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Hosting Services Operations Engineer

Employer
Stanford University
Location
Stanford, CA
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Employment Type
Full Time
Institution Type
Four-Year Institution
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Job Details

Join Stanford University’s IT Hosting Services team as a Hosting Services Operations Engineer, supporting the on premise and cloud infrastructure that Stanford’s academic, research, and administrative communities depend on every day. This is a hybrid role: you will spend part of your time on organization-level cloud operations — helping manage cloud accounts, security guardrails, and cloud spend for hundreds of research and enterprise users — and part of your time hands-on in Stanford’s enterprise and research data centers, racking, stacking, cabling, and providing hands-and-feet support for the physical infrastructure behind those services. You will work closely with experienced engineers, security staff, and vendors building practical skills across public cloud, private cloud, and physical data center operations. It is an excellent role for someone who wants both depth in cloud platforms and real hardware experience in a large, mission-critical research environment. 

Cloud Operations and Financial Operations (FinOps)

  • Support multi-account cloud operations: Assist in the day-to-day operation of Stanford’s organization-level cloud footprint across AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure — including account and project provisioning, organizational unit and folder structure, and lifecycle tasks such as onboarding, transfers, and decommissioning. 
  • Apply and maintain guardrails: Help implement and monitor organization-wide policies — service control policies, organization policies, Azure Policy, tagging standards, and baseline configurations — so that new accounts land in a consistent, compliant state. 
  • Assist with landing zone operations: Support the standard account baseline (networking, logging, identity integration, budget alerts) used by enterprise customers, and help troubleshoot when accounts drift from it. 
  • Monitor cloud health and usage: Assist in monitoring service health, quotas and limits, and usage trends across the organization, escalating issues and helping coordinate responses with affected teams. 
  • Support identity and access: Help administer federated access, roles, and permission sets, applying least-privilege practices under the guidance of senior engineers. 
  • Assist with cloud automation: Participate in developing scripted and infrastructure-as-code workflows (for example Terraform, Python, or CLI-based tooling) that reduce manual effort in account management and reporting. 
  • Contribute to FinOps practice: Apply FinOps best practices under guidance to help Stanford departments and users get the most value per dollar from their cloud spend. 
  • Support cost visibility and allocation: Assist in maintaining tagging and account structures, cost allocation reports, and chargeback/showback data so that departments and administrators can clearly see where their cloud dollars go. 
  • Help identify savings opportunities: Assist with rightsizing analysis, idle and orphaned resource cleanup, storage class and lifecycle optimization, and workload scheduling recommendations for computing workloads. 
  • Support commitment and discount management: Help track and report on Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Committed Use Discounts, and negotiated agreements, and assist in analyzing coverage and utilization. 
  • Assist with budgets, forecasting, and anomaly detection: Help configure budgets and alerts, investigate cost anomalies, and support forecasting for departmental workloads where predictable spend matters.
  • Support user enablement: Help prepare cost reports, documentation, and guidance that make cloud economics understandable to users, staff, and students — including support for budgeting and credit programs. 

    •  

    Data Center Operations — Racking, Stacking, and Hands-and-Feet 

  • Install and decommission hardware: Rack, stack, cable, label, and decommission servers, storage arrays, and network equipment in Stanford’s enterprise and research data centers. 
  • Perform structured cabling work: Run and dress copper and fiber, manage patch panels and cross-connects, and maintain accurate port and circuit documentation. 
  • Provide hands-and-feet support: Serve as on-site hands for remote engineers, vendors, and research groups — swapping drives and optics, reseating components, power cycling equipment, console access, media handling, and smart-hands escorts. 
  • Support power and environmental needs: Assist with rack power planning and PDU connections (including DC power environments), monitor space, power, cooling, and weight constraints, and flag capacity concerns. 
  • Handle break/fix and RMAs: Diagnose basic hardware faults, open and track vendor support cases, coordinate parts replacement, and complete RMA returns. 
  • Maintain asset and facility records: Keep inventory, DCIM, and rack elevation records accurate, and support receiving, staging, and secure disposal of equipment. 
  • Participate in maintenance windows: Support scheduled maintenance, migrations, and after-hours or on-call work as needed. 

