IT System Administrator

About the role

Xscape Photonics develops custom photonic platform solutions designed for ultra-high bandwidth connections inside data centers to power AI systems. The company's proprietary ChromX platform targets scaling of AI computing performance in an environmentally sustainable manner and is optimized for power, cost, scale and reliability. As Xscape Photonics scales its photonic technology from innovation to volume production, we are looking for an IT System Administrator to own, maintain, and elevate our IT infrastructure, endpoint environment, and engineering operations. In this role, you will provide end-to-end support ranging from Tier 1–3 user troubleshooting to infrastructure management, cybersecurity compliance, and specialized engineering tool administration. The ideal candidate thrives in a dynamic environment supporting cross-functional teams—including Engineering, Operations, and Administration—and brings strong hands-on experience across Windows, Linux, macOS, cloud identity platforms, and lab/EDA environments.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive Tier 1–3 IT support for on-site and remote employees across Engineering, Operations, and Administration.
• Lead employee onboarding and offboarding workflows, including provisioning hardware, managing user accounts, and enforcing role-based access controls.
• Support and maintain laptops, workstations, and specialized lab-connected endpoints.
• Administer core identity and collaboration suites, including Active Directory, Okta, and Google Workspace.
• Oversee endpoint protection, EDR, and system backup services using Acronis Cyber Protect.
• Deploy, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot physical on-premises servers and systems.
• Administer multi-OS environments, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• Manage virtualization infrastructure, including Hyper-V and Proxmox.
• Maintain network health and connectivity, including VPNs, Wi-Fi, SonicWall firewalls, and Ubiquiti networking hardware.
• Administer and optimize TrueNAS storage systems to ensure data availability and performance.
• Support specialized engineering applications and EDA design tools (e.g., Cadence, Synopsys).
• Manage, configure, and troubleshoot engineering software license servers (e.g., FlexLM).
• Ensure high availability, connectivity, and performance for critical manufacturing and hardware test workflows.
• Drive cybersecurity protocols and support ongoing compliance initiatives, including ISO 27001 compliance and SOC 2 readiness.
• Implement and enforce access controls, endpoint protection, centralized logging, and backup verification to meet audit standards.
• Provide operational support for GitLab, CI/CD pipelines, and developer workflows as needed.
• Administer collaboration platforms, specifically Jira and Confluence.
• Maintain and streamline integrations across engineering toolchains, identity providers, and IT systems.

Requirements

• 4+ years of systems administration or IT operations experience supporting multi-platform environments (Windows, Linux, macOS).
• Deep proficiency with Active Directory, Okta, and Google Workspace.
• Solid understanding of subnets, VLANs, VPNs, SonicWall firewalls, Ubiquiti networking, and EDR platforms (Acronis Cyber Protect preferred).
• Practical experience administering Hyper-V, Proxmox, and TrueNAS or similar storage arrays.
• Familiarity with implementing security controls aligned with ISO 27001, SOC 2, or NIST standards.

Qualifications

• Direct experience supporting hardware/semiconductor engineering teams, including Cadence and Synopsys license server management.
• Experience with DevOps tools and developer workflows (GitLab, CI/CD, J