Description

The Pacific Community (SPC) is the principal scientific and technical organisation in the Pacific region, supporting development since 1947. We are an international development organisation owned and governed by our 27 country and territory members. In pursuit of sustainable development to benefit Pacific people, our unique organisation works across more than 25 sectors. We are known for our knowledge and innovation in such areas as fisheries science, public health surveillance, geoscience, and conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

The Operations and Management Directorate (OMD) provides corporate services to all SPC Divisions and Programmes. It consists of three key departments: Finance, Human Resources and Information Services. OMD is focused on improving the effectiveness of systems, policies and management to provide high-quality customer-oriented services.

The role – the Infrastructure Engineer (Hybrid Cloud) will ensure the availability, scalability, security and strategic alignment of SPC's ICT infrastructure across hybrid cloud and on-premise environments. This role is essential to SPC’s digital transformation, enabling modern, resilient infrastructure platforms that support sustainable development for the Pacific region.

The key responsibilities of the role include the following:

Secure and Resilient Infrastructure Management

• Ensure high system availability across cloud and on-prem environments meeting agreed metrics.

• Maintain disciplined adherence to change and incident management (aligned to ITIL).

• Perform capacity planning and infrastructure lifecycle management.

• Lead patching, vulnerability management and proactive threat mitigation.

• Implement planned maintenance, patching and upgrades ensuring systems are current and unplanned downtime is minimized.

• Manage relationships with vendors and service providers, including proactive and timely escalation to ensure contractual obligations are met and quality of service is delivered.

• Ensure complete and current technical documentation is maintained.

System Administration and Service Delivery

• Manage and prioritize service requests, handle with efficiency and resolved/addressed using effective, systematic troubleshooting and context-appropriate solutions.

• Ensure resolution effectiveness is confirmed with users and/or monitoring systems.

• Acknowledge critical escalations, provide an initial diagnostic, and/or propose a workaround and/or solution.

• Prioritize and resolve support requests using root cause analysis and automation where feasible.

• Maintain service level expectations with systematic incident handling and escalation.

• Drive automation of repetitive administrative tasks.

• Provide clear, consistent and timely communication to relevant stakeholders (including management and users) during incidents, outages and throughout resolution process.

• Work with first-level support to diagnose issues, implement solutions, and document findings in the knowledge base.

• Collaborate with first-level support and mentor junior staff.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

• Manage end-to-end backup and recovery strategy.

• Conduct annual disaster recovery testing and ensure RTO/RPO alignment.

• Continuously improve processes aligned to data protection policies and industry best practices.Maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation for backups, disaster recovery plans, and related processes in a central location.

Infrastructure Design and Innovation

• Lead design and implementation of scalable, secure ICT infrastructure aligned with SPC’s strategic goals.

• Identify and implement solutions that optimise operational efficiency and enable agility.

• Ensure ICT infrastructure is responsive and adapted to the needs of the business.

• Deliver infrastructure projects using DevOps and Infrastructure-as-Code approaches.

• Ensure SPC staff and ICT Support staff are appropriately trained in the use of technology solutions and services delivered by the ICT infrastructure team.

For a more detailed account of the key responsibilities, please refer to the online job description.

Key selection criteria

Qualifications

• Specialized degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or a related field or equivalent body of knowledge and experience

Technical expertise

• At least 7 years of experience in IT Infrastructure roles

• Solid experience working within formal IT Service Management frameworks (e.g ITIL), particularly in Change management and Incident Management processes

• Proven experience in rigorous troubleshooting methodology, root cause analysis (RCA), and resolution confirmation.

• Demonstrated expertise in hybrid cloud infrastructure, systems administration, and networking.

• Experience with DevOps practices and tools, including demonstrated ability to engage effectively with product development teams.

• Experience with server technologies (Windows, Linux), network switching, routing (including dynamic routing protocols), DNS management, firewall configurations and management, virtualization technologies (VMWare HCI), Containerization (Docker), Cloud services (AWS, Azure, Vultr), security technologies

• Experience with managing desktop environments, enterprise storage solutions, VPN configuration and troubleshooting

• Experience with backup and recovery software such as Veeam backup and replication

• Demonstrated experience in managing vendor support tickets and escalations effectively.

• Experience working collaboratively and effectively within geographically distributed teams.

• Demonstrated ability in the provision of user training and support.

• Experience in good customer care, with additional focus on the support of remote users and logistical arrangements, which are common in small Pacific Island countries.

Language skills

• Excellent command of English or French

Interpersonal skills and cultural awareness

• Knowledge of Pacific Island countries and territories is an advantage.

Salary, terms and conditions

Contract Duration – This vacant position is budgeted for 3 years and is subject to renewal depending on funding and performance.

Remuneration – the Infrastructure Engineer (Hybrid Cloud) is a band 10 position in SPC’s 2025 salary scale, with a starting salary range of SDR (special drawing rights) 3,568-4,364 per month, which converts to approximately XPF 521,491-637,777 (USD 4,745-5,804; EUR 4,370-5,345). An offer of appointment for an initial contract will normally be made in the lower half of this range, with due consideration being given to experience and qualifications. Progression within the salary scale is based on annual performance reviews. SPC salaries are not presently subject to income tax in New Caledonia.

Benefits for international staff employees based in New Caledonia – SPC provides subsidised housing in Noumea. Establishment and repatriation grant, removal expenses, airfares, home leave travel, health and life and disability insurances and education allowances are available for eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Employees are entitled to 25 working days of annual leave per annum and other types of leave, and access to SPC’s Provident Fund (contributing 8 % of salary, to which SPC adds a 10% contribution).

Languages – SPC’s working languages are English and French.

Recruitment principles – SPC’s recruitment is based on merit and fairness, and candidates are competing in a selection process that is fair, transparent and non-discriminatory. SPC is an equal-opportunity employer, and is committed to cultural and gender diversity, including bilinguism, and will seek to attract and appoint candidates who respect these values. Due attention is given to gender equity and the maintenance of strong representation from Pacific Island professionals. If two interviewed candidates are ranked equal by the selection panel, preference will begiven to the Pacific Islander. Applicants will be assured of complete confidentiality in line with SPC’s private policy.

How to apply

Application procedure

Closing date: 15 June 2025 – 11:00 pm (Noumea time)

Job Reference: CR000427

Applicants must apply online at http://careers.spc.int/

Hard copies of applications will not be accepted.

For your application to be considered, you must provide us with:

• an updated resume with contact details for three professional referees

• a cover letter detailing your skills, experience and interest in this position

• responses to all screening questions

Your application will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed at shortlisting stage if all the above documents are not provided. Applicants should not attach copies of qualifications or letters of reference. Please ensure your documents are in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.

SPC does not charge a fee to consider your application and will never ask for your banking or financial information during the recruitment process.

Screening questions (maximum of 2,000 characters per question):

1. Describe a situation where poor documentation led to challenges during a system/network change or upgrade. How did you address these challenges, and what steps did you take to improve the documentation practices?

2. You are tasked with the deployment and configuration of new server infrastructure and necessary components to host a critical application for a project. Describe the steps you would take to ensure it is properly configured and secure.

3. Describe a specific instance where a backup job failed. How did you troubleshoot the failure. How do you regularly test and validate your backups to ensure they are reliable in the event of a failure?