Careers at UMass Amherst

About UMass Amherst

The flagship of the Commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity, and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship, and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges, and 100 undergraduate majors. We believe every member of our university community can contribute to our ongoing success by striving for the highest level of excellence as we seek breakthrough solutions to mounting environmental, social, economic, and technological challenges in our world. 

Job Summary

Senior Peoplesoft Database Administrator has primary responsibility for the reliable and secure operation management and support of the PeopleSoft software, Oracle database, and related software components underlying the PeopleSoft Student Administration software and other administrative information systems.

Essential Functions

• Leads software development, testing, and release management cycles for PeopleSoft application software and underlying Oracle databases. Ensures that all operating system, database, and application software updates and patches are applied and coordinated with development, testing, and production requirements. Maintains source code control libraries and other release management software as necessary.
• Manages multiple PeopleSoft and database instances and sets up new PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Server instances and new integrations. Creates and documents procedures for maintaining these systems.
• Reviews critical software updates and new releases for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions servers, application and underlying Oracle databases.
• Consults and works with other IT units on best practices for automation and process improvements to ensure that they are consistent across the board. Documents best practices and procedures.
• Acts as technical resource and primary support for other third-party software such as the University's document management system ImageNow, Oracle EPM Data Warehouse, job scheduling software Control-M and others and serves as primary technical contact with software vendors for system upgrades, fixes, and problem resolution.
• Creates and maintains regression testing plan and associated test programs, scripts, and data which covers both vendor-supplied and locally developed software.
• Establishes administrative and technical design standards for application developers and technical support staff to ensure the performance, reliability, audibility and maintainability of the PeopleSoft environment. This includes detailed coding style guides, naming specifications, and technical documentation standards. Coordinates periodic reviews to verify compliance with standards.
• Leads and participates in group and technical reviews for testing plans, documentation, and configuration to ensure that application design decisions meet the long-term objectives of the PeopleSoft technical architecture.
• Triages more complex user issues and handles daily ServiceNow tickets, handles issue escalations from Peoplesoft Database Administrators, and triages failed PeopleSoft Campus Solutions server agent jobs, including backups and maintenance jobs. Implements improvements to existing processes to prevent issues from resurfacing.

Other Functions

• Reviews existing major processes to determine if improvements are needed. Assist Lead Peoplesoft Database Engineer to make recommendations to management.
• Mentors and provides training in the use of databases, tools, application development tools, and reporting tools for the Peoplesoft Database Administrators.
• Develops back-up and recovery plan and monitors compliance.
• Participates in off-hours on-call rotation for urgent problem resolution.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)

• Bachelor’s Degree with six (6) years of relevant experience -OR-11 an Associate’s Degree with eight (8) years of relevant experience.
• Experience with vendor ERP software, including installation, implementation and administration.
• Experience with Oracle or SQL products (MySQl, MS SQL, Prostgres).
• Experience and knowledge of Linux or Windows Operating Systems.
• Demonstrated ability to work well in team environments.

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Education, Experience, Certifications, Licensure)

• Experience and ability to develop and maintain source code libraries and manage formal software releases for production environments.
• Experience with Oracle database administration using Oracle administrative tools.
• Experience with replication and clustering.
• Experience with PeopleSoft software application is strongly preferred
• Experience with using DevOps tools such as Ansible, Puppet, Jenkins, GitLab, Vagrant, etc.
• Experience with diagnostic tools such as network packet, hardware performance, and storage analyzers, etc.

Work Schedule

• 37.5 hours, Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm.
• Participate in off-hours on-call rotation.
• Some nights and weekend hours are required as business needs dictate. 
• This position has the opportunity for a hybrid work schedule, which is defined by the University as an arrangement where an employee’s work is regularly performed at a location other than the campus workspace for a portion of the week. As this position falls within the Professional Staff Union, it is subject to the terms and conditions of the Professional Staff Union collective bargaining agreement. 

Salary Information

Level 30

PSU Hiring Ranges

Special Instructions to Applicants

Submit a resume, cover letter and contact information for three (3) professional references in order to ensure consideration; applications will be accepted until the position has been filled.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst welcomes all qualified applicants and complies with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws.