Systems Administrator

Who we are

ManhattanLife Insurance and Annuity Company was founded in 1850 and is one of the oldest and most reliable health and life insurance companies in the United States. The headquarters are in Houston, TX, with multiple office locations nationwide. Employee benefits start day one and include health, dental, and vision coverage, flexible schedules (including shortened Fridays), free parking, company‑wide events, professional development, and a wellness program.

Scope and Purpose

This onsite Houston role is for a Senior Systems Administrator who builds, secures, and owns on‑premises infrastructure and integrates cloud services. The scope includes Windows, Linux, Microsoft 365, Azure, identity, virtualization, networking, backup, and security. Senior, hands‑on MSP experience is valued, alone or combined with broad enterprise experience. The role owns infrastructure from design through deployment or migration, testing, documentation, and stabilization.

Responsibilities

• Translate business and technical requirements into designs, implementation plans, dependencies, change records, validation steps, rollback plans, and support documentation.
• Configure, integrate, test, and place into production on‑premises Windows and Linux servers, virtualization, storage, backup, identity services, monitoring, security controls, and Cisco or Meraki networks.
• Lead greenfield deployments, migrations, major upgrades, platform replacements, and office integrations through post‑implementation validation and stabilization.
• Establish secure, repeatable deployment standards, templates, and automation; transition completed systems into documented operational ownership.
• Implement and administer Windows Server, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, file services, permissions, and authentication.
• Implement and administer enterprise Linux (access, patching, monitoring, troubleshooting, availability).
• Evaluate and integrate Azure services based on business needs, security, reliability, operational effort, and cost; use managed services where appropriate.
• Administer Active Directory and Entra ID (MFA, Conditional Access, SSO, federation, identity lifecycle, RBAC, least privilege, privileged access).
• Administer Microsoft 365 services (Exchange Online, collaboration, security, compliance, retention, auditing).
• Implement approved SaaS solutions, configuring SSO, SCIM provisioning/deprovisioning, RBAC, and audit logging; document configurations and operational ownership.
• Automate deployments, configuration, health checks, and reporting with PowerShell, Azure CLI, Bash, APIs, or comparable tools.
• Implement and support Cisco, Meraki, or comparable firewalls, switches, wireless networks, VPNs, WAN links, and management platforms.
• Troubleshoot TCP/IP, routing, switching, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, segmentation, remote access, and ISP connectivity.
• Apply firewall rules, network segmentation, VPNs, and access controls through documented and approved changes.
• Apply security best practices for hardening, patching, MFA, privileged access, endpoint protection, logging, and vulnerability remediation.
• Support and test backup, restore, replication, and disaster recovery; partner with Security on incident response, audits, and remediation.
• Own incidents and problems through diagnosis, communication, root‑cause analysis, resolution, and durable correction.
• Use ITSM, RMM, alerting, and documentation platforms with mature MSP or enterprise discipline.
• Maintain accurate architecture diagrams, CMDB and inventory records, build standards, runbooks, knowledge articles, and operating procedures.
• Serve as an escalation point and technical mentor for Help Desk and support teams.
• Plan and deliver infrastructure projects with business teams, vendors, and technology partners.

Minimum Qualifications

• High School Graduate, GED, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically five or more years of hands‑on production infrastructure experience; breadth and demonstrated capability matter more than a precise year count.
• Examples of production infrastructure personally designed and built from requirements through deployment, documentation, validation, and stabilization.
• Broad implementation, administration, and troubleshooting experience across multiple infrastructure domains.
• Experience managing tickets, priorities, changes, documentation, and escalations in a production environment.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Deep expertise in at least one infrastructure discipline, with the judgment to design and troubleshoot beyond it.
• Practical knowledge of secure configuration, least privilege, layered controls, patching, recovery, and change management.
• Ability to evaluate design trade‑offs, identify dependencies and risks, plan validation and rollback, and execute with limited step‑by‑step direction.
• Ability to balance incidents, projects, security remediation, and lifecycle work with clear ownership and communication.
• Strong documentation and communication skills; practical approach to standardization, automation, and operational improvement.

Preferred Experience

• Senior, hands‑on MSP experience, alone or combined with broad enterprise experience, with ownership of production builds, migrations, upgrades, and complex troubleshooting.
• Comparable enterprise‑only experience with broad, end‑to‑end implementation responsibility.
• Hands‑on experience implementing, integrating, and troubleshooting infrastructure across server, network, identity, cloud, and security domains.
• Automation, infrastructure‑as‑code, standardization, monitoring improvements, or elimination of recurring manual work.
• Experience supporting regulated environments (HIPAA or PCI), audits, M&A integrations, or relevant technical certifications.

Relevant Technology Experience

• Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Intune/Autopilot, Exchange Online.
• Azure architecture, hybrid integration, governance, security, and cost management.
• Enterprise Linux (Red Hat, Rocky Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu, or comparable distributions).
• VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, high availability, storage, and Veeam.
• Cisco Secure Firewall (Firepower), ISE, Meraki, Secure Endpoint, Umbrella, Secure Email, Secure Client (AnyConnect), ThousandEyes, Duo.
• ConnectWise Manage or Automate, IT Glue, or comparable ITSM, RMM, and documentation tools.
• PowerShell, Azure CLI, Bash, APIs, Bicep, Terraform, or comparable automation tools.

Travel Requirements

Light travel within a ten‑mile radius between office locations in the Houston area may be required.

Professional Development

Set annual professional development goals and participate in the evaluation process. Maintain current knowledge of relevant infrastructure, cloud, networking, automation, and security technologies.

Physical Demands

The role regularly requires sitting for extended periods; standing; walking; typing and using a mouse; handling objects; reaching with hands and arms; and talking or hearing. Lifting, pulling, or moving office or desk supplies weighing 10 pounds or more may be required.

Work Environment

The employee works in an office environment and routinely uses standard office equipment, including computers, Webex‑enabled phones, office phones, and photocopiers.

Other Duties

This description is not intended to provide a comprehensive list of all activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee. Management may assign or reassign duties and responsibilities at any time without notice.