Systems Engineer

About the role

GDIT has an immediate opening for an early-career Systems Engineer supporting the CITS contract for USCENTCOM. This position is based on-site in Tampa, Florida, with direct focus on enterprise lab infrastructure, integration, patching, and testing. The Systems Engineer serves as a core technical contributor responsible for executing software and hardware testing, baseline integration, systematic vulnerability patching, and functional validation within the USCENTCOM enterprise laboratory. Working under the guidance of senior engineering staff, this role provides technical support across physical and virtual environments to ensure lab systems remain secure, properly baselined, and fully validated prior to operational or exercise deployment. The engineer will assemble hardware, deploy operating systems, execute structured test plans, apply security baselines, and assist in maintaining laboratory readiness in a fast-paced defense environment.

Responsibilities

• Perform physical installation, racking, stacking, cabling, and baseline configuration of servers, workstations, storage devices, and lab network appliances.
• Execute standardized software and hardware test plans, procedures, and validation scripts to verify system functionality and interoperability.
• Identify, document, and track hardware defects, software bugs, and performance bottlenecks, reporting findings to senior engineering leads.
• Apply scheduled security patches, operating system updates, application hotfixes, and hardware firmware upgrades across Windows and Linux environments.
• Validate post-patching system stability, performance, and application dependencies to ensure zero degradation of lab baselines.
• Support virtualization environments, including creating, configuring, and maintaining virtual machines in VMware vSphere/ESXi and Hyper-V.
• Assist in the implementation of DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) and support vulnerability remediation efforts.
• Maintain laboratory configuration documentation, hardware/software asset inventories, test execution records, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Provide Tier I/II troubleshooting support for hardware faults, operating system anomalies, and network connectivity issues within the test environment.

Requirements

• Must currently possess a Secret clearance with the ability to upgrade to Top Secret/SCI.
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical discipline (or equivalent operational experience/military training).
• 3+ years of related experience in systems engineering, hardware staging, systems administration, or laboratory test environments.
• Current DoD 8140 / DoD 8570 IAT Level II baseline certification (e.g., CompTIA Security+ CE, CCNA‑Security, CySA+, or equivalent).

Qualifications

• Foundational technical knowledge of Windows Server (2019/2022), Windows 10/11, Red Hat