Associate System Engineer

About the role

The Associate Systems Engineer supports, monitors, documents, troubleshoots, and improves systems used by the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. This position is intended for a motivated IT professional who wants to grow in systems engineering, scripting, task automation, application support, infrastructure operations, monitoring, and process improvement.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and support departmental systems, applications, scheduled jobs, reports, interfaces, file transfers, automation processes, and integrations.
• Troubleshoot technical issues related to Windows servers, applications, user access, reports, network connectivity, file permissions, scheduled tasks, scripts, and automated processes.
• Review system health, job status, log files, alerts, dashboards, scheduled tasks, and error messages to identify issues and recommend next steps.
• Aid with reporting, exports, data review, and operational support tasks using approved City tools and platforms.
• Support scheduled scripts, task automation, data imports, data exports, file transfers, and integrations between internal and external systems.
• Create, update, and maintain technical documentation, standard operating procedures, troubleshooting guides, job schedules, system inventories, and support notes.
• Assist with testing system changes, patches, application updates, report updates, database changes, and process improvements prior to implementation.
• Support vendor coordination, including issue research, log collection, testing, documentation, and communication of technical findings.
• Provide technical support to MIS staff, help desk staff, business users, vendors, and other City technology teams.
• Participate in troubleshooting calls, vendor meetings, system reviews, project discussions, and operational planning as needed.
• Escalate complex issues to senior staff while clearly documenting symptoms, troubleshooting steps, business impact, and recommended next actions.

Requirements

The successful candidate should have strong troubleshooting instincts, curiosity, professionalism, and the ability to learn new systems quickly. They should have recent graduate experience in STEM, technical certificate/s, military technical training, or equivalent experience in information technology, computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, data analytics, or a related field. Professional experience in IT support, systems administration, scripting, help desk escalation, application support, scripting, task automation, infrastructure support, or a similar technical role is also required.

Qualifications

• Recent graduates in STEM, technical certificate/s, military technical training, or equivalent experience in information technology, computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, data analytics, or a related field.
• Professional experience in IT support, systems administration, desktop support, help desk escalation, application support, scripting, task automation, infrastructure support, or a similar technical role.
• Experience troubleshooting technical issues in a professional, academic, military, internship, lab, homelab, or self-directed learning environment.
• Demonstrated interest in systems engineering, scripting, task automation, infrastructure support, cloud, DevOps, monitoring, cybersecurity, or application support.
• Experience or interest in using AI-assisted tools to support scripting, documentation, or problem-solving is a plus, but not required.

Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of Microsoft Windows operating systems and Windows Server administration.
• Experience with PowerShell, Python, batch scripting, or similar automation tools.
• Task automation using Windows Task Scheduler, scheduled scripts, service checks, file transfers, monitoring jobs, or recurring operational processes.
• Willingness and ability to learn Python, PowerShell, scripting logic, task automation, and system administration workflows.
• Windows Server administration concepts, including services, scheduled tasks, event logs, file shares, permissions, IIS, and system configuration.
• Microsoft Active Directory concepts, including users, groups, permissions, group membership, and role-based access.
• Basic networking concepts, including IP addressing, DNS, DHCP, ports, firewalls, routing, VPNs, remote access, and connectivity troubleshooting.
• Application support, including configuration review, log analysis, vendor coordination, testing, and escalation.
• Monitoring and alerting tools, dashboards, system logs, and operational health checks.
• Technical documentation, standard operating procedures, process documentation, and troubleshooting guides.
• Data handling concepts, including file imports, file exports, validation checks, access control, sensitive data handling, and compliance awareness.
• Source control concepts using Git or similar tools.
• Containerization concepts using Docker or similar platforms.
• Ability to read, interpret, and apply technical documentation.
• Ability to analyze technical problems, document findings, and communicate recommendations clearly.
• Ability to communicate with technical staff, non-technical users, vendors, supervisors, and operational stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently on assigned tasks while knowing when to escalate.
• Strong attention to detail, accountability, judgment, and willingness to learn new systems.
• Professional judgment when working with sensitive systems, public safety data, and operational technology.
• Familiarity with modern AI-assisted development or support tools and an interest in using them to improve troubleshooting, documentation, or workflow efficiency.
• Ability to evaluate AI-generated responses critically and incorporate them into solutions when appropriate.

Benefits

The City of Philadelphia offers comprehensive health coverage for employees and their eligible dependents, a generous retirement savings options, and a variety of additional benefits including paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays. Additionally, the City offers a 25% tuition discount program for City employees (and sometimes spouses and dependents as well) in partnership with area colleges and universities.

Pay

Salary Range: $70,000-$79,438

Schedule

Effective May 22, 2023, vaccinations are no longer required for new employees that work in non-medical, non-emergency or patient facing positions with the City of Philadelphia. As a result, only employees in positions providing services that are patient-facing medical care (ex: Nurses, doctors, emergency medical personnel), must be fully vaccinated.