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ISL Education Lending is looking for an IT systems administrator to perform customer, application, hardware and infrastructure support for on-premises and cloud solutions. Systems must be secured, reliable and high performing to support the corporation's operations. A strong emphasis is placed on performance monitoring, proactive alerting, risk mitigation, problem diagnosis, documentation, analysis and planning to reduce disruptions to daily operations. As a senior member of the support team, the position provides leadership, promotes a learning environment for team members, and provides expertise in a Microsoft 365 environment.

ISL Education Lending is the name under which Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation does business. We are all about success — students looking for funding, borrowers needing assistance repaying loans and consumers navigating the student loan landscape. That success starts with you.

As an employee at Iowa Student Loan:

• You will receive in-house training, mentoring and opportunities for advancement.
• You will be empowered to share your ideas and creativity.
• You will earn a competitive wage with excellent workplace benefits.
• You will enjoy a casual workplace with opportunities for fun and team-building.

Job Responsibilities

The qualified candidate will have the following responsibilities.

• Operational monitoring
  • Implement and manage system and application monitoring tools, monitoring software, wellness check scripts, process and procedures.
  • Monitor and report relevant information regarding system and application security, availability, performance, usage, etc.
  • Actively process and report events according to the incident response plan and procedures.
• Maintenance
  • Implement and manage patch management and server maintenance tools.
  • Maintain system configurations to meet corporate policies and guidelines for quality and security.
  • Actively participate in business continuity tests and maintenance of continuity plans.
• Server and PC support
  • Configure and install approved baseline operating systems, commercial off-the-shelf applications and tools.
  • Upgrade and maintain software and hardware, including virus protection, operating systems, etc.
  • Maintain company hardware and software inventory to ensure software licenses are in compliance.
• Customer service
  • Provide customer service communications and fulfill requests for both internal and external end users.
  • Troubleshoot problems, diagnose root cause and implement resolutions.
  • Publish and maintain department process and procedure documents.
  • Provide system application expertise, support, training and guidance to end users and IT personnel.
• Quality assurance
  • Perform quality assurance and define requirements for applications as a stakeholder for IT, focusing on security, performance, support, environment integration and other technical objectives.
  • Monitor and report third-party release schedules.
• Business process analysis and needs assessments for assigned projects and tasks
• Support of the corporation's objectives, activity monitoring and completion of assignments by deadlines
  • Join the support team, which provides user customer service 5:30 AM–6 PM (Central time)
  • Support maintenance and project release schedules outside of normal work shift schedule.
  • Be available for weekend on-call hours for application, server and network support.
• Leadership
  • Participate in quality assurance of IT processes, procedures, standards and peer administrators.
  • Evaluate, recommend and implement solutions for problem resolution and process automation.
  • Effectively and efficiently communicate with internal and external stakeholders, including vendors and corporate staff at all levels.

Competencies

The qualified candidate will:

• Be analytical with strong organizational skills to handle multiple priorities and tasks.
• Be able to express ideas clearly and accurately via written and verbal communications.
• Use critical thinking to effectively and efficiently resolve complex problems and meet project requirements.
• Have a self-starter mindset with a positive attitude and the ability to work independently and lead where required.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate must have:

• A bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, or 5+ years' work experience in computer systems and systems applications support.
• At least 3 years' experience supporting, configuring and optimizing Microsoft 365 and a thorough understanding of Microsoft 365 best practices.
  • Microsoft 365 applications (Teams, SharePoint, Exchange Online, OneDrive, Defender, etc.)
  • Microsoft 365 security (data loss protection, group policy, Intune policy, Entra, active directory, etc.)
• Experience in many of the following categories with a focus on server, network and applications.
  • Operations monitoring on-call support and best practices
  • Systems software (Apache, Tomcat, IIS, Splunk, Tenable SC, etc.)
  • Scripting and programming languages (PowerShell, Java, Python)
  • Source code repositories (Git)
  • Server operating systems (Microsoft Windows, Linux, VMWare)
  • Relational database (Microsoft SQL)
  • IP networking and security best practices
  • Internet concepts, tools and techniques

Physical Activities/Working Conditions

This position may be performed at an approved remote location.

