Senior Systems Engineer
About The Position
NPR is seeking an experienced, technically rigorous Senior IT Systems Engineer to serve as a primary technical lead for the design, deployment, administration, and optimization of its core virtualized data center infrastructure. The role calls for hands-on expertise in VMware vSphere, enterprise SAN/NAS, and Cisco UCS. The engineer will help ensure enterprise systems’ availability, scalability, performance, and security, while partnering across Technology on infrastructure modernization and automation initiatives supporting NPR’s nationwide public media mission. The position covers data center architecture and storage administration; cloud and hybrid integration; disaster recovery, backups, and business continuity; change management; system documentation; Tier-3 incident escalation and root-cause analysis; and infrastructure automation. The engineer will report system health, participate in a 24x7 incident-response rotation, and work onsite at NPR’s Washington, D.C. facility for a two-week block approximately every two months, as well as for onsite projects as needed. This is a hybrid-permitted, full-time, exempt position.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of dedicated experience as a Systems or Infrastructure Engineer supporting, administering, and troubleshooting systems in an enterprise data center environment.
- Hands-on experience designing and managing complex VMware vSphere environments, including clustering, DRS, HA, and vMotion.
- Extensive experience with Cisco UCS Manager, including service profiles, templates, and physical hardware deployment.
- Strong background configuring and managing enterprise SAN/NAS storage arrays and storage networking protocols.
- At least 2 years of experience planning, designing, and maintaining cloud infrastructure in AWS or Azure.
- Working knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Windows Server 2016 or later, Active Directory, Azure AD, Office 365, IIS, SQL, DFS, DHCP, and DNS.
- Experience creating detailed systems documentation and flow charts.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to manage multiple projects in a high-pressure, collaborative environment.
- Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and a two-week onsite rotation every two months, or as required.
- Expert analytical and troubleshooting skills for resolving complex hardware, software, and performance issues under pressure.
- Deep understanding of networking concepts, including VLANs, routing, switching, LACP, DNS, and DHCP, as they relate to virtualization and server infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of security best practices for data center infrastructure and virtualization platforms.
- Strong project management skills and the ability to lead infrastructure upgrades and migrations independently.
- Self-motivated team player willing to participate in on-call rotations and perform after-hours maintenance.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible or Puppet and automation scripting in PowerShell, Python, or Bash.
- Practical experience managing enterprise SSO/MFA solutions, Exchange Online or hybrid environments, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
- Active professional certifications in VMware (VCP), Cisco (CCNA/CCNP Data Center), Microsoft, or AWS/Azure solutions architecture.
Responsibilities
- Design, deploy, and manage virtualized data center infrastructure, including VMware vSphere environments, Cisco UCS compute platforms, and SAN/NAS storage arrays.
- Perform server builds, security patch management, virtual machine lifecycle administration, and enterprise storage capacity allocation.
- Evaluate systems architecture and hybrid-cloud strategy, and maintain and integrate cloud infrastructure in AWS or Azure.
- Design, maintain, and test business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, including enterprise backups, data replication, and automated site failovers.
- Recommend, test, and implement system enhancements in accordance with organizational change management policies and procedures.
- Create and maintain systems architecture diagrams, standard operating procedures, runbooks, and technical documentation.
- Serve as a senior technical escalation point, identify root causes, and resolve complex production incidents.
- Develop and run automation scripts to streamline administrative tasks, infrastructure provisioning, and systems health reporting.
- Provide timely system-health updates to engineering leadership, manage incident response on a 24x7 rotation, and communicate outage impacts to technical and operational partners.
- Participate in an on-call rotation and a two-week onsite rotation approximately every two months, or as required.
Benefits
- Comprehensive benefits for employees and dependents.
- Access to health and wellness benefits.
- Paid time off.
- Financial well-being benefits.
- Medical, dental, and vision plan options.
- Life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.
- Long-term and short-term disability insurance.
- Voluntary retirement savings.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
