Support Engineer for ISC BIND and Kea DHCP

Mission:

Provide timely, accurate, and helpful 3rd level technical support for ISC's major open-source software systems. Support is primarily provided via email, but can also include video or audio calls.

ISC funds the development of open-source software by selling technical support subscriptions.  We currently support 140 organizations in using our open-source successfully. Our support customers are mostly experienced and capable UNIX/LINUX system administrators or network engineers at ISPs, enterprises, and universities who have chosen to use open source for their networking applications. They need advice on best practices, configuration reviews, performance tuning suggestions, help in troubleshooting subtle issues, and help in confirming bugs and getting them fixed. Not infrequently, our support users have questions or problems that require testing to reproduce the problem or to verify a solution. This testing could result in a solution for the user, or in the identification of a specific bug or requirement for development. 

We are a relatively small team (currently 5 support engineers), so we need to be efficient and flexible.  For this position, we need someone who can work during US / Eastern business hours.  

Support Tasks:

• Work directly with ISC's customers, providing them with accurate and prompt technical support for supported products within their contracted response time frames during the work day, and at other times when on call. Manage customer expectations.
• Take on-call shifts as assigned. We promise fast response to important customers, and to deliver that fast response, someone must always be on call and available.
• Reproduce problems reported by customers and open issues to track remediation of software defects. 
  
• Attend regular meetings with Software Engineering to keep them aware of problems that customers are having. Represent our customers to Software Engineering.
• Stay current: when ISC software gets new features or relevant new RFCs are published, learn them and become an expert.
• Take turns managing the process of reporting security bugs to customers who pay for notification in advance of public announcement. Know the process and be prepared to take the lead when it's your turn.
• Protect the confidentiality of customer information.

Support Functions:

• Write technical articles and optionally give occasional talks on ISC's open source software.
• Provide input to requirements for new features and prioritization of fixes.
  
• Take turns supporting the overall company software release process.
• Optionally monitor ISC's public mailing lists in which our products are discussed.
• Provide pre-sales technical assistance when requested by Sales.
• Back up other parts of the company when your skills match their needs.

Working conditions: 

ISC offers a flexible, supportive working environment and generous benefits. US staff accrue 4 weeks of paid time off per year increasing to 5 weeks after 5 years of service, non-US staff accrue 5 weeks per year. All staff accrue 6 weeks of paid time off annually after 10 years of service.  ISC recognizes a number of paid holidays, these vary by country to include the usual local holidays.  US staff have a generous health insurance benefit, heavily subsidized by ISC and all full-time staff get up to 12 weeks of paid family/sick leave.

This is an on-call position; the candidate must be available via phone or pager 7x24 when on call. On-call shifts rotate amongst support engineers. Each person is on call for evenings and weekends 1 week out of 5 or 6.

You will work as a member of a geographically dispersed team; this is a work-from-home job (must have fast and reliable internet service with no data limits).  Some travel required, such as in-person company meetings. Other occasional optional travel to technical conferences such as DNS-OARC.

Please note that we rely heavily on your responses to the technical screening questions to evaluate candidates for interviews. 

Minimum requirements

• Some experience in technical support of, or system administration of *NIX systems (Unix/BSD/Linux). 
• Some experience configuring and operating BIND.
• Some experience working directly with internal or external customers.
  
• Vital Skills: Must be able to compile source code, and build systems from tarballs. Must have familiarity with internet standards and protocols, especially DNS, DHCP, and TCP/IP, and be able to stay current as internet protocols evolve. Spoken and written English at the conversational level is essential.
• Self-motivation and self-control when working from home.

Valuable additional qualifications

• Familiarity and experience with GitLab are useful. We use Gitlab for development and issue tracking. Experience in using another version control system is also relevant. 
  
• Knowledge of C, C++, Perl, sh/bash, and/or Python will be useful. BIND is written in C and Kea in C++, and the ability to read and understand code is very helpful.
• An understanding of practical basic networking as pertains to Internetworking is useful.
• Extensive knowledge of DNS (preferably BIND), DHCP, and Unix/Linux.

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Educational Requirements

Adequate experience in a scientific or technical subject, this can include relevant coursework.

Location

Anywhere. This position is suitable for home working and for a person with children.  Although ISC is located in the United States, most of ISC's staff work from their homes throughout the world.

We want to be as inclusive as possible in our hiring process. If you don’t have 100% of what we’re looking for, but feel like you’re pretty close to growing into the role — please still apply. If a candidate has only 80% of the skills but a fantastic attitude and perspective, they might be the perfect fit.  We value the unique perspectives and contributions of all individuals and we strive to foster a diverse and inclusive culture. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds.

To learn more about ISC and its critical role in the Internet community, visit https://www.isc.org.

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Privacy Notice

The relevant ISC group hiring company manages personal data (PII) that you submit and that we collect in respect of your job application (normally Internet Systems Corporation, a Delaware company with its principal place of business in New Hampshire, USA). Job application data management and analysis are managed for us by a third-party data processor in the USA. Our HR staff and other staff members located worldwide who are involved in reviewing applicants will be provided with access to this data. We will hold this data so long as the position remains open to evaluate your candidacy, and we will retain it for a reasonable amount of time after the job closes for purposes of quality control and to enable us to contact you again if we feel another position might be of interest to you. You will have the option to request deletion of data that you submit anytime during or after your candidacy.