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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Systems Engineer

💰 $ - $

ITEngineeringSystems AdministrationInfrastructure

🎯 Role Definition

An IT Systems Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, maintaining and optimizing enterprise infrastructure that supports business applications and services. This role blends systems administration, networking, virtualization, security, automation, and cloud operations to ensure reliable, scalable, and secure IT services. Ideal candidates are hands-on, proactive problem-solvers who can operate across Windows, Linux, virtualization stacks, and cloud environments while applying automation and best practices to reduce operational risk and cost.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Systems Administrator / Systems Support Engineer
  • Network Technician / Network Administrator
  • Cloud Operations or DevOps Engineer (entry-level)

Advancement To:

  • Senior Systems Engineer / Lead Systems Engineer
  • Infrastructure Architect / Cloud Architect
  • IT Operations Manager / Head of Infrastructure

Lateral Moves:

  • DevOps Engineer / SRE (Site Reliability Engineer)
  • Cloud Engineer (AWS/Azure/GCP)
  • Security Engineer / Security Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, deploy and maintain Windows Server environments (2012R2/2016/2019/2022), including Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and Certificate Services to ensure robust identity, authentication and domain services across the enterprise.
  • Administer and harden Linux servers (RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu) for production workloads, including system updates, package management, SELinux/AppArmor configuration, and performance tuning to meet security and availability requirements.
  • Build, manage and optimize virtualization platforms such as VMware vSphere/vCenter and Microsoft Hyper-V, including host configuration, resource scheduling, VM lifecycle management, snapshots, and high-availability clustering.
  • Provision and manage cloud infrastructure on AWS and Azure (EC2, VPC, IAM, Azure VM, Virtual Network, Azure AD), implementing best practices for scalability, security, cost optimization and disaster recovery.
  • Implement and operate configuration management and infrastructure-as-code using tools like Ansible, Terraform, CloudFormation or DSC to automate system provisioning, configuration drift remediation and reproducible deployments.
  • Design and execute backup, replication and disaster recovery strategies using solutions such as Veeam, Commvault, NetBackup or native cloud backup tools to meet RPO/RTO objectives and regulatory requirements.
  • Perform patch management for servers and endpoints via WSUS, SCCM/Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, or vendor tools, coordinating maintenance windows and validating post-patch stability.
  • Configure and maintain enterprise storage systems (SAN, NAS), LUN provisioning, RAID management, multipathing, and integration with virtualization platforms to ensure performance and capacity for application workloads.
  • Monitor infrastructure health, availability and performance using tools such as SolarWinds, Nagios, Datadog, Prometheus/Grafana or Splunk, create alerts, dashboards and runbooks to proactively resolve incidents.
  • Troubleshoot complex cross-stack issues including TCP/IP networking, DNS resolution, routing, VLANs, switching, firewall policies and end-to-end application connectivity to minimize downtime and outages.
  • Harden servers and infrastructure components against threats by applying CIS benchmarks, implementing host-based firewalls, endpoint protection (EDR/AV), and participating in vulnerability scanning and remediation programs.
  • Manage identity and access controls, service accounts, role-based access, and privileged account workflows integrating Active Directory, Azure AD, LDAP and SAML-based systems for secure authentication and authorization.
  • Implement and support container platforms and orchestration basics (Docker, Kubernetes) for microservices or developer environments, including CI/CD pipeline integrations and container image lifecycle management.
  • Write and maintain automation scripts and toolkits in PowerShell, Bash, and Python to streamline routine tasks, onboarding/offboarding, reporting, and incident response playbooks.
  • Collaborate with application owners and development teams to onboard applications, define infrastructure requirements, and perform capacity planning and performance testing to align resources with business needs.
  • Lead or participate in infrastructure projects such as data center migrations, cloud migrations, hardware refreshes, and environment provisioning, including schedule management, stakeholder communication, and cutover validation.
  • Maintain accurate system documentation, runbooks, topology diagrams, configuration baselines and change logs to support knowledge transfer, audits, and operational continuity.
  • Provide Tier 2/3 escalation support for incidents, perform root cause analysis for recurring issues, and produce post-incident reports with corrective actions and preventive recommendations.
  • Ensure infrastructure compliance with industry regulations and internal policies (HIPAA, PCI, SOC2, GDPR), support audits, and implement technical controls for logging, encryption and retention.
  • Manage vendor relationships and coordinate hardware, software and cloud service procurement, licensing renewals, and RMA processes to sustain SLAs and reduce operational risk.
  • Participate in on-call rotations and execute incident response workflows, including coordination with cross-functional teams during outages and large-scale recoveries.
