Senior Operations Infrastructure Architect

Date Posted: 03/31/2026
Req ID: 47532
Faculty/Division: Library
Department: Scholars Portal
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)
Position Number: 00059267
Existing Vacancy: Yes

Description:

About us:

The University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) system is the largest academic library in Canada and is ranked in the top five among peer institutions in North America. The system comprises 40 libraries located across three university campuses: St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough. This diverse and extensive network of college libraries, special collections, and specialized information centres plays a pivotal role in supporting the teaching, scholarly, and research needs of nearly 100,000 students enrolled in a wide array of graduate, professional, and undergraduate programs.

The library system provides access to millions of resources in various formats, including electronic, print, audio-visual, data and geospatial materials. UTL also boasts impressive holdings of archival material and substantial digital collections, securely preserved in the libraries' data centre. The staff at UTL are integral to the academic and scholarly enterprise, working closely with faculty and students to support their teaching, learning, and research requirements. They are subject matter experts; they are skilled in research data management, collections, statistics, GIS, metadata, digital preservation, scholarly communications, copyright, teaching, knowledge synthesis, open access and much more. Our work is grounded in our commitment to support equity, diversity, and inclusion.

UTL continuously evolves to meet the changing academic priorities and pressures at the University and within the broader landscape of higher education.

Your opportunity:

Scholars Portal, a department of the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL), is the digital service arm of the Ontario Council ofUniversity Libraries (OCUL), managing infrastructure and services that support Ontario’s 21 university libraries. The Scholars Portal team of librarians, developers, and systems staff support services in four broad areas: research and member services; data and geospatial services; digital collections; and digital preservation services.

Reporting to the Associate Director, this position will play a key role in architecting, implementing, and maintaining the infrastructure that supports Scholars Portal applications. The Senior Operations Infrastructure Architect will design scalable, secure, and resilient systems, lead the integration of new and existing technologies, and promote best practices in infrastructure, security, and reliability. The role also includes providing technical guidance and mentorship to members of the Systems team, fostering knowledge sharing and supporting skill development. As a member of the Scholars Portal Systems team, the successful candidate will collaborate closely with Developers, Librarians, Analysts, and System Administrators within a highly collaborative environment. Major initiatives over the coming year will include enhancing the reliability and scalability of core infrastructure, modernizing deployment and monitoring practices, and supporting the continued growth of all Scholars Portal applications.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Developing and updating architectural framework for highly complex and confidential university-wide IT systems
• Analyzing, troubleshooting and testing highly complex systems
• Analyzing operational requirements to implement plans for network and internet presence
• Analyzing, recommending and designinginternal network solutions to meet client needs
• Serving as an expert resource to a group of professionals in the speciality

Essential Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Six to Seven years of progressively responsible experience in systems architecture, infrastructure engineering, or platform operations
• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and supporting Linux-based production environments
• Strong experience with on-premises infrastructure and open-source virtualization technologies (e.g., KVM, libvirt, Proxmox, OpenStack, or equivalent)
• Strong experience with on-premises infrastructure and open-source virtualization technologies (e.g., KVM, libvirt, Proxmox, OpenStack, or equivalent)
• Proven ability to architect, maintain, and secure scalable, highly available infrastructure supporting enterprise, research, or service-oriented applications
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), preferably in on-premises environments
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure automation, configuration management, and Infrastructure as Code tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, Chef, or equivalent)
• Experience building or supporting CI/CD pipelines and operational automation tools
• Experience supporting databases, backend services, and search platforms in a production environment; familiarity with technologies such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Solr, and MarkLogic is an asset
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools to support performance, reliability, and incident response
• Experience with identity and access management systems (e.g., Shibboleth, LDAP, Active Directory, SAML, OAuth2, OpenID Connect)
• Strong knowledge of networking and core systems administration concepts, including DNS, load balancing, TLS certificates, firewalls, storage, and backup and recovery practices
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex systems, improve service reliability, and support resilient distributed environments
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with technical and non-technical colleagues
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership, mentor team members, and foster knowledge sharing within a systems team
• Experience working in a collaborative environment with shared responsibility for service reliability, security, and continuous improvement
• Knowledge of academic library systems, digital scholarship infrastructure, or research support environments is considered an asset
• Relevant certifications or professional development in Linux systems administration, infrastructure automation, security, or systems architecture are considered an asset
• Proven ability to architect, maintain, and secure scalable, highly available infrastructure supporting enterprise, research, or service-oriented applications
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure automation, configuration management, and infrastructure as Code tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, Chef, or equivalent), security, or systems architecture are considered an asset

To be successful in this role you will be:

• Adaptable
• Communicator
• Goal oriented
• Organized
• Problem solver
• Responsible
• Team player

Closing Date: 04/15/2026, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: USW
Appointment Type: Budget - Term
Schedule:
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone:
USW Pay Band 18 -- $116,547. with an annual step progression to a maximum of $149,043. Pay scale and job class assignment is subject to determination pursuant to the Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Maintenance Protocol.
Job Category: Information Technology (IT)

Lived Experience Statement
Candidates who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups are encouraged to apply, and their lived experience shall be taken into consideration as applicable to the posted position.

A job description is available upon request