IT Specialist (SysAdmin)

National Institutes of Health • Montgomery County, MD

5d

About The Position

The NIH is hiring an IT Specialist (Systems Administration) to manage and modernize infrastructure supporting clinical care and research systems at the NIH Clinical Center. The role covers Windows, directory services, virtualization, compute, storage/SAN, and backup and recovery systems. It involves resolving complex technical issues, improving security, reliability, and recovery, using automation to improve operations, and collaborating across NIH to keep essential systems running securely and effectively 24/7.

The position supports mission-critical production infrastructure. The specialist monitors performance, investigates service and availability issues, implements security and lifecycle changes through established change-control practices, and maintains technical and recovery documentation. The position is offered at the GS-11, GS-12, or GS-13 level, with qualifications assessed according to the relevant grade. The work is sedentary, in an adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated work area; occasional travel to meetings or conferences and possible exposure to uncomfortable conditions in research facilities are noted. The position is designated as a Tier 2 non-emergency/teleworker position; in the event of a closure, the employee must be available to telework or request leave.

Requirements

• Meet the U.S. Citizenship or U.S. National requirement by the announcement closing date.
• Successfully complete a background investigation, qualification verification, onboarding forms, required-document submission, and other job-related requirements.
• Meet all qualification requirements, including time-in-grade requirements, within 30 calendar days of the announcement closing date.
• Males born after December 31, 1959 must be registered with the Selective Service.
• Be able to perform the essential duties, with or without reasonable accommodation.
• Demonstrate the four IT competencies through qualifying IT-related experience and/or intensive training: attention to detail, customer service, oral communication, and problem solving.
• For GS-11 by experience: at least one year of qualifying experience equivalent to GS-09, including Windows Server and directory-services support, virtualized server environments and related resources, infrastructure troubleshooting, and systems administration maintenance and security activities. Alternatively, qualify through a relevant doctoral degree, a qualifying doctoral degree with at least 24 semester hours in specified fields, or three full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree.
• For GS-12 by experience: at least one year of qualifying experience equivalent to GS-11, including administration of Windows Server and directory services; virtualized environments and compute, storage, SAN, or backup infrastructure; production infrastructure troubleshooting; and security and lifecycle activities.
• For GS-13 by experience: at least one year of qualifying experience equivalent to GS-12, including independent administration and optimization of production server infrastructure; complex, multi-component infrastructure troubleshooting and root-cause analysis; implementation of infrastructure security requirements; and planning or coordinating major infrastructure changes.

Responsibilities

• Administer and support Windows Server, directory services, virtualization, compute, storage/SAN, and backup and recovery infrastructure supporting NIH Clinical Center clinical care and research systems.
• Monitor system performance and diagnose and resolve infrastructure, availability, interoperability, and service-restoration issues using logs, monitoring tools, diagnostics, and other technical information.
• Strengthen system security through hardening, security baselines, privileged-access management, patching, and vulnerability remediation.
• Plan, test, document, and implement upgrades, migrations, configuration changes, hardware and firmware maintenance, and other system lifecycle activities using established change-control practices.
• Develop and use PowerShell, scripting, and automation to improve repeatability, reduce manual administration, and support efficient infrastructure operations.
• Collaborate with system owners, application teams, support staff, vendors, cybersecurity personnel, and other NIH technical organizations to resolve incidents, coordinate changes, and maintain reliable services and approved interfaces.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, configuration records, operating procedures, implementation steps, and recovery documentation.

Benefits

• Potential salary above the minimum based on superior qualifications or a special Government need, subject to approval.
• Possible service credit for prior qualifying work experience or active-duty uniformed service for annual leave accrual, subject to case-by-case determination.
• Possible recruitment incentive for a newly appointed or reappointed individual, subject to organizational need, justification, and budget limitations.
• Possible relocation incentive for a current federal employee moving from a different geographic location, subject to organizational need, justification, and budget limitations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed