System Administrator – Job DescriptionRole summaryLebanese Alternative Learning (LAL, lal.ngo) is a Lebanese non-profit delivering free K-12 education through Moodle platforms (Tabshoura.com, Lalmoudaress.com) and offline Beekee boxes. The System Administrator keeps this infrastructure reliable, secure and available for teachers, facilitators and learners, including in crisis-affected and low-connectivity settings.
You report to the Head of EdTech and work alongside the IT Support and Automation Officer and the Innovation and AI Specialist.
Key responsibilities
- * Run and maintain our self-managed Linode servers. (Linux with Moodle, Wordpress and internal tools)
- Look after Moodle: LTS-only upgrades, plugin updates, cron, caching and performance tuning, and day-to-day issue fixing.
- Keep backups running (Linode snapshots, database dumps), document the schedule and test restores regularly.
- Secure the platforms: server hardening, UFW firewall rules, Wazuh monitoring, patches and kernel updates, SSL certificates, Cloudflare DNS. Close open security findings.
- Monitor health, respond to incidents and be ready to address them.
- Be able to diagnose an issue, understand it and report it to the CTO.
- Maintain outgoing platform email through the Google Workspace SMTP relay.
- Support Beekee offline boxes (Raspberry Pi / MoodleBox): setup, updates and troubleshooting.
- Protect student data: control database access, never expose personal data, and escalate any suspected breach to the CTO immediately.
- Keep the server inventory, runbooks and credentials handover up to date, and train the team on them.
Requirements Strong critical thinking skills paired with a highly proactive mindset.*
* 2+ years as a Linux system administrator (Ubuntu), with Apache, MariaDB/MySQL and PHP hosting.
* Hands-on experience hosting Moodle (install, upgrade, backup, restore), or a strong ability to learn it fast.
* Solid networking and security basics: DNS, SSL, firewalls, SSH hardening, patching, least-privilege access.
* Bash scripting, cron and systemd.
* Care for child safety and data protection: our learners are minors.
* Pragmatic approach: open-source first, simple setups a team of fewer than 10 can maintain.
* Clear written documentation and teamwork.
* Fluent Arabic and English.
Nice to have
- * Experience with Wazuh or similar monitoring tools.
- Moodle platform management
- Docker, Google Workspace administration, or IOMAD multi-tenant Moodle.
- Raspberry Pi or offline-first deployments.
- Experience in an NGO or EdTech setting.
Details Location: Lebanon [Monot street / 3 to 4 days per week in office + remote]
* Hours: full-time, plus occasional on-call for incidents
* Reports to: Head of EdTech and Innovation
* To apply:* send your CV and a short cover note to [email protected]
