Principal Systems Administrator

Markon

2d•$170,000 - $210,000

About The Position

Markon is seeking an experienced System Administrator to support the day-to-day operations of the Sponsor’s laboratory computing environment. The selected candidate will be responsible for maintaining secure, reliable, and high-performing laboratory computer systems and infrastructure. This role includes system installation, configuration, maintenance, performance monitoring, security management, and troubleshooting across a mixed operating system environment. The System Administrator will work closely with engineering teams, cybersecurity personnel, and other IT staff to ensure operational continuity and compliance with organizational policies and procedures.

Requirements

Active TS/SCI w/ Polygraph
Demonstrated experience administering Linux/UNIX and Windows operating systems.
Experience with system administration scripting languages such as Shell, PowerShell, Python, Perl, or similar.
Knowledge of distributed and clustered computing environments.
Experience with cloud computing and virtualization environments.
Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills for hardware and software issues.
Experience with system monitoring, resource management, and system logging.
Familiarity with configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Puppet).
Experience supporting Active Directory environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in laboratory, research, or high-performance computing environments.
Experience with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines.
Familiarity with security compliance auditing and vulnerability scanning tools.
Experience supporting enterprise storage and backup systems.

Responsibilities

Provide day-to-day operational support for laboratory computer systems and network infrastructure.
Respond to inquiries and technical issues related to computer and network operations.
Create, manage, and maintain user and system accounts.
Install, configure, update, and remove system and application software.
Install, configure, maintain, and remove system hardware including servers, workstations, monitors, printers, plotters, scanners, network interface cards, transceivers, and network physical links.
Configure and manage remote hosting and file-sharing protocols such as NFS, NIS, and SAMBA.
Perform system backups and restore files as needed.
Monitor and allocate system resources including CPU, memory, and storage.
Audit system log files and support compliance-related auditing activities.
Diagnose and troubleshoot hardware and software issues.
Document system configurations, maintenance history, and backup activities.
Implement and maintain current system policies, procedures, and operational standards.
Apply operating system updates, security patches, and system upgrades.
Support DevOps processes including Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to improve development and deployment efficiency.
Utilize configuration management tools such as Puppet, Ansible, or similar technologies.
Implement and manage Active Directory services.
Support system security scanning and coordinate with the Information System Security Engineer (ISSE) to report and remediate vulnerabilities.