Senior Systems Engineer- Managed Services
About The Position
Contour Data Solutions seeks a highly motivated Systems Engineer to make an immediate impact in a fast-paced, 24x7x365 environment. As part of the Managed Services Technology Team, you will design, build, and support the server, virtualization, storage, and backup infrastructure that runs proprietary and third-party applications across Windows and Linux. This is a systems-first role: deep, hands-on ownership of virtualization (VMware, with exposure to alternative hypervisors such as Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Proxmox, Xen, or KVM), backup and DR (Veeam and Zerto), and enterprise compute and SAN storage. Automation is central to the work - you will use scripting and infrastructure-as-code tooling to standardize builds, patching, and recovery. You will focus on performance tuning, hardening, design, implementation, and break/fix resolution, and provide both technical and business input into projects. A working knowledge of the surrounding network is expected, but the core of the job is systems engineering.
Requirements
- MSP experience required.
- 5+ years in design, implementation, and support of enterprise systems infrastructure.
- Strong hands-on expertise with VMware (vSphere/ESXi/vCenter) in production environments.
- Strong experience with backup and disaster recovery platforms - Veeam and Zerto (or comparable replication/DR tooling).
- Solid Windows Server and Linux administration, including core services such as Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP.
- Hands-on knowledge of server hardware (e.g., Dell), SAN switching, and SAN storage.
- Proven automation experience - scripting with PowerShell/PowerCLI, Bash, or Python, and familiarity with configuration management or infrastructure-as-code tools such as Ansible or Terraform to standardize and scale operations.
- Understanding of systems and network security best practices and hardening.
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, MIS, or a related field preferred; equivalent work experience accepted.
- Experience with alternative hypervisors such as Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Proxmox VE, Xen, or KVM is a plus.
- Working knowledge of routing and switching, firewalls, and VPNs sufficient to support and troubleshoot the systems environment.
- Familiarity with Cisco, Palo Alto, or Fortinet, and common protocols (TCP/UDP, HTTP/HTTPS, NFS, SMB), is a plus but not the primary focus of the role.
Responsibilities
- Own the day-to-day operation, change control, and maintenance of the systems estate - servers, hypervisors, storage, and backup/DR - including patching, upgrades, builds, replacement, and troubleshooting.
- Serve as an escalation point and mentor to the Contour Operations Center, and manage the ticket queue to ensure all work is handled appropriately.
- Design, build, and administer virtualization environments - primarily VMware vSphere/ESXi (clusters, vCenter, resource pools, HA/DRS, capacity planning), with exposure to alternative hypervisors such as Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Proxmox VE, Xen, or KVM.
- Own backup and disaster recovery using Veeam and Zerto, including replication, failover/failback testing, retention policies, and recovery validation.
- Provision, patch, harden, and maintain Windows Server and Linux systems, including Active Directory, DNS/DHCP, and core platform services.
- Manage SAN storage and SAN switching - provisioning, zoning, LUN/datastore management, performance, and capacity.
- Build and maintain automation for provisioning, patching, configuration, and reporting using scripting and infrastructure-as-code tooling (e.g., PowerShell/PowerCLI, Bash, Python, Ansible/Terraform), reducing manual effort and standardizing repeatable tasks.
- Develop runbooks and scheduled jobs to automate routine maintenance, health checks, and backup/DR validation.
- Monitor system health and resource usage, tuning parameters to improve throughput, stability, and efficiency.
- Create engineering designs that meet business and operational objectives, including business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.
- Define standard designs, templates, and procedures for projects following existing architectures, and develop new patterns where required.
- Provide subject matter expertise across the technology lifecycle - risk, refresh, migration, and retirement.
- Estimate and plan domain activities to feed end-to-end project plans and advise leadership on architecture and infrastructure planning.
- Evaluate and recommend tools with a cost-conscious approach, drawing on industry best practices and prior project executions.
- Manage the ticket queue and lead resolution of complex systems issues across compute, virtualization, storage, and backup.
- Lead or participate in medium-to-high complexity projects and on-call production support.
- Proactively implement procedures to prevent and reduce the severity of outages.
- Perform upgrades and installations alongside application teams and keep asset and time-tracking systems current.
- Be available for 24/7 on-call on a rotating team schedule once onboarded.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Associate degree
