Systems Administrator Lead

Bardel Entertainment•Vancouver, BC

1d•CA$100,000 - CA$125,000

About The Position

The Systems Administrator Lead is a senior, hands-on technical role responsible for the design, implementation, and operation of core infrastructure services across systems, security, firewalls, storage, backup, and container platforms. This role supports both on-premises and cloud environments and plays a critical part in maintaining reliable, secure, and scalable infrastructure for an Animation and VFX production environment. This position emphasizes technical leadership and ownership rather than formal people management. While prior people management experience is beneficial, it is not required. The successful candidate will lead through technical expertise, operational excellence, and collaboration.

Requirements

Minimum 5 years of experience in an Animation or VFX Studio environment
Strong hands-on experience with: Linux systems administration
Windows Server administration
Enterprise storage and backup solutions
Firewall and network security management
Practical experience operating Kubernetes and containerized environments
Experience supporting hybrid infrastructure (on-prem and cloud)
Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and operational skills
Ability to manage multiple priorities in a production-driven environment

Nice To Haves

Previous experience acting as a technical lead or mentor
People management experience (beneficial but not required)
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Infrastructure as Code and automation tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
Experience supporting secure content environments and client delivery requirements

Responsibilities

Design, deploy, and maintain Linux and Windows Server environments in production settings
Ensure high availability, performance, and reliability of infrastructure supporting production pipelines
Act as a senior escalation point for complex systems issues and outages
Contribute to infrastructure planning, lifecycle management, and modernization initiatives
Experience with - VMware vSphere, Horizon, vCenter, Teradici PCoIP
Networking fundamentals - TCP/IP, VLANs, subnetting, DNS, DHCP, routing, firewalls, QoS
Scripting and automation — PowerShell (PowerCLI), Bash, Python. Infrastructure-as-code tools Puppet, Ansible
Design, manage, and maintain firewall and network security configurations
Implement and enforce security best practices, access controls, and segmentation
Partner with security stakeholders to support compliance, auditing, and client security requirements
Identify and remediate infrastructure security risks
Design and operate enterprise storage solutions (on-prem and cloud-based)
Own backup, disaster recovery, and restore processes
Ensure data integrity, availability, and performance for production workloads
Regularly validate backup and recovery procedures
Design, deploy, and operate Kubernetes clusters in on-prem and cloud environments
Support and maintain containerized services used by pipeline, infrastructure, and internal platforms
Implement best practices for container security, networking, scaling, and monitoring
Collaborating with Pipeline and Development teams to optimize container-based workflows
Serve as a technical lead and subject matter expert for systems and infrastructure
Establish standards, documentation, and operational procedures
Mentor and support other Systems Administrators
Collaborate cross-functionally with Pipeline, Security, and Production teams