Windows Site Reliability Engineer | Jersey City, NJ - 5 Days onsite role | Contract W2

Job Title: Windows Site Reliability Engineer

Location: Jersey City, NJ 5 Days onsite role

Duration: Long Term

Type: Contract W2

Job Description:

Role overview

We are hiring a Windows Site Reliability Engineer to own the reliability, deployment and day-to-day operation of our third-party business applications. Our portfolio spans Windows thin-client, thick-client and web applications from multiple software vendors, each with its own stack, release cadence and support model.

You will be the technical bridge between vendors, application owners and infrastructure teams. You will learn each vendor's architecture, move releases safely from lower environments into production, and keep those applications healthy afterward through monitoring, lifecycle management, toil reduction and automation.

Key responsibilities

Vendor application ownership

• Learn and document each vendor's application stack: client type (thin, thick, web), dependencies, databases, middleware, licensing and integration points.
• Act as the technical point of contact with vendors for releases, patches, defects and escalations, and hold them to agreed SLAs.
• Review vendor release notes and installers to assess risk and impact before any change reaches production.

Application packaging

• Package, repackage and customize Windows thick-client applications for silent, repeatable deployment (MSI, MST transforms, MSIX, App-V, PSADT wrappers).
• Resolve packaging issues such as dependencies, prerequisites, file and registry conflicts, and per-user versus per-machine installs.
• Maintain a versioned package library and distribute packages through SCCM/MECM or Intune.

Release and deployment

• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for vendor applications and their configuration (for example Azure DevOps, Jenkins or GitHub Actions).
• Promote releases through Dev, Test, UAT and Production with consistent configuration and documented rollback plans.
• Plan and run production deployments, including change requests, maintenance windows, smoke tests and post-deployment validation.
• Deploy and configure web applications on IIS, and thin-client apps on Citrix or RDS/AVD.

Post-production operations

• Own technology lifecycle management (TLM): track vendor support dates, plan upgrades, and retire end-of-life versions before support lapses.
• Define SLIs and SLOs, and build monitoring, alerting and dashboards for application health.
• Lead incident response and blameless root-cause analysis, and drive fixes with vendors and internal teams.
• Measure and reduce toil by automating repetitive work such as installs, configuration, health checks, certificate renewals and patching.
• Write runbooks and knowledge articles so support teams can operate each application independently.

Required qualifications

• 8+ years supporting enterprise Windows applications in an SRE, application support or systems engineering role .
• Hands-on application packaging experience: MSI/MST, MSIX or App-V, silent install parameters, and packaging tools such as Orca, InstallShield, Advanced Installer or PSADT.
• Software distribution with SCCM/MECM and/or Intune .
• Strong Windows Server and Windows client administration, including services, registry, permissions, Group Policy and Active Directory .
• Experience supporting thin-client (Citrix, RDS or AVD), thick-client and IIS-hosted web applications .
• Proven experience supporting third-party vendor software and working directly with vendor support and engineering teams.
• CI/CD pipeline experience with tools such as Azure DevOps, Jenkins or GitHub Actions, plus Git source control.
• Strong PowerShell scripting for automation and toil reduction.
• Experience deploying across lower environments and production under formal change management (ITIL or similar).
• Working knowledge of SQL Server sufficient to support application databases and troubleshoot connectivity and performance.
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools such as SCOM, Splunk, Dynatrace, Datadog or Azure Monitor.
• Clear written communication for runbooks, RCAs and vendor escalations.

Preferred qualifications

• Infrastructure as code and configuration management (Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell DSC).
• Cloud hosting experience for Windows workloads in Azure or AWS.
• Containerizing Windows or .NET applications, or MSIX app attach for AVD.
• Experience with vulnerability remediation and patch compliance for third-party software.
• Familiarity with SRE practices such as error budgets, toil budgets and capacity planning.
• Certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator, Endpoint Administrator, ITIL Foundation or Citrix CCA.

About Next Gen Software Solutions:

Next Gen Software Solutions is a trusted provider of IT Staffing and consulting services dedicated to empowering businesses with cutting-edge technology solutions and exceptional talent. We specialize in delivering tailored IT consulting services, innovative software solutions, and connecting businesses with highly skilled IT professionals. Founded and led by a dedicated U.S. Army solider, Next Gen Software Solutions is deeply rooted in the core values of integrity, discipline, commitment, and experience-principles that guide every aspect of our operations.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

Next Gen Software Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace where all employees and applicants are treated respect and dignity. We do not discriminate based on race, colour, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, genetic information, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic under applicable federal, state, or local laws.