Lead Systems Administrator

The Systems Administrator Lead provides technical and leadership oversight for the administration of servers, operating systems, and core infrastructure services that support missioncritical operations in a federal IT environment. The role directs daytoday systems administration activities across Windows, Unix, Linux, and virtualization platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, and security for onpremises and cloud workloads. The Systems Administrator Lead coordinates ITILaligned incident, problem, and change management processes, leads planning and execution of upgrades and patch cycles, and mentors junior administrators while enforcing documentation and compliance standards. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Administer and optimize enterprise server platforms across Windows Server, Linux distributions, and virtualization technologies such as VMware, ensuring capacity, performance, and resilience. • Implement standardized build configurations, automation scripts, and configuration management practices to streamline provisioning and reduce configuration drift. • Lead troubleshooting and rootcause analysis for complex operating system, virtualization, and infrastructure issues affecting missioncritical services, driving permanent fixes for recurring problems. • Coordinate with change management to plan and execute patching, upgrades, maintenance windows, and lifecycle management activities with minimal service disruption. • Implement and monitor systemlevel security controls, including hardening, access management, vulnerability remediation, and logging, in collaboration with cybersecurity teams. • Oversee monitoring and alerting for systemlevel events, ensuring timely incident response and alignment with incident and problem management processes. • Develop and maintain comprehensive system documentation, including build guides, configuration records, inventories, topology diagrams, and recovery procedures to support audits, compliance, and continuity. • Lead and mentor systems administration staff, providing technical guidance, enforcing standards, and supporting professional development in a highly regulated environment. 

Required Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent relevant work experience. • 8+ years of experience in systems administration for Windows, Unix, Linux, or VMware environments, with several years in a lead or senior capacity. • Candidates must have experience with Sun Solaris administration• Excellent knowledge of relevant operating systems (e.g., Windows Server, Red Hat, CentOS) and virtualization technologies (e.g., VMware vSphere, ESXi) in enterprise environments. • Proficiency in scripting languages such as PowerShell, Bash, or Python, and experience with system monitoring, patch management, and performance tuning. • Strong troubleshooting, problemsolving, communication, and teamwork skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and coordinate across infrastructure, network, and security teams. • Familiarity with ITILaligned practices for incident, problem, and change management in support of missioncritical services. • Candidates must have a current secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Advanced platform certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Windows Server, RHCSA/RHCE, or VMware Certified Professional (VCP). • Experience leading systems administration teams or mixed onpremises and cloud infrastructure operations in defense or other highly regulated environments. • Experience with regulatory and data security best practices applicable to federal IT environments.

#cjpost