Cloud Systems Engineer

Firstlight • Albany, NY

75d

About The Position

FirstLight is a premier Telecom and Cloud Provider delivering advanced technology solutions and data center services throughout the Northeast. We are expanding our Engineering team and seeking technology professionals with 5+ years of experience supporting critical IT infrastructure and customers. The ideal candidate will join a tight-knit, customer-focused, highly collaborative engineering team that emphasizes knowledge sharing, skill development, and technical excellence.

Requirements

• Minimum 5+ years of hands-on experience architecting, implementing, and supporting mixed Microsoft and Linus environments including:
• Hands-on experience with hypervisors such as VMware ESXi 7/8, KVM/QEMU, Proxmox, or Xen-preferably in a multi-tenant cloud environment
• Virtualization & multi-tenant isolation (resource pools, clusters, quotas, cgroups, namespaces)
• Storage policy design & enforcement-IOPS limits, thin/thick provisioning, snapshots
• Microsoft Server and Active Directory
• Clustering, replication, and high-availability technologies
• High-performance storage (block, Ceph, object, SAN)
• Working knowledge of PowerShell, Bash, Ansible, CI/CD basics, JSON/YAML
• Application firewalls and load balancers
• IP networking fundamentals: VLANs, VXLAN, subnetting, routing protocols
• MSSQL environments
• Cluster lifecycle management: upgrades, node pools, autoscaling
• Disaster recovery including on-platform backups (Veeam, Zerto, snapshots) and offsite replication
• Knowledge of security, governance, and compliance concepts
• Ability to execute complex projects independently and as part of a team
• Strong attention to detail and excellent organizational abilities
• Clear written and verbal communication skills
• Independent self-starter able to deliver with minimal supervision
• Reliable, collaborative team member who values documentation and mentoring
• Strong desire to continuously learn and apply new technologies
• Ability to distinguish provider responsibility from tenant responsibility
• Commitment to delivering excellent customer service

Nice To Haves

• VMware VCP
• CompTIA Linux+
• Red Hat (RHCSA/RHCE)
• Microsoft, Azure, AWS, or GCP certifications (preferred but not required)
• BA/BS in a relevant field (preferred but not required)

Responsibilities

• Support new and existing VMware, Microsoft, and Linux environments, with a strong focus on Linux
• Troubleshoot and resolve Tier 2 escalations related to VMware, Microsoft, and Linux storage environments
• Maintain, optimize, and troubleshoot OS performance issues while adhering to best practices
• Manage user accounts, PAM, sudo policies, LDAP/IdM, and SAML integrations
• Handle package management and repository mirroring
• Recommend technology upgrades and improvements using industry best practices
• Troubleshoot systemd, journald, and related service issues
• Tune kernel parameters (sysctl, hugepages, network buffers)
• Create and maintain high-quality documentation
• Contribute to excellent customer service, communication, and process adherence
• Support our BraaS, DRaaS, and IaaS offerings

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level