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Technical Operations Lead


The National Museum of Mathematics is a technologically advanced institution operating in the public eye seven days a week, 364 days a year. The Technical Operations Lead is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the infrastructure that powers the Museum, including networking, servers (internal and public-facing), exhibit control systems, audiovisual systems, and desktop computing environments. He or she is also responsible for the technological aspects of maintaining the Museum’s exhibits, working in conjunction with on-site exhibit technicians. The Technical Operations Lead will play a key role in the process of replacing and updating legacy elements of the Museum’s infrastructure and in expanding the Museum’s facilities both online and offline, which will be a major focus for MoMath going forward.

The ideal candidate is a flexible generalist, with a broad range of experience and the ability to pick up new things quickly. The scale of the Museum’s operations is not giant (two locations, fewer than 100 users, approximately 50 exhibits and related installations); the challenges are less about scale and more about the demands of maintaining a consistent visitor experience in an “always-on,” highly public-facing environment. Expect the work to be varied: your week may include helping end users, working with exhibit technicians to debug a custom-designed exhibit installation, presenting a plan for infrastructure upgrades to senior management, and consulting on the AV setup for a new evening program. You should be used to taking initiative, prioritizing, and juggling an ever-changing set of demands.

At present MoMath is physically closed with all public events and activities taking place online. Though the majority of the support needed during the closure is for online operations, work is already underway to upgrade and prepare the Museum’s physical infrastructure for a future reopening. This position therefore requires that candidates be either located in the NYC area or willing to relocate within a few months.

You’ll want to be comfortable with most of the following on day one, and confident about becoming proficient in any items on the list that are less familiar to you:

  • Mac OS (used in both desktop and exhibit contexts), Linux (used for servers and some exhibits), and Windows (used in a few legacy server and exhibit contexts)
  • Standard networking technology (routers, switches, firewalls, network-attached storage, VPNs, etc.)
  • Standalone (primarily Linux) and cloud server technologies (AWS, docker, etc.)
  • Basic care and feeding of web servers, databases, and related technologies
  • Audiovisual systems
  • Interaction with users, technicians, and senior management, and managing small teams

The following are “nice to haves.” The more of them you know, or are excited to learn about, the more fun you’ll have in the job, and the more excited we’ll be to see your résumé:

  • Comfort writing scripts and automation tools in Python or Javascript
  • Basic ability to navigate code in C#, Java, and/or ActionScript (most of our exhibits use one or more of these)
  • Familiarity with embedded systems (microcontrollers, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc.)
  • Any electronics design, repair, or troubleshooting experience
  • Mechanical skills (We have exhibit technicians to handle the mechanical aspects of exhibit installation and repair, but it’s always helpful if you’re handy!)

 

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