The position requires the employee to:

• Spend a majority of time using office equipment including personal computer, keyboard and mouse.
• Interact frequently with others via video chat, in person, over the phone, and via email and other devices.
• Occasionally work outside normal business hours, including early mornings, nights and weekends.
• Be able to lift 50 lbs. or less.

To apply for this position, please complete the employment application (PDF) and send it with a cover letter and resume to itrecruitment@studentloan.org

ISL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or veteran status.

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ISL Education Lending is looking for a senior database administrator to join a small data team of high skilled individuals as an individual contributor. The team is responsible for the management and administration of database technologies across the corporate environment. DBAs support data health for key systems while managing queries, tolls and processes to ensure effective data governance of sensitive company data. In addition to T-SQL and reporting responsibilities, DBAs routinely perform administrative tasks.

What sets the team apart is a deep knowledge of data in relation to the systems that leverage it. Understanding context allows the rapid delivery of on-point database services. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in database management, a thorough grasp of data governance principles and an eagerness to learn quickly and adapt to shifting priorities and emerging requirements in a complex environment.

ISL Education Lending is the name under which Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation does business. We are all about success — students looking for funding, borrowers needing assistance repaying loans and consumers navigating the student loan landscape. That success starts with you.

As an employee at Iowa Student Loan:

• You will receive in-house training, mentoring and opportunities for advancement.
• You will be empowered to share your ideas and creativity.
• You will earn a competitive wage with excellent workplace benefits.
• You will enjoy a casual workplace with opportunities for fun and team-building.

Job Responsibilities

The qualified candidate will:

• Collaborate on internal software development projects or ad-hoc reporting requests by writing performant T-SQL queries or ETL processes that follow team standards. For application development, coordination of work includes pair programming with developers to streamline database deliverables. Deployments of production software generally occur outside normal business hours, often in the early morning, occasionally on weekends.
• Support upgrades and troubleshooting of third-party software products with database backends, assisting with diagnostics when needed to resolve issues across network segments.
• Police the security of our relational database management system and associated data by enforcing corporate policies and procedures for role-based data access or by establishing remedies for gaps when identified to maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive data.
• Be responsible for performing routine administrative tasks, including but not limited to database installations, upgrades and migrations; server patching; general maintenance (backups and rebuilding indices); disaster recovery testing; performance tuning; and documentation. Outcomes must align with published security, encryption and auditing standards.
• Steer larger initiatives on data classification and retention, cloud migration, database design, etc., by applying previous work experience to improve the efficacy, reliability and security of solutions.

Competencies

The qualified candidate will have:

• Excellent communication skills to express ideas at various technical levels clearly, accurately and timely throughout the organization.
• Strong collaboration skills to help facilitate problem-solving and team building.
• Effective organizational skills to manage workloads and context switch between multiple priorities and tasks.
• Proven analytical skills, emphasizing attention to detail and ownership.
• A self-starter mindset with a positive attitude and the ability to work independently and lead where required.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate must have:

• A minimum of five years of professional experience managing and administering enterprise-level databases, preferably in an Agile development environment with Microsoft SQL (SSMS, SSIS).
• Extensive knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition, transaction logs and database recovery strategies; tempDB management; always-on availability groups and data migration; security frameworks, encryption and database security/permissions; and relational database methodology and best practices (e.g., data modeling and normalization).
• Proficiency in Microsoft Windows environment with both on-premises and O365 components, networking concepts and associated systems such as Active Directory.
• Functional knowledge of some or all of the following technologies: Git, SAS, PostgreSQL, Hibernate, PowerShell, PowerBI.
• Certifications and experience managing databases in Azure or AWS cloud architectures, particularly involving migrations to the cloud.
• Experience implementing best practices for automation to streamline operations and improve efficiency.

Physical Activities/Working Conditions

The position requires the employee to:

• Spend a majority of time using office equipment including personal computer, keyboard and mouse.
• Interact frequently with others via video chat, in person, over the phone, and via email and other devices.
• Occasionally work outside normal business hours, including early mornings, nights and weekends.

To apply for this position, please complete the employment application (PDF) and send it with a cover letter and resume to recruitment@studentloan.org

ISL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or veteran status.