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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Hadoop Administrator

💰 $95,000 - $150,000

ITBig DataData EngineeringInfrastructureSystems Administration

🎯 Role Definition

Are you a passionate technologist with a deep understanding of the Hadoop ecosystem? We are on the hunt for a skilled and proactive Hadoop Administrator to become the cornerstone of our big data infrastructure. In this critical role, you will be responsible for the entire lifecycle of our Hadoop clusters, from deployment and configuration to performance tuning and security hardening. You will work alongside a talented team of data engineers, data scientists, and analysts, empowering them with a stable, scalable, and highly available data platform. If you thrive on solving complex problems in a distributed environment and want to make a significant impact on a data-driven organization, we want to hear from you!

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Linux / Unix Systems Administrator
  • Database Administrator (DBA)
  • Junior Data Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Senior Hadoop / Big Data Administrator
  • Big Data Architect or Cloud Data Architect
  • Data Engineering Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Data Engineer
  • DevOps / Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
  • Cloud Engineer (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Manage the complete lifecycle of Hadoop clusters, including deployment, configuration, maintenance, and support for production and development environments.
  • Proactively monitor cluster health and performance using tools like Ambari, Cloudera Manager, Grafana, and Nagios, ensuring high availability and reliability.
  • Implement and manage robust backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies for HDFS data and Hadoop ecosystem metadata.
  • Perform comprehensive performance tuning of Hadoop clusters and various components like YARN, Hive, and Spark to optimize resource utilization and job execution times.
  • Administer and enforce cluster security policies and procedures using technologies such as Kerberos, Apache Sentry, Apache Ranger, and Knox Gateway.
  • Plan and execute cluster capacity planning and expansion activities to accommodate growing data volumes and processing needs.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve complex ecosystem-wide issues in real-time, providing timely root cause analysis and implementing preventative measures.
  • Automate repetitive administrative tasks and deployments using scripting languages like Python, Bash, or Perl.
  • Manage and review Hadoop log files and user activity to ensure system integrity and identify potential issues.
  • Install, configure, and upgrade Hadoop ecosystem components and services such as HDFS, YARN, MapReduce, Hive, Spark, HBase, Zookeeper, and Oozie.
  • Onboard new users to the platform, manage resource allocation through YARN queues, and provide essential training and support.
  • Collaborate with infrastructure and networking teams to ensure proper hardware and network configuration for optimal cluster performance.
  • Maintain detailed documentation for cluster configurations, operational procedures, and troubleshooting guides.
  • Apply patches, updates, and hotfixes to the Hadoop distribution and underlying operating systems in a controlled and timely manner.
  • Work closely with data engineering and development teams to optimize their applications and queries for the Hadoop environment.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to assist business stakeholders.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap, evaluating new technologies and methodologies in the big data space.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into technical requirements for the data platform.
  • Participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and other agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist in the migration of data and workloads from traditional systems to the Hadoop platform or from on-premise to cloud environments (AWS EMR, Azure HDInsight, Google Dataproc).
  • Develop and maintain standards for data management, data lifecycle, and data quality within the cluster.
  • Provide on-call support on a rotational basis to address critical after-hours system issues.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep expertise in the Hadoop ecosystem, including HDFS, YARN, MapReduce, Hive, Spark, HBase, Zookeeper, and Oozie.
  • Proven experience with major Hadoop distributions such as Cloudera (CDH/CDP), Hortonworks (HDP), or MapR.
  • Strong proficiency in Linux/Unix administration, including system monitoring, troubleshooting, and shell scripting.
  • Advanced scripting skills using Python, Bash, or Perl for automation, monitoring, and administrative tasks.
  • Hands-on experience with configuration management and automation tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.
  • In-depth knowledge of Hadoop security implementation, including Kerberos, SSL/TLS encryption, Apache Ranger, and Knox.
  • Experience with cluster monitoring tools such as Cloudera Manager, Ambari, Nagios, Ganglia, or Prometheus/Grafana.
  • Familiarity with cloud-based big data services on platforms like AWS (EMR, S3), Azure (HDInsight, ADLS), or GCP (Dataproc, GCS).
  • Strong understanding of networking concepts (TCP/IP, DNS, firewalls) as they relate to distributed systems.
  • Solid knowledge of SQL and experience tuning queries in distributed query engines like Hive or Impala.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a talent for diagnosing complex issues in a distributed environment.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, capable of clearly documenting procedures and explaining technical concepts to diverse audiences.
  • Excellent collaboration and teamwork skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
  • High degree of self-motivation, ownership, and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
  • Meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to producing high-quality, reliable work.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in a relevant technical field or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in a relevant field or professional certifications (e.g., Cloudera Certified Administrator, AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology
  • Software Engineering
  • Data Science

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3-7 years of hands-on experience in Hadoop administration or a closely related role.

Preferred:

  • Experience managing large-scale, multi-tenant production clusters (over 100 nodes).
  • Demonstrable experience in migrating on-premise Hadoop clusters to a cloud platform.
  • Experience in a hybrid cloud environment.
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