Information Technology System Administrator

State of Illinois•Springfield, MO

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The System Administrator administers and maintains the State Board of Elections’ IT infrastructure and cloud services, ensuring the stability, security, and performance of core systems, including servers, networks, storage, and enterprise applications. Under the general supervision of the Information Technology Operations Team Lead, the role focuses on proactive system management and enterprise platform administration, and collaborates with executive staff, agency directors, the CIO, Deputy CIO, and vendors on specialized technologies. The position manages and supports a broad range of Microsoft, Azure, network, virtualization, storage, monitoring, and enterprise services. It administers firewall policies and segmentation across cloud and on-premises environments, supports security and incident-response activities, and investigates website issues with the Information Security Team and hosting vendor. The role installs and upgrades virtual servers, maintains virtual templates and configurations, assists with complex technical issues, and works with the Department of Innovation and Technology on routing and connection issues. Additional duties include supporting voter-registration vendor needs; tracking inventory and surplus; maintaining smart boards and telepresence devices; configuring file shares; assisting with vulnerability mitigation; documenting infrastructure; supporting SQL access and connectivity, SQL high-availability/failover clusters, and data sharing with the Secretary of State; and troubleshooting server, hardware, application, and email issues. Other duties may be assigned when reasonably within the scope of the role.

Requirements

Knowledge, skill, and mental development equivalent to completion of four years of college, supplemented by five years of professional experience as a system administrator in a Microsoft Azure hybrid or fully converted Azure cloud environment and managing an Office 365 tenant.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with agency officials, associates, vendors, clients, and election authorities.
Ability to coordinate the activities of lower-level technical staff to achieve desired results.
Knowledge and experience managing and maintaining Windows 11, iOS, SQL Server, Windows Server 2019 or later, network setup and maintenance, network security and firewalls, DNS, DHCP, and VPNs.
Experience with Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Microsoft Teams Calling, and Google Cloud technologies.
Ability to write scripts and code, such as PowerShell, Power Automate, or low-code technology.
Understanding and maintenance of computer hardware components and Dell, Lenovo, and HP printers; Surface Pro devices; iPads; and Cisco and Meraki network switches and access points.
Ability to implement security best practices, monitor for threats, and manage patching.
Ability to manage user permissions, accounts, and group policies in Active Directory.
Familiarity with virtual technologies such as VMware and Azure Virtual environments.
Problem-solving, multitasking, communication, time-management, documentation, customer-service, and follow-up skills.

Nice To Haves

Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) certification.
Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900) certification.
Certified Azure Administrator (AZ-104) certification, highly desired.
Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700) certification, highly desired.

Responsibilities

Administer and maintain Microsoft Exchange Online, network settings, IIS, Microsoft Teams calling, Active Directory/Entra ID, DNS, DHCP, RADIUS, ticketing systems, network appliances, server firmware and operating systems, Nutanix clusters, VMware, Group Policy Objects, Cisco Meraki, Citrix NetScaler, VPN, SAN, FTP, Microsoft 365 including Copilot, domain controllers, monitoring services, and Azure.
Serve as the subject matter expert on infrastructure monitoring software.
Administer firewalls, manage rule sets, policies, and segmentation in cloud and on-premises environments, review rules for compliance, monitor traffic logs, assist with security incident response, and follow agency information-security policies and standards.
Create access-control policies for switches as needed.
Investigate, troubleshoot, and repair website issues in collaboration with the Information Security Team and Cloudflare.
Install and upgrade virtual servers, create new virtual servers, maintain virtual templates, and configure virtual networks, playbooks, and baselines.
Assist the IT Operations Team Lead with technical and vendor issues and help Level II technicians resolve complex issues.
Work with the Department of Innovation and Technology to resolve routing and connection issues affecting the State Board of Elections and its customers.
Assist the IT Operations Team Lead with voter-registration department vendor needs and support calls.
Assist with inventory tracking and surplus; maintain smart boards and telepresence devices, including Teams Webinar and Teams Town Hall.
Install, configure, and troubleshoot file shares and services; assist with vulnerability mitigation; and create and maintain documentation and infrastructure diagrams.
Assist the Deputy CIO and DBA with SQL Server access and connections; troubleshoot server operating-system, hardware, and application-connectivity issues beyond Tier 2; and help maintain and document SQL high-availability/failover clusters.
Maintain the data-sharing connection with the Secretary of State and troubleshoot email issues while the environment is in a hybrid state.
Perform other duties as required or assigned that are reasonably within the scope of the listed duties.

Benefits

Competitive group insurance benefits, including health, life, dental, and vision plans.
Flexible work schedules when available and dependent upon position.
10–25 days of paid vacation annually, with 10 days for the first year of state employment.
12 days of paid sick time annually, carried over year to year.
Three paid personal business days per year.
13 paid holidays per year.
12 weeks of paid parental leave.
Pension plan through the State Employees Retirement System.
Voluntary Deferred Compensation Program supplemental retirement plan.
Optional pre-tax Medical Care Assistance Plan (MCAP) and Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP).
Tuition Reimbursement Program.
Eligibility for the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.