Senior Email Engineer

University of Washington Medical Center•Seattle, WA

1d•$97,080 - $157,764•Hybrid

About The Position

Position Purpose: As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state, and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world. UW is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, your experiences, perspectives, and unique identities will be honored at the University of Washington. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable, and welcoming. UW Information Technology (UW-IT) is the central information technology organization for the University of Washington, responsible for strategic planning, oversight, and direction of the UW’s IT infrastructure, resources, and services. UW-IT provides critical technology support and centralized or shared services to all three campuses, UW medical centers, and research operations around the world. UW-IT partners with the UW community to enable innovation, learning, discovery, and service. The Infrastructure division provides system design, architecture, administration, software engineering, and operational support for academic systems, administrative systems, and research computing. The Infrastructure division of UW-IT delivers the technology infrastructure required to sustain UW as a leading research, teaching, learning, and academic medical institution. These technologies support the UW’s core mission at all levels – research, teaching, learning, healthcare, and the necessary underlying administrative and operational functions required to deliver these services. The Senior Email Engineer will support the Email Infrastructure service at the University of Washington. This position requires a team-oriented IT professional, experienced in implementing, managing, and supporting email systems and infrastructure at scale. Position Complexities: The Senior Email Engineer plays a critical role within the Email Infrastructure Services team, responsible for the architecture, administration, and operational integrity of enterprise-scale email systems at the University of Washington. This includes the end-to-end management of Proofpoint security solutions and core centralized mail transport systems that collectively process over 5 million messages daily and support a distributed user base exceeding 700,000 email identities. These systems form the backbone of the University’s email communication and cybersecurity posture, providing essential services such as message routing, threat detection, policy enforcement, and delivery assurance. This role demands advanced proficiency in managing and customizing mail transfer agents (MTAs), specifically through deep expertise in Sendmail—including the m4 macro processing language—and Postfix, enabling the engineer to design, optimize, and troubleshoot complex mail flows across a dynamic and high-availability environment. Position Dimensions and Impact to the University: This position supports critical services and infrastructure integral to the operation of administrative, research, and teaching functions of the University. The quality of the work performed by this position has an effect on the quality of the IT platform services provided to the University and its extended community. These services support 80 incoming email domains and over 700K email addresses, enabling faculty, staff, and students to carry out the mission of the University.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in computer science or a related field or equivalent experience and minimum of 4 years' experience managing and maintaining Proofpoint .
Experience troubleshooting email deliverability issues
Experience in managing and maintaining email servers using Sendmail on Linux, and experience with the m4 macro language.
Demonstrated knowledge of IETF email-related RFCs, including SMTP, SPF, DKIM, DMARC,
Knowledge of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) practices
Knowledge of various regulatory and compliance requirements, such as FERPA, HIPAA, and GLBA.
Demonstrated ability to learn quickly and apply new technologies
Demonstrated excellent written/oral communication skills, technical documentation skills, user liaison skills, and personal interaction abilities

Nice To Haves

Experience with Microsoft Exchange
Experience with Postfix
Experience working with email systems in trusted environments, such as Microsoft GCC High
Experience with Perl, Python, or shell scripting to facilitate automation and streamline operations
Experience with project or task tracking tools (e.g. JIRA, Trello, Asana, Planner, Smartsheets).
Familiarity with ITIL service management practices.
Prior experience in a research university or other academic institution

Responsibilities

Implement, and sustain enterprise-grade email systems leveraging open-source platforms such as Sendmail and Postfix to ensure high availability, performance, and reliability.
Provide advanced administration and support for Proofpoint security tools, including POD, EFD, TRAP/CLEAR, DLP, PSAT, and SER, ensuring robust email protection and compliance.
Continuously monitor Proofpoint and related mail system queues to proactively detect, diagnose, and remediate email delivery anomalies.
Serve as a subject matter expert for Tier 3 escalation and engineering-level support requests, delivering expert-level resolution and guidance.
Lead incident response efforts for email-based threats, including spam, phishing, and malware attacks, applying best practices in threat mitigation.
Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of core Internet mail standards and protocols, including SMTP, DMARC, DKIM, and SPF.
Analyze and interpret system logs for error diagnosis, message tracing, and delivery assurance; provide expert support for complex mail flow issues.
Design, develop, and maintain automation scripts and tools to streamline email delivery workflows, monitoring, alerting, and performance tracking.
Consult with university stakeholders to design and implement tailored email infrastructure solutions aligned with institutional needs and security policies.
Maintain and monitor enterprise email services in alignment with defined service level agreements (SLAs), ensuring consistent system performance and uptime.
Generate and deliver system utilization metrics, performance reports, and operational dashboards.
Participate in an on-call rotation to provide 24/7 support coverage.
Lead incident management and service restoration efforts in accordance with UW-IT protocols and response targets.
Investigate and resolve complex infrastructure issues, contributing to ongoing service improvements and root cause analysis.
Maintain a comprehensive knowledge base of known issues and workarounds to expedite resolution times.
Support the development and execution of disaster recovery strategies and contingency plans.
Drive continuous improvement by developing and refining system documentation, runbooks, and technical procedures.
Provide expert technical consultation to internal customers, project teams, and campus partners regarding email infrastructure integration and optimization.
Ensure solution architecture aligns with UW-IT standards and enterprise integration practices.
Represent email infrastructure services in meetings, workshops, and technical forums, both in-person and online.
Actively participate in relevant industry groups, working groups, and professional communities to remain informed of emerging trends and best practices.
Fulfill required administrative responsibilities, including project documentation, status reporting, and compliance activities.
Contribute to team and organizational meetings, offering insights and feedback for continuous improvement.
Engage in ongoing professional development to maintain and enhance technical and leadership capabilities.
Represent the University of Washington in external conferences, symposiums, and collaborative initiatives.
Perform additional duties as assigned to support departmental and institutional goals.
Serve as a technical and strategic point of contact for the team, providing guidance, mentorship, and oversight on complex projects and initiatives.
Lead the design, implementation, and optimization of systems and services, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and industry best practices.
Coordinate cross-functional collaboration, manage priorities, and drive continuous improvement efforts.
Represent the team in meetings with stakeholders, contributing to planning, decision-making, and issue resolution.
Develop and deploy new email security software as well as upgrade and modernize existing email infrastructure.
Lead the engineering team in developing solutions and architecting the future state of the service while helping to maintain the email infrastructure service in its current iteration.