Infrastructure Engineer I

ACT Education•Iowa City, IA

1d•$70,000 - $85,000•Remote

About The Position

The Infrastructure Engineer I is an entry-level role and learning opportunity for someone developing foundational infrastructure engineering and cloud technology skills. Working under the guidance of senior Infrastructure and DevOps engineers, the role helps build, automate, and support cloud-native infrastructure across ACT’s AWS environment. It provides practical experience with Terraform, automated deployment pipelines, and AI-assisted tools for provisioning, patching, monitoring, and troubleshooting infrastructure. The position focuses on cloud infrastructure operations; infrastructure as code and automated deployment; and analysis and continuous improvement. The successful candidate will learn ACT’s cloud infrastructure, storage, backup, monitoring environment, tools, and procedures; complete an automated server build and patch cycle with guidance; and begin triaging routine ITSM alerts and investigating backup failures. Over time, the engineer will contribute to infrastructure, storage, backup, and monitoring operations and progress toward broader participation in AWS infrastructure, automation, platform tooling, and operational improvement. This is a remote position based in the United States. Individuals in the Iowa City area may choose to work on-site or in a hybrid arrangement. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship. The anticipated annual salary is $70,000–$85,000, with the final salary and level determined based on qualifications and relevant factors. The position is not incentive eligible. Occasional off-hour shifts may be needed to support monthly patching weekends.

Requirements

Foundational knowledge of infrastructure, systems administration, technical support, networking, scripting, automation, or cloud technologies.
Experience using or developing scripts with Python, PowerShell, Bash, or similar technologies.
Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code concepts and tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or other automation technologies.
Basic understanding of cloud computing concepts such as compute, storage, networking, security, monitoring, backup, and automation.
Exposure to Windows Server and Linux operating systems and their administration, support, or troubleshooting.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education, training, certifications, and experience.
Basic understanding of backup and recovery concepts, server monitoring, and patch management.
Ability to learn and apply new technologies quickly, including AI-assisted engineering tools and practices that support automation, scripting, and operational efficiency.
Willingness and interest to learn, take initiative, investigate problems deeply, and think creatively when solutions are needed.
Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills, with the discipline to follow runbooks and escalate appropriately.
Ability to troubleshoot server and cloud infrastructure issues involving performance, storage, network connectivity, access, monitoring, backup, and operating system services.
Familiarity with tools and concepts such as PowerShell, Bash, systemd, Windows Event Viewer, package managers, configuration management, and operational runbooks.
Ability to communicate clearly and work effectively with senior engineers and vendors.
Ability to work independently on standard tasks or as part of a larger team on more complex projects.
Ability to work occasional off-hour shifts to support monthly patching weekends.
Authorization to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AWS; exposure to Azure or other cloud platforms is a plus.
Experience with CommVault, AWS Backup, or another enterprise backup platform.
Hands-on experience with AWS services such as EC2, S3, EBS, IAM, CloudWatch, Systems Manager, AWS Backup, and VPC, and related automation tooling.
Experience with Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation, or similar Infrastructure as Code tools for provisioning and maintaining cloud and server infrastructure.
Experience administering enterprise Windows Server and Linux environments, including Active Directory/Group Policy awareness, DNS, PowerShell, shell scripting, vulnerability remediation, virtualization, and automated configuration management.
Experience supporting server, storage, or backup operations in a complex enterprise environment.
Completion of the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate is recommended.

Responsibilities

Monitor backup jobs across ACT’s AWS environment using cloud-native and enterprise backup platforms, and use AI-assisted tools to investigate and resolve failures.
Maintain backup schedules, retention policies, and restore procedures; support recovery requests and audits.
Assist with deploying, configuring, and maintaining monitoring and observability tools, and partner with the monitoring tool administration team on agent health and coverage.
Triage and respond to monitoring alerts routed through ITSM tools, use AI-assisted diagnostics to resolve routine incidents, and escalate more complex incidents appropriately.
Support AWS-native infrastructure management, monitoring, backup, recovery, and automation activities; maintain awareness of Azure concepts for limited hybrid-cloud support.
Assist with building and provisioning cloud infrastructure with Terraform, Ansible, and automated CI/CD pipelines, replacing manual, ticket-driven build processes.
Support and help investigate patching cycles through automated pipelines and scripts to reduce manual patch-weekend effort.
Support Windows Server and Linux systems underlying cloud workloads, including patching, service troubleshooting, log review, filesystem and storage management, access support, and routine health checks.
Maintain and, with guidance, develop reusable Infrastructure as Code modules, automation scripts, and runbooks for server, storage, backup, and monitoring tasks.
Use AI-assisted engineering tools to support infrastructure automation development, troubleshooting, diagnostics, and documentation.
Identify recurring issues, manual toil, and gaps in infrastructure, deployment, and patching processes; recommend automation, AI-assisted tools, or pipeline improvements.
Research and evaluate tools and automation approaches for backup, monitoring, and server management with senior engineer guidance, and recommend adoption when they improve reliability or reduce manual effort.
Document standard operating procedures and contribute to the team’s knowledge base as processes are automated.
Learn ACT’s cloud infrastructure, storage, backup, and monitoring environment, tools, and standard procedures; complete a first automated server build and patch cycle under guidance; and begin independently triaging routine ITSM alerts and investigating backup failures.
Progress toward broader engineering participation in AWS infrastructure, automation, platform tooling, and operational improvement beyond day-to-day server support.