Senior Systems Administrator

Kloud9 IT, Inc.•Cleveland, OH

10h•$90,000 - $110,000

About The Position

The Sr. Systems Administrator (Tier 3) Team Lead serves as a senior technical project resource responsible for designing, implementing, and standardizing client infrastructure environments. This role is focused on new client onboarding, infrastructure design, project execution, technical standards, and scalable implementation practices. The role works closely with the Project Coordinator, Service Delivery Manager, Technical Lead, Client Leads, and client stakeholders to ensure projects are delivered efficiently, securely, and according to Kloud9 standards. In addition, this position provides day-to-day technical leadership and serves as the primary and final internal escalation point for complex tickets assigned to the team. The Team Lead guides Tier 1 and Tier 2 technicians, supports root cause analysis, strengthens documentation and training, and determines when vendor or external escalation is appropriate. Personnel management remains with the designated manager unless otherwise assigned.

Requirements

Senior-level understanding of Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, and endpoint management.
Strong Windows Server, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, virtualization, storage, and backup experience.
Networking knowledge including firewalls, VPNs, VLANs, routing, switching, wireless, and ISP coordination.
Experience designing and implementing secure, supportable client infrastructure environments.
Strong technical documentation, project handoff, and standards development skills.
Ability to translate technical requirements into repeatable project templates and implementation checklists.
Working knowledge of cybersecurity best practices, EDR/XDR, MFA, Conditional Access, vulnerability remediation, and secure configuration standards.
Ability to collaborate with project coordination, service delivery, account management, and technical teams.
Strong leadership and mentoring skills with the ability to guide and develop Tier 1 and Tier 2 technical staff.
Expert-level troubleshooting, root cause analysis, prioritization, and escalation decision-making skills.
Ability to balance project responsibilities with escalated ticket and major incident support.

Nice To Haves

MSP experience in a growing or mature service delivery environment.
Experience with PSA, RMM, documentation platforms, and standardized onboarding workflows.
PowerShell or automation experience.
Experience supporting compliance-driven environments such as CMMC, SOC 2, PCI, HIPAA, or NIST 800-171.
Microsoft, security, cloud, networking, or project-related certifications.
Experience supporting client roadmap planning, project discovery, and technical remediation planning.
Previous technical lead, escalation lead, or senior mentoring experience.

Responsibilities

Design and implement infrastructure solutions for new clients and existing client project work.
Ensure new client environments meet Kloud9 technical, security, documentation, and operational standards.
Design Microsoft 365, Entra ID, server, networking, backup, endpoint, security, and cloud solutions.
Review client environments and recommend remediation plans that improve scalability, security, and supportability.
Support infrastructure upgrades, migrations, refresh projects, and modernization initiatives.
Lead technical onboarding activities for new clients from an infrastructure and systems perspective.
Create, maintain, and improve onboarding templates, deployment standards, and implementation checklists.
Assist in making onboarding infrastructure more efficient, repeatable, and streamlined.
Identify gaps in newly onboarded environments and help prioritize remediation work.
Ensure onboarding documentation is complete and usable by the Service Delivery team after handoff.
Serve as the primary senior technical resource for assigned professional services projects.
Work closely with the Project Coordinator to support project timelines, communication, scheduling, and deliverables.
Provide technical guidance during project planning, discovery, implementation, and handoff.
Identify project risks, dependencies, scope concerns, and technical blockers early.
Maintain clear project documentation, implementation notes, and internal handoff details.
Assist Client Leads with larger projects for current clients.
Support Microsoft 365, server, network, backup, security, and compliance-related client initiatives.
Provide escalation support for project-related technical issues.
Collaborate with Service Delivery and Account Management to align project work with client technology roadmaps.
Serve as the primary and final internal technical escalation point for Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers on complex incidents, service requests, and infrastructure issues assigned to the team.
Provide timely technical direction, coaching, and hands-on support to help technicians move escalated tickets toward resolution.
Review complex or recurring tickets to confirm troubleshooting quality, root cause analysis, documentation, and appropriate resolution methods.
Determine whether an issue should be resolved internally, addressed through training or documentation, or escalated to a vendor or external resource.
Participate in major incident response and help coordinate technical resources for business-critical client issues.
Create and maintain SOPs, troubleshooting guides, knowledge base articles, and technical standards that reduce repeat escalations.
Identify skill gaps and recurring ticket trends, then work with leadership to recommend focused training for Tier 1 and Tier 2 staff.
Support ticket prioritization and communicate technical risks, blockers, ownership, and next steps to the Service Delivery Manager and affected stakeholders.
Provide day-to-day technical leadership while respecting established personnel management, approval, and disciplinary responsibilities.
Develop and maintain standardized project templates, infrastructure build standards, and repeatable deployment processes.
Identify automation opportunities that reduce manual effort and improve project consistency.
Recommend process improvements that help Kloud9 scale as an MSP.
Reduce technical debt by promoting standardized, documented, and supportable client environments.
Contribute to internal standards for compliance-focused environments such as CMMC, SOC 2, PCI, HIPAA, and NIST-aligned controls where applicable.