Senior IT Platform Engineer (Senior Systems Engineer)

SUMMARY

The Senior Systems Engineer designs, implements, and supports enterprise onpremises compute, virtualization, Active Directory, and backup systems, with responsibility for reliability, performance, and recoverability across plants, data centers, and offices. This role is hands on and focused on engineering excellence, operational stability, and resilient system design in support of business critical workloads.

While the environment is primarily on prem today, this position will help prepare systems and practices for future hybrid and cloud adoption, including increased automation and infrastructure standardization over time.

The full salary range for this position is $111,200 - $166,800. However, our current budget for a new hire is $111,200 - $150,000, depending on the candidate's specific experience and skills.

Key responsibilities may include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE

• Engineer and support enterprise compute, virtualization, Active Directory, and backup platforms, primarily on premises
• Design systems for high availability, fault tolerance, scalability, and recoverability
• Define and maintain engineering standards for server builds, clustering, hypervisors, and storage systems
• Lead upgrades, migrations, hardware refreshes, and platform modernization initiatives
• Serve as a senior technical resource and mentor within the infrastructure team
• Integrate infrastructure with network, security, identity, and application platforms
• Support limited hybrid workloads and contribute to future cloud readiness
• Provide clear architecture diagrams, standards, and operational documentation
• Collaborate with application, network, security, and cloud teams on cross functional initiatives

OPERATIONS & RELIABILITY

• Ensure production systems meet uptime, performance, and recovery objectives
• Act as Tier 3 escalation for complex infrastructure incidents and participate in on call rotations
• Troubleshoot issues across compute, virtualization, storage, and backup layers
• Partner with managed service providers to ensure consistent execution of operational and recovery procedures
• Perform capacity planning and performance optimization

ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING

• Design and implement resilient, secure, and scalable compute, virtualization, and storage architectures
• Define and maintain standards, reference designs, and best practices for server builds, cluster design, hypervisor configuration, and storage layout
• Lead platform upgrades, hypervisor migrations, storage refreshes, and modernization initiatives
• Ensure integration with adjacent platforms such as network, security, cloud, identity, data, and applications
• Support hybrid environments spanning on-premises infrastructure, cloud compute platforms (Azure AWS), and SaaS workloads
• Design and maintain high-availability clusters and disaster recovery configurations

AUTOMATION & STANDARDIZATION

• Use scripting and tooling to improve efficiency in provisioning, patching, validation, and lifecycle management
• Reduce manual effort and configuration inconsistency through standardized builds and processes
• Maintain clear documentation for configurations, procedures, and support handoffs
• Contribute to longer term automation and Infrastructure as Code efforts as platform maturity increases

AUTOMATION & OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

• Automate server provisioning, patching, lifecycle management, validation, recovery, and compliance validation
• Reduce manual operational effort through scripting and workflow automation
• Partner with MSPs to ensure consistent execution of backup, recovery, and infrastructure runbooks
• Improve monitoring signal quality across compute, storage, and virtualization layers
• Design self-healing or auto-remediation capabilities where appropriate
• Continuously optimize resource utilization, performance, and capacity planning

BACKUP, RECOVERY & SECURITY

• Design, maintain, and operate backup and disaster recovery solutions
• Own recovery procedures and participate in periodic DR testing
• Apply system hardening, secure configuration, and patching standards
• Support enterprise initiatives related to resiliency, ransomware protection, and business continuity

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position has no supervisory responsibilities, but acts in a lead capacity to other department staff.

QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of enterprise systems or infrastructure engineering experience
• Strong understanding of Active Directory and related technologies (DNS, GPO, etc.)
• Strong hands on experience with Windows Server and Linux
• Deep expertise in enterprise virtualization platforms (VMware vSphere, Nutanix AHV, or equivalent)
• Proven experience designing and supporting high availability, clustering, backup, and disaster recovery

SKILLS

• Proficiency with scripting and automation tools (PowerShell required, Python or similar a plus)
  Strong troubleshooting skills supporting businesscritical, onprem systems
• Senior-level experience designing and operating enterprise compute, virtualization, storage, and backup platforms across multi-site and hybrid environments
• Strong background in Windows Server and Linux administration, including enterprise virtualization platforms such as Nutanix AHV, VMware vSphere, or equivalent
• Expertise in high availability, clustering, failover, disaster recovery design, and data replication
• Experience with Azure cloud services and hybrid compute integrations
• Proficiency in automation and scripting, with PowerShell preferred; familiarity with Python, Ansible, Terraform, or similar tools
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and repeatable infrastructure deployment practices
• Familiarity with AI-driven infrastructure monitoring and AIOps platforms
• Strong understanding of security best practices, system hardening, and patch management
• Ability to support production systems with strict uptime, resiliency, and recovery requirements
• Experience documenting architecture standards, recovery procedures, and operational runbooks

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting manufacturing or operational technology environments
• Experience working with MSPs providing infrastructure services
• Relevant certifications such as MCSE, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, NCP-MCI, VCP, or equivalent

LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong written communication skills for architecture documentation, standards, and executive-level summaries.

REASONING ABILITY

Ability to evaluate complex technical environments, synthesize system data, assess risk, and make sound architectural and operational decisions in dynamic or ambiguous situations. Demonstrates strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and the ability to balance business impact with technical considerations.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

No certifications are required. Relevant industry certifications aligned to the platform domain such as cloud, networking, security, or automation credentials are preferred and may strengthen candidacy.

CONFIDENTIALITY

In the course of performing this role, the Senior IT Platform Engineer may have access to confidential company, employee, operational, and technical information. The employee is expected to safeguard all such information, exercise sound judgment in its handling, and maintain strict confidentiality at all times.

TRAVEL

Travel up to 10% may be required to support corporate headquarters, plants, warehouses, or other business locations.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here represent those required to successfully perform the essential functions of this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities.

This position is primarily office-based and requires prolonged periods of sitting, speaking, and hearing. Occasional standing, walking, reaching, bending, or lifting of equipment up to 50 pounds may be required when supporting infrastructure or on-site technology environments. Close vision and color vision may be necessary for working with hardware and cabling.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

The work environment is primarily an office or corporate setting, with occasional visits to plant, warehouse, or technical facilities. The role may involve exposure to operational or industrial environments when supporting manufacturing technology. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.