Senior Systems Engineer

Senior Systems Engineer

Location: Columbia MD (Local/hybrid)

Job Type: 6 Month Contract/ Contract to hire

Note: Resource is required to report to work once or twice a quarter and/or as needed, to support data center hardware replacements (replacing failed hardware).

Job Description

Purpose:

Platform Engineering is responsible for the implementation, 24x7 operational support, automation, availability, and performance management of the Client cloud platforms and the on-premise virtualization platforms and virtualization infrastructure.

The candidate is required to support engineering team projects and facilitate technical design discussions as well as troubleshooting activities. This candidate is also responsible to work with multi-disciplined IT technical teams to interface and manage infrastructure, automation, and applications in private and public cloud with a focus on (but not limited to) AIX, VMware and MS Azure. They need to contribute valuably to the evaluation of application and infrastructure cloud readiness, work on cloud migration plans to support on-premise moves/migrations to a cloud service (i.e. IaaS or PaaS) as well as the long-term management of the Cloud infrastructure associated with these applications.

Candidate must have a strong and broad foundational IT skillset including support of Azure server virtualization environments, Linux, and Windows Operating Systems (in both on-prem and cloud deployments), server configurations and baselines (including networking, storage and security principals), automation tools (i.e., Ansible, Terraform, Python or other). The candidate must also have a strong understanding and working knowledge with critical IT services such as Active Directory/Azure Active Directory, DNS, Virtualization (VMware and/or Hyper-V), IaaS, PaaS, Automation, Azure Marketplace.

Responsibilities include working with server teams as well as with other IT teams to collaborate on designing and implementing cloud infrastructure services. This is a highly technical cross-functional role that understands all components of IT infrastructure (operating systems, network, compute, storage, security, etc).

Essential Functions:

• Provide project management over technical aspects of implementing infrastructure projects and major release upgrades for Client largest, most complex and critical systems. Including on-premise and cloud based infrastructure services (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, etc)
• Working knowledge of agile-sprint and traditional waterfall project management methodologies. Ability to track and report on status of projects assigned. Self-motivated and self-reporting. Develop projects and tasks.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplined technical teams to manage and monitor applications in large public and private cloud environments.
• Contribute to the evaluation of application cloud readiness while also working on migration plans and long-term management of applications.
• Work with Architecture to design Cloud platforms to support the highest levels availability, performance, security, and agility.
• Implement cost transparency, disaster recovery and business resiliency best practices and technologies.
• Implement process and procedures as well as the creation and maintenance of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) documentation enhancing and standardizing support on documented best practices.
• Ensure that each platform complies with well-established policies, standards, licensing agreements and configuration guidelines.
• Administer/Support DNS infrastructure across all Client environments.
• Assist in administering Active Directory.
• Understand and apply new technical skills through a combination of research, instructor lead training and self-training. Stay current in new IT technologies to maintain high level subject matter expertise.
• Lead the review, design and implementation of new technologies that improve infrastructure or reduce cost.
• Provide excellent customer service to all customers, both internal and external. Exhibit poise and confidence when working with and communicating to our customers and vendors.
• Act as an interface to members of the IT infrastructure team, keeping management and peers informed, and disseminating information as needed.
• Utilize strong troubleshooting capabilities to diagnose and resolve problems.
• Assist in problem management and root cause analysis.
• Familiar with change management concepts/processes.
• Work independently and cross-functionally with others to resolve problems. Teams may include internal associates as well as outside contractors/consultants.
• Provide input to the development of corporate IT standards and policies to ensure compatibility and integration throughout the company.
• Complete project work within budget constraints if they exist.
• Compose a set of ideas into a clear presentation for leadership to consume. Capable of presenting PowerPoint clearly and confidently.

Technical Skills Required:

• Provide day-to-day Linux systems administration support such as daily server status checks, ensuring OS backups, responding to server issues, and troubleshooting performance problems
• Provide infrastructure services to Linux/AWS/Azure environments including maintaining system patching, Firmware, BIOS versions, drivers, security, and other OS related software
• Perform vulnerability management/remediation in Linux environment. Test and apply patches / stay current. Implement security best practices.
• Evaluate existing environment to recommend and create optimal performance standards, policies and procedures.
• Plan, coordinate and execute installation, testing and maintenance of AIX systems software and hardware.
• Build systems according to agreed specifications and best practices, in Linux/Azure/AWS framework
• Review architectural designs and project plans for all new/updated initiatives.
• Manage the issue/task ticket queue and resolve within SLA guidelines.
• Administer SAN storage connected to Linux servers. Knowledge of storage fabric and network topologies and troubleshooting. NFS, CIFS, SMB.
• Implement and manage high availability and disaster recovery solutions; development and implement disaster recovery procedures for business continuity.
• Create and maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation for supported environments.
• Familiar with backup/recovery technologies
• Familiar with software solutions like Avamar, Veeam, Commvault, Rubrik, Veritas or other, may be fine
• Familiar with hardware deduplicating/compression storage lie Data Domains (physical and virtual editions), ExaGrid, Quantum or other, may be fine.
• Working knowledge of storage technology like NetApp and PureStorage, HPE, Dell/EMC (VNX, Unity, ExtremeIO), Infinidat, DDN or other, may be fine
• Familiarity with VMware. Must be able to troubleshoot snapshots, change block tracking and other nuances related to backup technologies and storage technologies.
• Familiarity with storage switch topology/technologies like Cisco and Brocade, but practically any other switching/networking knowledge (TCP/IP and OSI model) may be fine

Technical Skills Preferred (not required):

• Implement, management, maintain; LAMP, MySQL, Oracle, Apache, JBOSS, etc
• Automate repetitive tasks using shell scripting (ksh, bash, python)
• Experience with Perl is a plus
• Ansible, Terraform, Chef, Puppet
• Work with ITSM team to integrate cloud and on-premise service catalog and workflows into ServiceNow to support efficient and automated deliveries.

Scope Data:

• Responsible for:

• Designing, implementing, and supporting infrastructure used for business mission critical applications including Claims Processing, Enrollment, Financial and Portal websites, and other applications.
• Supporting infrastructure to enable 99.98% availability for all systems, 7x24x365 support.
• Act as Point of Escalation and expert in troubleshooting for on-call and emergency support.
• Provide off-hours support as scheduled / requested

Supervisory Responsibility:

Individual Contributor - Position does not have direct reports but is expected to assist in guiding and mentoring less experienced staff as well as self-manage projects from inception to completion. May lead a team of matrixed resources.

Qualifications:

Education Level: Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology or Computer Science. In lieu of a Bachelor's degree, an additional 4 years of relevant work experience is required in addition to the required work experience.

Experience:

• 5 years software, hardware and/or systems engineering related experience
• Preferred: Certifications across A