System Administrator

The Database/Middleware Engineer, Mid provisions, configures, and administers enterprise middleware platforms that connect distributed applications and databases in a highly regulated government environment. The role owns day-to-day middleware operations, including monitoring, incident troubleshooting, and performance tuning to maintain stable, secure integrations for mission-critical systems. This engineer leads patching, upgrades, migrations, and decommissioning activities for middleware software while aligning all changes with enterprise security, change management, and lifecycle standards. Key Responsibilities Deploy, configure, and maintain middleware platforms such as enterprise application servers, web servers, and messaging systems, tailoring settings for reliability, scalability, and observability across environments. Monitor middleware performance and availability using logs, metrics, and alerting tools, diagnose complex integration issues, and implement tuning changes to improve throughput and stability. Plan and execute middleware patching, upgrades, and environment migrations, including coordination of maintenance windows, rollback strategies, and post-change validation for mission-critical services. Design and enforce middleware security configurations, including authentication and authorization models, TLS certificates, cipher suites, and secure configuration baselines that align with enterprise and regulatory requirements. Implement and maintain backup and recovery approaches for middleware configurations, scripts, and artifacts, and participate in continuity of operations and disaster recovery exercises. Document and maintain detailed runbooks, architecture and connectivity diagrams, inventories, and lifecycle roadmaps for middleware components to support audit, compliance, and knowledge transfer. Evaluate new middleware products and features, perform proof‑of‑concept implementations, and provide recommendations on standards, patterns, and best practices for enterprise adoption. Coordinate with application teams to support deployments, troubleshoot application‑to‑middleware issues, and optimize connection pooling, thread usage, and resource configuration. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree (BA/BS) in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent relevant work experience. 4–7 years of hands‑on middleware engineering or administration experience supporting production or mission‑critical environments. Strong proficiency with middleware technologies and tools, including monitoring, troubleshooting, patching, migrating, and upgrading middleware environments in multi‑tier architectures. Demonstrated understanding of security standards, best practices, and lifecycle management for middleware applications, including configuration of secure protocols and access controls. Experience documenting and maintaining comprehensive operational procedures, connectivity diagrams, and lifecycle support plans for middleware platforms. Active SECRET security clearance or ability to obtain and maintain clearance as required by the client. U.S. citizenship and willingness to travel less than 10% of the time. Preferred Qualifications Experience administering enterprise middleware stacks such as WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss, Tomcat, or similar platforms in complex, multi‑tier architectures. Familiarity with message‑oriented middleware, integration platforms, or API gateways supporting event‑driven and service‑based architectures. Professional certifications or advanced training focused on middleware administration, integration platforms, or related infrastructure technologies. Prior experience operating in highly regulated or federal IT environments with mature change management, security, and compliance frameworks. Compensation Ranges Compensation ranges for ASM Research positions vary depending on multiple factors; including but not limited to, location, skill set, level of education, certifications, client requirements, contract‑specific affordability, government clearance and investigation level, and years of experience. The compensation displayed for this role is a general guideline based on these factors and is unique to each role. Monetary compensation is one component of ASM's overall compensation and benefits package for employees. EEO Requirements It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies. All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment. Physical Requirements The physical requirements described in "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" above are representative of those which must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. (For example, "light office duties" or "lifting up to 50 pounds" or "some travel" required.) Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with qualifying disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform the primary functions. Disclaimer The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. $78,400 - $129,400 EEO Requirements It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, gender identity, veteran status, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies. All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, veteran status, disability, gender identity, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment. #J-18808-Ljbffr