidates.

How to apply

Drop an email to jacob@lawrence.com and tell me why we've absolutely got to hire you. I run a Microsoft-free ship, so plain text or HTML resumes only.


payscale: Negotiable
job type: full-time
posted by jacobian to Systems/Networking

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