  • Conduct infrastructure cost analysis, recommend cost-saving measures (rightsizing, reserved instances, tagging) and implement governance to control consumption in cloud and virtual environments.
  • Drive continuous improvement by evaluating new technologies, proof-of-concepts and platform upgrades to enhance reliability, automation, security and developer experience.
  • Enforce and administer endpoint management solutions such as Intune or SCCM for patching, compliance policies, software distribution and remote support of workstations and laptops.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Mentor junior engineers and deliver training sessions on infrastructure standards, automation tools and operational best practices.
  • Review and approve technical change requests, provide impact analysis and ensure rollback plans are in place.
  • Assist in capacity forecasting and resource procurement planning for both on-premises and cloud resources.
  • Help maintain disaster recovery drills and tabletop exercises to validate recovery procedures and staff readiness.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Active Directory administration, Group Policy design and domain controller management.
  • Windows Server installation, configuration, patching and performance tuning (2012R2/2016/2019/2022).
  • Linux systems administration (RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu), shell scripting, package management and kernel tuning.
  • Virtualization technologies: VMware vSphere/vCenter, ESXi, HA/DRS, and Microsoft Hyper-V.
  • Cloud platforms: AWS (EC2, VPC, IAM), Microsoft Azure (VMs, Virtual Network, Azure AD), and cloud migration experience.
  • Infrastructure-as-Code and automation: Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation, PowerShell DSC.
  • Scripting languages: PowerShell, Bash, Python for automation, tooling and operational tasks.
  • Backup and disaster recovery tools and strategy: Veeam, Commvault, snapshot/replication technologies, RPO/RTO planning.
  • Network fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, VLANs, switching, firewall configuration and troubleshooting.
  • Monitoring & observability: SolarWinds, Nagios, Datadog, Prometheus/Grafana, Splunk (logs/metrics/tracing).
  • Patch management and endpoint management: WSUS, SCCM/MECM, Intune, and software deployment pipelines.
  • Storage management: SAN/NAS administration, multipathing, storage tiering, volume provisioning.
  • Security technologies: firewalls (Cisco, Palo Alto), VPNs, endpoint protection (EDR), SIEM integration and vulnerability management.
  • Containerization and orchestration basics: Docker and Kubernetes cluster administration experience.
  • Identity and Access Management (IAM) and federation: SAML, OAuth, Azure AD Connect, MFA implementations.
  • Configuration and version control: Git knowledge for IaC and automation repositories.
  • Database infrastructure basics: SQL Server or MySQL/MariaDB administration fundamentals and backup/restore procedures.
  • Compliance and audit controls: SOC2, HIPAA, PCI knowledge and implementation of technical controls.
  • Hardware lifecycle management: server, storage and networking hardware deployment, firmware upgrades, and vendor coordination.
  • Cost governance: cloud cost management, tagging policies and rightsizing techniques.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical and troubleshooting mindset with attention to detail and persistence in resolving complex technical issues.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills for interacting with technical teams, vendors and business stakeholders.
  • Project management and organization skills to drive infrastructure changes and upgrades to completion on schedule.
  • Customer service orientation, with ability to prioritize requests and deliver stable systems under pressure.
  • Collaborative team player who can mentor junior staff and contribute to cross-functional initiatives.
  • Adaptability to rapidly changing technologies and ability to learn new tools and platforms quickly.
  • Time management and ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and incidents.
  • Critical thinking and decision-making under incident conditions with a focus on minimizing business impact.
  • Documentation-first approach: creates clear runbooks, SOPs and knowledge base articles for operational continuity.
  • Security mindset: proactively identifies risks and recommends practical mitigations.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or equivalent professional experience (or Associate degree + relevant certifications and 3+ years of experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, IT, Electrical Engineering or related field.
  • Professional certifications such as: Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator / Azure Solutions Architect, AWS Certified SysOps Administrator / Solutions Architect, VMware Certified Professional (VCP), RHCE, CompTIA Security+/Network+.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology
  • Network Engineering
  • Systems Engineering
  • Cybersecurity

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3 - 7+ years of hands-on systems engineering, systems administration or infrastructure operations experience in enterprise environments.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of progressive experience supporting mixed Windows/Linux environments, virtualization and public cloud.
  • Demonstrable experience with automation (Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell), backup/disaster recovery solutions, and infrastructure monitoring.
  • Experience participating in on-call rotations and incident management with measurable impact on uptime and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).
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