Senior Systems Engineer

About the role

The Senior Systems Engineer supports PeopleTec's Corporate Information Technology department in Huntsville, AL. This role is senior-level and hands-on, focusing on infrastructure reliability, security, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and maintain servers, networks, storage, and databases to maximize availability and performance.

• Establish and maintain monitoring frameworks, SLAs, and proactive alerting to minimize service disruptions.

• Lead investigation and resolution of system outages and critical incidents.

• Manage escalation workflows, coordinate with technical staff during crises, and conduct post-incident reviews to drive continuous improvement.

• Develop, document, test, and maintain comprehensive Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP).

• Ensure recovery time and recovery point objectives are defined, validated, and met.

• Ensure IT systems and operations comply with applicable frameworks including CMMC, NIST SP 800-171, and internal security policies.

• Serve as a technical contributor to audits, assessments, and remediation efforts in close coordination with the Information Security team.

• Lead IT infrastructure projects from planning through implementation, coordinating with stakeholders, vendors, and internal teams.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior IT staff throughout project execution.

• Contribute to IT strategic planning by researching emerging technologies and presenting findings and recommendations to the Director of IT.

• Assist with evaluation, procurement, and management of hardware, software, and managed service providers.

• Support contract oversight and hold vendors accountable to agreed service levels.

• Assist in tracking IT operational expenditures, identifying cost optimization opportunities, and providing input to the annual IT operations budget process.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years of progressive experience in enterprise IT systems engineering or infrastructure operations.

• Strong technical knowledge of network infrastructure and client/server operating systems (Windows, Linux, MacOS).

• Hands-on experience with Microsoft 365, including Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, and Azure cloud services.

• Working knowledge of core services (DNS, DHCP, Switching and Routing).

• Experience with server virtualization platforms including VMware vSphere/vCenter, Microsoft Azure, and AWS.

• Experience with Cloud IAM (Conditional Access, SAML, OIDC).

• Demonstrated expertise in enterprise backup, replication, and Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery planning and execution.

• Working knowledge of CMMC and NIST SP 800-171 compliance requirements in an operational IT context.

• Solid understanding of Helpdesk operations and ITSM platforms.

• Expertise in infrastructure automation (Powershell, Bash, Ansible, Terraform, etc).

• Familiarity with enterprise AI platforms such as Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT/OpenAI, or Microsoft 365 Copilot, including governance and acceptable use considerations in regulated environments.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.