The RoleWe're hiring an
IT Systems Specialist to own on-site IT operations at our
Santa Clara HQ. You'll be the primary owner of our 8-node VMware vCenter cluster, office network, and local infrastructure (NAS, UPS, server room), while also handling U.S.-based onboarding/offboarding and helping drive down our IT ticket queue.
This is a high-impact, hands-on role with a lot of autonomy: you'll be the go-to IT expert on site, partnering closely with our Toronto-based IT lead and global engineering teams.
What You'll DoOn-prem infrastructure (vCenter, servers, NAS, UPS)- Own day-to-day operation, monitoring, and lifecycle management of our 8-server VMware vCenter cluster (capacity planning, patching, upgrades, performance tuning).
- Manage NAS storage, backups, and recovery procedures for lab and production environments.
- Lead stabilization of power and HVAC for the server room in partnership with Facilities, including:
- Right-sizing workloads on the cluster.
- Reviewing and improving UPS configuration and load.
- Implementing monitoring/alerting for power, temperature, and capacity.
- Document runbooks, configurations, and recovery procedures.
Office network & site reliability (Santa Clara)- Own Santa Clara office network operations: switches, Wi-Fi, firewalls, VPN, and ISP connectivity.
- Implement and maintain network segmentation, secure remote access, and QoS for engineering/test workloads.
- Proactively monitor network health, investigate incidents, and drive root-cause fixes, not just workarounds.
End-user IT & ticket queue- Serve as the on-site point of contact for employees in Santa Clara: deskside support, conference rooms, demo labs, and visitor setups.
- Work tickets from the global IT queue (we currently see ~250 per month) with a focus on SLA adherence and backlog reduction.
- Identify recurring issues and drive automation or process changes to prevent them.
Onboarding, offboarding & asset management (U.S.)- Own U.S.-based onboarding/offboarding: hardware provisioning, account creation/deactivation, access management, and first-day support for new hires.
- Maintain accurate asset inventory for laptops, peripherals, lab equipment, and network/compute hardware.
- Partner with HR and Security to ensure compliant account and device handling during offboarding.
Security, compliance & continuous improvement- Implement and maintain best practices for endpoint management (MDM, patching, endpoint protection) in coordination with Security.
- Contribute to access control, MFA enforcement, and secure configuration baselines for servers, network devices, and SaaS apps.
- Propose and lead small to medium projects to modernize our stack (e.g., backup redesign, monitoring improvements, consolidation or cloud offload of lab workloads).
What You Bring- 5+ years in hands-on IT infrastructure / systems administration / site IT roles supporting a technical organization.
- Strong experience with VMware vSphere/vCenter in a multi-host environment (capacity management, HA/DRS, templates, snapshots, upgrades).
- Solid understanding of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, VLANs, routing, firewalls, VPNs, and Wi-Fi in an office setting.
- Experience operating and troubleshooting on-prem server hardware, NAS/SAN storage, and UPS systems.
- Comfortable supporting both Windows and Linux servers and endpoints.
- Experience with modern ticketing systems (e.g., JIRA, Zendesk, ServiceNow or similar) and a disciplined approach to documentation.
- Ability to work independently on site while collaborating with a globally distributed IT and Engineering team.
- Strong communication skills and a calm, customer-oriented approach under pressure.
Nice to have- Experience in a software or IIoT / industrial tech environment.
- Scripting abilities (e.g., PowerShell, Bash, Python) for automation.
- Familiarity with monitoring/observability tools (e.g., Zabbix, Prometheus, Grafana, PRTG, etc.).
- Experience with identity and access management (SSO, SAML/OIDC), MDM/endpoint management, and security tooling.
Work Environment & Physical Requirements- This role requires regular on-site presence in Santa Clara to manage physical infrastructure and support the office.
- Ability to safely lift and move IT equipment (servers, UPS units, monitors, etc.) up to approximately 50 lbs, with reasonable accommodations as required by law.
If you need a reasonable accommodation at any stage of the application or employment process, including to perform essential job functions, we will work with you in accordance with applicable laws.
