Senior Information Systems Analyst (Operational Technology)

San Diego County Water Authority•Escondido, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Information Systems Analyst (Operational Technology) plays a critical role in supporting the Water Authority’s mission of delivering a safe and reliable water supply to the San Diego region. As part of the Operations & Maintenance Department, this position leads the design, implementation, maintenance, and protection of the Water Authority’s Operational Technology (OT) environment including control system networks, physical and virtual servers, virtualization platforms, field communication systems, and other infrastructure supporting Industrial Control System (ICS) operations. Building on the advanced-level responsibilities of the Senior Information Systems Analyst (Operational Technology) classification including performing complex systems analysis, administering and securing large, specialized systems, and ensuring the integrity of mission-critical networks. This role focuses on the unique technical and cybersecurity needs of OT environments throughout the Water Authority’s treatment, transmission, and monitoring systems. This position serves as the technical lead for OT architecture, cybersecurity, and system reliability. It collaborates closely with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, and field staff to design and maintain resilient control system infrastructures across geographically distributed facilities. Key responsibilities include improving system performance, implementing high-availability and disaster-recovery strategies, enhancing system hardening, and ensuring compliance with cybersecurity standards applicable to industrial environments. The role also provides essential support to capital improvement projects, integrating new equipment and technologies into the OT ecosystem and ensuring adherence to established standards. This work directly supports the continuity, safety, and security of essential water delivery operations. In addition, this position is responsible for several core OT functional areas: OT Infrastructure Administration – Maintains and optimizes physical and virtual servers, storage systems, networks, and ICS components to ensure stability and performance; administers firewalls, switches, routers, secure remote access, and redundant communication paths to maintain reliable OT connectivity across facilities. Reliability, Redundancy & Disaster Recovery – Implements high-availability strategies, conducts failover testing, and maintains backup and recovery procedures to support operational continuity. Troubleshooting & Optimization – Diagnoses complex issues across hardware, software, networks, and OT systems; implements corrective actions and system enhancements. Documentation & Governance – Maintains detailed system documentation, network diagrams, configuration records, and assists in developing policies for security, reliability, configuration management, and disaster recovery. Cybersecurity & Compliance – Implements ICS-specific security controls (e.g., ISA/IEC standards), manages network segmentation, oversees intrusion detection measures, and ensures compliance with cybersecurity requirements for OT environments.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in information technology, computer science, or a closely related field supplemented by five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in supporting information systems or operational systems.
Formal cybersecurity training specific to OT is highly desired.
A valid California driver's license and the ability to maintain insurability under the Water Authority's Vehicle Insurance Policy.

Nice To Haves

Cisco, VMware, ISA/IEC-62443 Cybersecurity, Security Systems Certified Practitioner (SSCP) or other relevant certifications are desirable.

Responsibilities

Configures, implements and maintains physical and virtual server infrastructure, enterprise virtualization platforms and enterprise storage systems (SAN/NAS).
Performs full lifecycle management for services, storage and network infrastructure, including patching, firmware updates, configuration backups, vulnerability remediation, equipment replacement planning, and performance optimization; Identifies and implements improvements to enhance OT system performance, reliability, maintainability, and cybersecurity.
Implements and maintains hardware, software, and firmware upgrades to meet operational and cybersecurity requirements.
Administers routers, switches, firewalls, secure remote access, and redundant communication paths to ensure reliable OT connectivity across geographically distributed facilities; coordinates with field personnel to troubleshoot communication issues and determines best method for issue resolution.
Performs network design, security, and troubleshooting of overall OT network related problems; conducts network performance monitoring, bandwidth and capacity analysis, and ensures overall OT network reliability.
Implements OT cybersecurity measures consistent with industry standards (e.g., ISA/IEC 62443), including segmentation between Information Systems and OT networks, use of zones and conduits, and ICS-specific hardening.
Configure, implements, maintains, and tests high availability and failover strategies to ensure operational continuity; conducts periodic recovery and failover tests to validate resiliency.
Administers, configures, maintains, and monitors intrusion detection systems (IDS), network monitoring tools, and log aggregation platforms to detect abnormal activity and maintain system security.
Confers with staff from various departments and outside agencies to facilitate upgrades as well as solve program, system, operational, and procedure problems; analyzes problems and recommends corrective action; designs, develops and implements solutions; coordinates system activities.
Monitors platform performance, system logs, and application health to proactively identify and resolve issues affecting reliability or security; implements and maintains OT backup, restore, and disaster recovery processes.
Administers identity and access management; manages and maintains secure active directory integration; and designs, enforces, and audits role-based access control models to ensure users have appropriate access aligned with operational and cybersecurity requirements.
Reviews engineering plans and specifications for new facilities and capital improvement projects; provides guidance and design recommendations to ensure proper integration with OT standards and cybersecurity requirements; recommends hardware and software needs for the new facilities.
Tracks contracts and agreements for software, hardware, support services, and equipment; participates in the procurement processes; coordinates work from vendors, integrators, and contractors to ensure compliance with established OT standards, uptime requirements, and security protocols.
Develops and maintains system documentation, configuration records, network diagrams, and user guides; creates and maintains automated reports for internal and external customers.
Assists with the development, implementation, and enforcement of policies related to network reliability, security, backups, and disaster recovery.
May participate in the design and maintenance of Human Machine Interface (HMI) applications consistent with industry best practices to enhance operator situational awareness and system usability.
May perform testing, commissioning, and startup support for new facilities and control system upgrades while maintaining system reliability and operational continuity.