Sr Infrastructure Engineer

About the role

The Senior Infrastructure Engineer serves as the designated backup and knowledge-continuity resource for Baylor Genetics’ on-premises data center and network environment. This role ensures uninterrupted operation of critical infrastructure supporting genomics pipeline and clinical laboratory systems, eliminating single points of failure.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the designated backup for the primary infrastructure lead — assume full operational control of data center, network, and server environments during absences, emergencies, or transitions to ensure zero service interruption.
• Administer and maintain physical and virtual server infrastructure (Windows Server, Linux, VMware/Hyper-V), including provisioning, patching, performance monitoring, and capacity planning to sustain 99.9%+ uptime.
• Manage LAN/WAN networking operations including switches, routers, firewalls, and VLANs to maintain high availability and security across all on-premises systems.
• Build, maintain, and continuously improve runbooks, network diagrams, and disaster recovery documentation to eliminate single points of failure and reduce mean time to recovery.
• Support and sustain the on-premises genomics pipeline infrastructure, ensuring compute and storage resources meet demanding throughput and availability requirements for clinical laboratory operations.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with bioinformatics, clinical lab, and IT teams to align infrastructure reliability with patient-impacting laboratory workflows.
• Proactively identify and remediate risks including aging hardware, technical debt, and configuration vulnerabilities — presenting actionable proposals to leadership.
• Respond to infrastructure incidents and outages with urgency, including after-hours escalations, to minimize downtime impact on laboratory and clinical operations.
• Perform other duties as assigned to support team and organizational objectives.
• Comply with all company policies, procedures, and applicable regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field; or equivalent technical training and experience.
• 7+ years of hands-on enterprise IT infrastructure engineering experience in a complex, predominantly on-premises environment.
• Deep expertise in physical and virtual server administration (Windows Server 2016/2019/2022, Linux) including VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V.
• Strong networking fundamentals: routing, switching, VLANs, firewall policy management, and systematic network troubleshooting (Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, or equivalent).
• Experience managing physical data center environments — rack/stack, structured cabling, power, and cooling awareness.
• Proficiency with SAN/NAS storage platforms and enterprise backup/recovery systems (Veeam, Commvault, or equivalent).
• Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory in a hybrid on-premises/cloud context.
• Strong documentation discipline: ability to produce clear runbooks, network diagrams, and standard operating procedures independently.
• Prowess in rapidly learning complex, undocumented environments and operating independently under high-pressure conditions.
• Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Preferred

• Experience in a healthcare, clinical laboratory, genomics, or other regulated life sciences environment.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in enterprise infrastructure roles with demonstrated ownership of critical systems.
• Relevant certifications: CCNA/CCNP, VCP-DCV, MCSE, CompTIA Network+/Security+, or equivalent.
• Familiarity with HPC or high-throughput bioinformatics pipeline infrastructure.
• Exposure to HIPAA compliance requirements, NIST frameworks, or SOC 2 audit environments.
• Scripting proficiency (PowerShell, Bash, or Python) for infrastructure automation and administrative efficiency.
• Experience with monitoring platforms such as PRTG, SolarWinds, Zabbix, or similar tools.

Competencies

• Advanced systems and network troubleshooting — able to diagnose and resolve complex infrastructure issues across server, storage, and network layers independently.
• Infrastructure documentation and knowledge transfer — consistently produces clear, actionable runbooks and SOPs that allow others to execute without prior context.
• Operational resilience under pressure — calm, methodical decision-making during incidents and outages in environments where downtime directly impacts patient care.
• Cross-functional collaboration — effectively partners with bioinformatics, clinical lab, and IT teams to align infrastructure performance with organizational mission.
• Proactive risk identification — anticipates infrastructure vulnerabilities and aging hardware risks, and drives remediation before failures occur.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

• Location: Houston, TX. Hybrid work environment. Most work can be done remotely but must have the ability to arrive on-site at our Houston location in a reasonable amount of time if necessary.
• Must be able to lift and move equipment up to 50 lbs; perform physical tasks in a data center environment including rack/stack of servers and network hardware.
• Ability to work in environments with variable temperatures (data center cooling), moderate noise levels, and continuous standing or walking during data center operations.
• Occasional after-hours availability required for scheduled maintenance windows, incident response, and emergency infrastructure coverage.
• No regular travel required; occasional travel to offsite data center or disaster recovery locations may arise.