Systems Administrator Tender

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Wikimedia UK is the Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom. We exist to help collect, develop and distribute freely licensed knowledge (and other educational, cultural and historic material). We do this by bringing the Wikimedia community in the UK together, and by building links with UK-based cultural institutions, universities, charities and other bodies. We also represent UK-based Wikimedians to the Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikimedia movement. Wikimedia UK is a registered charity with a current staff of fifteen and an office in London.

Wikimedia UK is seeking a systems administrator. This role will include setting up and running several dedicated servers, maintaining the software that they run, evaluating and setting up new software packages as needed. The role will also include responding to urgent requirements as they arise. Depending on the individual or organisation, additional duties (such as supporting office IT requirements, developing bespoke online systems, or contributing to open source projects such as MediaWiki and CiviCRM) may also be included in this contract.

We expect that this position will be paid on an hourly, part-time or monthly basis, with a duration of 6 months, extending to a year if successful and will commence as soon as possible. It may continue for a longer period or, in the case of individuals, it may transfer to full time employment. We anticipate that around 5 hours of work per week will be required at the outset, increasing to 10 hours per week from October 2012, and would prefer an individual or organisation with flexible working hours and available time. The hourly or monthly rate will depend on the expertise/experience and tender of the individual or organisation.

The role will be flexible, such that it can support needs as they arise. As a central role, it will include:

• Specifying, setting up and maintaining servers, including (but not restricted to):
  • Maintaining basic server requirements, including security, email, mailing lists
  • Ensuring that the servers are responsive, and are reliably and comprehensively backed up. A service level of 99.99% uptime is expected.
  • Facilitating and reacting to an external security review
  • Over the next 6 months, we anticipate setting up and operating up to four servers, focused on confidential data; community tools; providing a mirror of Wikimedia project content; and a backup server. Some of these may be Cloud servers. This will include migration from our existing Virtual Private Server.
• Maintenance and upgrading of existing MediaWiki, Wordpress and Joomla/CiviCRM installations
• Installation and maintenance of an email ticketing service (such as OTRS)
• Setting up and maintaining SSL for our main domain names.
• Supporting custom software that has been developed by volunteers. An example of this is the custom software developed for processing Direct Debits.
• Support of third party websites, including QRPedia
• Maintain existing software, carrying out upgrades, reconfigurations and ensuring security
• Manage SSL certificates, and ensure the security of donation websites
• Optional: Supporting the IT requirements of the Office, including open source desktop software and Google Apps
• Optional: Development of new CiviCRM functionality
• Optional: Development of MediaWiki core and extensions

Skills needed:

• Prior experience administrating webservers running Linux operating systems, including monitoring, maintenance and upgrading.
• Experience with Ubuntu and Plesk Parallels server administration (either dedicated server or VPS)
• Experience with PHP (programming) and MySQL (database)
• Experience with Mediawiki, CiviCRM, Wordpress, Joomla and OTRS, including the installation, maintenance and upgrades of those platforms and their extensions (desirable)
• Experience with developing extensions for MediaWiki would be advantageous

The role will also require liaising with office staff who are managing related aspects of these requirements. A security audit will also take place in the near future. Would report to the Chief Exec for management purposes, would liaise with a key volunteer on the technical side.

Must have a strong affinity for the Wikimedia mission. Note that this role does not involve management of the international Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, which are under the control of the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco.

To apply, please submit a tender document, including a quote, electronically as a PDF to Jon Davies at jon.davieswikimedia.org.uk . The bids will be evaluated by a group of staff and trustees.

Further questions for clarification may be asked.

The contract may in the first instance be awarded on a monthly basis to test its efficacy.

Bids must be received by .......