System Administrator

University of Washington•Seattle, WA

7d•Onsite

About The Position

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. By being deeply invested in our work, showing compassion in our interactions, and embodying the spirit of a team player, each member contributes to a thriving community. 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. University of Washington is at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge technologies to transform education, research and healthcare. UW Information Technology (UW-IT) is the central IT organization for the University of Washington, collaborating with partners across the University community to advance teaching, learning, innovation and discovery. UW-IT delivers critical IT services and support to all three campuses, UW medical centers and global research operations. Innovation and discovery are at the heart of what UW-IT does and drive the work in advancing the University of Washington's role and mission. We are seeking a skilled and detail-oriented System Administrator to support and advance the university's enterprise service management capabilities across all campuses and major administrative units. This role is pivotal in ensuring the stability, scalability, and continuous improvement of the Service Management, enabling efficient service delivery, workflow automation, and operational transparency across the institution. The System Administrator will collaborate with campus stakeholders, IT teams, and business units to manage platform configuration, integrations, and structured release cycles (including Jira-based release management), while promoting governance, security, and best practices. The System Administrator role will work within Service Management and AI Platform team under the UW's IT infrastructure Umbrella that provides critical technology support to all three campuses, UW Medicine, and research operations around the world.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Business Information Systems, or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
3 years minimum experience required.
3+ years of hands-on experience administering or configuring the ITSM Platform (i.e. ServiceNow)
3+ years hands-on experience administering or configuing SDLC applications (i.e. Jira)
Demonstrated experience with ITSM modules (Incident, Problem, Change, Service Catalog).
Experience using Jira for release management, backlog tracking, sprint coordination, and change documentation.
Strong understanding of platform governance, update sets, and release management practices.
Experience with identity and access management concepts and role-based access control.
Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.

Nice To Haves

ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA) certification.
Additional ServiceNow certifications (e.g., CAD, CIS-ITSM, CIS-HRSD, CIS-SPM).
Experience in higher education or public sector IT environments.
Experience with CMDB design, discovery tools, and asset lifecycle management.
Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and ITIL best practices.
Experience leading structured release cycles using Jira in an enterprise environment.
Experience supporting enterprise-scale ServiceNow instances (10,000+ users).

Responsibilities

Administer and maintain the ServiceNow platform, including user access, roles, groups, ACLs, and instance configurations.
Configure and support core modules such as ITSM (Incident, Problem, Change), Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, CMDB, and Asset Management.
Manage instance upgrades, patches, and release management in alignment with ITSM Platform release cycles and UWIT Change Management Process.
Coordinate platform releases using Jira for backlog management, sprint tracking, release planning, change documentation, and deployment visibility.
Maintain release calendars, document release notes, and ensure alignment between SDLC application epics/stories and ITSM Platform update sets.
Provide support the implement of the integrations between ITSM Platform and enterprise systems (e.g., identity systems, ERP, HRIS, monitoring tools) using REST/SOAP APIs, web services, and IntegrationHub.
Support single sign-on (SSO) and identity integrations (e.g., Entra ID/Active Directory).
Collaborate with developers and business analysts to translate requirements into scalable ITSM Platform solutions.
Work closely with development teams to ensure SDLC application-tracked enhancements are properly tested, documented, and promoted through development, staging, and production environments.
Develop reports, dashboards, and performance analytics to support operational and executive decision-making.
Provide initial support for workflows, business rules, UI policies, client scripts, Flow Designer automations, and catalog items.
Implement and maintain platform governance standards, including naming conventions, update set management, and development lifecycle controls.
Enforce structured change and release governance processes in coordination with Change Management and SDLC application workflows.
Ensure proper role-based access control (RBAC), data segregation, and adherance to university security policies.
Support compliance with institutional policies and regulatory requirements (e.g., FERPA, data governance standards).
Conduct platform audits and remediate findings in collaboration with Information Security teams.
Monitor system performance, usage trends, and platform health metrics; implement optimization strategies as needed.
Evaluate new ITSM Platform features, plugins, and modules for institutional adoption.
Identify opportunities to automate manual processes using Flow Designer and low-code capabilities.
Track release metrics, deployment success rates, and backlog trends using Jira reporting to drive continuous improvement.
Support expansion of ITSM Platform capabilities beyond ITSM (e.g., HR Service Delivery, Customer Service Management, Strategic Portfolio Management).
Keep abreast of vendor communications and scheduled maintenances.
Serve as the primary technical contact for ITSM Platform issues and enhancements.
Collaborate with IT, HR, Finance, Facilities, and other university departments to gather requirements and improve workflows.
Develop and maintain technical documentation, configuration standards, release documentation, and administrative runbooks.
Provide training and guidance to platform users, service owners, and junior administrators.