    •  

    Private Cloud and Systems Operations

  • Support compute and storage infrastructure: Assist in monitoring the private cloud environment, helping to ensure system performance and availability. 
  • Maintain virtualization platforms: Support and troubleshoot virtualized environments, with guidance from senior engineers. 
  • Maintain system stability: Assist in monitoring system stability, responding to incidents, and ensuring minimal disruptions. 
  • Optimize resources: Assist in monitoring and analyzing resource usage, identifying potential improvements in compute and storage efficiency. 
  • Document processes: Help document infrastructure and data center procedures, runbooks, and diagrams for team reference and knowledge sharing. 

    •  

    You Will Also: 

  • Assist and contribute to the installation and maintenance of operating systems, utilities, and software on computing systems.
  • Follow established protocols to assist in maintaining system and physical security. 
  • Collaborate with other IT teams, research computing groups, and facilities staff to confirm strategies, assess technical feasibility, and ensure compatibility within the university’s framework. 
  • Assist with capacity planning for system configurations, software services, network services, data center space and power, and load distribution.
    • Responsibilities

    Core Duties:

    • Build, install, configure, analyze, tune, and troubleshootoperating system to achieve optimum performance levels.

    • Resolve difficult system problems and provide consultation ortraining.

    • Configure and assist in the design of system and networksecurity.

    • Manage hardware, software, and utilities for installation,modification, troubleshooting, maintenance, and upgrades of operatingsystems and workstation environments.

    • Monitor and analyze resource usage to recommend/developenhancements to system capabilities and performance.

    • Compare, evaluate, and implement new technologies, and integratesystems into the computing environment.

    • Document systems infrastructure for users, support and consultingpersonnel, and developers.

    • Train personnel who provide support and consulting services tousers.

    • Act as liaison with various departments across campus.

    • Facilitate vendor relationships.

    Minimum Education and Experience:

    Bachelor's degree and five years of relevant experience, or acombination of education and relevant experience.

    Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

    • Experience with multiple types of operating systems or expertknowledge in one.

    • Experience with managing an integrated computingenvironment.

    • Extensive experience in multiple programming languages for systemdevelopment.

    • Experience with networked environments.

    • Experience with network storage solutions.

    • Experience with configuring and maintaining routers.

    • Demonstrated knowledge of security protocols.

    • Ability to manage shared resources and perform moderately complextasks.

    • Ability to work well independently and as a team member.

    • Ability to train to others in applications and operating systemfundamentals.

    • Experience with middleware and infrastructure.

    Organization

    Change the world. And yourself.

    Stanford University has changed the world, over and over again.

    We are one of Silicon Valley's largest employers - and also one of the most unique. Our mission is to educate future leaders and promote interdisciplinary, world-class research and teaching. This passion makes Stanford an intensely creative, rewarding, and challenging place to work. At the same time, our traditions of respect and collaboration sustain a humane, supportive environment in which to pursue your life and your career. 

    At Stanford you'll work with bright, diverse, dedicated people. You'll find encouragement to learn and grow. You'll enjoy excellent benefits and an outstanding environment.

    Stanford Facts at a Glance

    Opened 1891

    Student Enrollment

    • Undergraduates: 6,980
    • Graduates: 8,897

    Campus

    • 8,180 contiguous acres in six governmental jurisdictions
    • Nearly 700 major buildings
    • 97% of undergraduates live on campus

    Research

    • 5,300 externally sponsored projects
    • $1.33 billion total budget

    Faculty

    • 2,043 faculty members
    • 21 Nobel laureates are currently members of the Stanford community
    • 5:1 student to faculty ratio

    Stanford University is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to recruiting and hiring qualified women, minorities, protected veterans and persons with disabilities.

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