Senior Systems Engineer

The face of IT is changing quickly. Organizations are challenging IT groups to transform their business. Virtualization and cloud computing have become critical components of business agility and flexibility.

Our customer is seeking a Level 3 Senior Systems Engineer who will work with limited supervision and will be responsible for IT project based initiatives and the resolution of technical issues. The Senior System Engineer will be responsible for effective provisioning, installation/configuration, operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software and related infrastructure. This individual will participate in technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the infrastructure. This individual will ensure that system hardware, operating systems, software systems, and related procedures adhere to organizational values, enabling staff, volunteers, and Partners. This individual will assist project teams with technical issues in the Initiation and Planning phases of new projects. These activities will include the definition of needs, benefits, and technical strategy; research & development within the project life-cycle; technical analysis and design; and support of operations staff in executing, testing and rolling-out the solutions. Participation on projects will be focused on smoothing the transition of projects from inception to operation by addressing operational IT concerns and requirements within the project life-cycle. Organizational or Project Management skills will be a key requirement for this position as the Systems Engineer may at times be called upon to manage IT projects. This individual will be accountable for the following systems: network, security and Microsoft Windows systems that support the infrastructure; Microsoft Windows and Application systems that support Asset Management; Responsibilities on these systems will include systems engineering and provisioning, operations and support, maintenance and research and development to ensure continual innovation.

* The Senior Systems Engineer is an upper level technical position. The incumbent reports directly to the Director of Infrastructure and Operations and will interact daily with professional, management and clerical staff and vendors. * This position will regularly have access to sensitive/confidential information and will be expected to respond to the needs of the agency in a confidential, efficient and timely manner and to provide service of the highest quality following established procedures. **System Administration Engineering and Provisioning** * Engineering of SE-related solutions for various project and operational needs. * Install new / rebuild existing servers and configure hardware, peripherals, services, settings, directories, storage, network devices, etc. in accordance with standards and project/operational requirements. * Install and configure systems to support Enterprise applications or Division applications. * Develop and maintain installation and configuration procedures. * Contribute to and maintain system standards. * Research and recommend innovative, and where possible automated approaches for system administration tasks. Identify approaches that leverage our resources and provide economies of scale. * Play a key role in datacenter projects, including migrating physical and virtual computing assets to run in a virtual environment within a commercial datacenter public or private cloud and then ensure ongoing operation of the assets. * Manage data/voice circuit installation and operation, function as a liaison between the organization and the commercial datacenter and circuit vendor staff and be a point of contact and escalation during normal operations and during outage situations. * Provides end-user consultation and support on PC’s, printers, network hardware and a variety of software. * Provides maintenance of agency E-Mail system, gateways, communications and directories. * Responsible for day to day operations of the Information System Infrastructure, including, but not limited to: Adding users, determining levels of access, monitoring systems and network traffic, creating and overseeing backup procedures. * Additional responsibilities as required. **Operations and Support** * Perform daily system monitoring, verifying the integrity and availability of all hardware, server resources, systems and key processes, reviewing system and application logs, and verifying completion of scheduled jobs such as backups. * Perform regular security monitoring to identify any possible intrusions. * Perform daily backup operations, ensuring all required file systems and system data are successfully backed up to the backup target and data is replicated off site as necessary. * Perform regular file archival and purge as necessary. * Create, change, and delete user accounts per request using centralized services such as Active Directory or LDAP. * Provide Tier III/other support per request from various constituencies. * Investigate and troubleshoot issues. * Function as the primary Information Technology support/point of contact for the HRIS and CODA Financials systems. * Function as the secondary support/point of contact for the following functional areas: Security, firewall, database administration. * Supports remote access for users and sites. * Functions as an escalation path for Tier 1 and 2 Information Technology Staff/contractors and takes ownership of escalated issues. * Repair and recover from network, hardware or software failures. Coordinate and communicate with impacted constituencies. * Create and maintain operational documentation, such as run books or troubleshooting guides. * Able to work a scheduled shift including evening, overnight, weekend shifts/hours and rotating on-call coverage. **Maintenance** * Apply OS patches and upgrades on a regular basis, and upgrade administrative tools and utilities. Configure / add new services as necessary. * Upgrade and configure system software that supports Enterprise applications or Division project / operational needs. * Maintain operational, configuration, or other procedures. * Perform periodic performance reporting to support capacity planning. * Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades, and resource optimization as required. Configure CPU, memory, and disk partitions as required. * Perform data center monitoring and error condition mitigation. * Be available to perform after-hours support and participate in the after-hours on-call rotation.

* Bachelor (4-year) degree, with a technical major, such as engineering or computer science. * Microsoft Systems Administration/System Engineer certifications. * Four to six years system administration experience in lieu of Bachelor degree or Microsoft certifications. * Project Management or organizational skills. * Problem solving ability. * Independent worker as required, with the ability to be a team player. * Interpret and/or discuss information with others, which involves terminology or concepts not familiar to many people; regularly provide advice and recommend actions involving rather complex issues. May resolve problems within established practices. * Provides occasional guidance, some of which is technical and/or project management. * Familiarity with accounting, payroll, and human resource information systems is required. * Must have direct experience in communicating/working with executives, directors, stakeholders and/or other high profile decision makers to identify business goals and transform them into actionable strategies * Excellent customer-facing skills including consensus building at all levels of the organization. * Demonstrated customer service skills, including verbal and written communication – STRONG ownership of the problem including the ability to provide thorough and effective updates to management and clients at the technical and leadership level. * Strong organizational skills with the proven ability to multitask and prioritize tasks balancing large and small projects with support and internal improvement initiatives. * Excellent verbal, communication, analytical and troubling shooting skills. * Ability to diagnose, troubleshoot, obtain results, and provide solutions for a broad range of technical problems. * Must be project-oriented, energetic, positive, patient, passionate, dependable, and good at multi-tasking in a fast-paced environment. * Responsible, able to manage time effectively and work efficiently, both with and without direct supervision.