Systems Administrator is responsible for the administration, maintenance, security, and ongoing optimization of the organization's server, virtualization, storage, backup, and enterprise application environments. This role ensures the reliability, availability, performance, and security of critical IT infrastructure while providing responsive technical support to users and business operations.
The ideal candidate is a highly capable problem solver who can work independently in a high-pressure environment, effectively prioritize competing demands, communicate clearly with all levels of the organization, and maintain a strong customer-service orientation.
Responsibilities :Systems & Server Administration- Install, configure, maintain, monitor, and troubleshoot Windows server infrastructure, primarily Windows Server 2019, 2022, and 2025.
- Administer server hardware, operating systems, enterprise applications, and backend infrastructure.
- Manage Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, antivirus, vulnerability-management, and other core infrastructure services.
- Apply operating system updates, security patches, configuration changes, and system upgrades in accordance with established standards and procedures.
- Monitor system performance, availability, capacity, and health; identify and resolve issues before they impact business operations.
- Monitor system logs, alerts, events and respond appropriately to incidents.
- Perform routine audits of systems, software, configurations, and security controls.
- Develop, maintain, and enforce configuration standards, policies, and procedures for the server environment.
VMware & Virtualization- Install, administer, maintain, upgrade, and troubleshoot VMware vSphere environments.
- Manage VMware technologies including HA, DRS, vMotion, Distributed Switches, and Site Recovery Manager.
- Create and manage virtual machines, VM templates, resource pools, virtual clusters, virtual networks, security groups, permissions, and alert structures.
- Monitor and optimize VMware infrastructure performance from both the guest operating system and hypervisor layers.
- Troubleshoot virtualization-related performance, availability, capacity, and configuration issues.
Storage, Backup & Recovery- Administer SAN storage, including storage allocation, provisioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
- Support enterprise backup and recovery systems and software; Veeam experience is a plus.
- Perform and validate backup and recovery operations and assist with disaster recovery planning, testing, and execution.
- Monitor backup environments and address failures or other conditions that could affect data recoverability.
Security & Access Management- Manage user accounts, permissions, security groups, and access controls in accordance with established policies.
- Support implementation and maintenance of server security controls, antivirus, vulnerability-management tools, and security policies.
- Ensure systems are patched and configured according to security and operational standards.
- Identify potential security and compliance issues and escalate or remediate them as appropriate.
Incident Management & User Support- Respond to system and user incidents and work efficiently and professionally to resolve issues.
- Maintain accurate ticket statuses and document troubleshooting steps, progress, resolutions, and follow-up activities in the company's incident-management system.
- Develop and maintain positive working relationships with the user community while providing a high level of customer service.
- Prioritize incidents and competing requests appropriately while setting reasonable expectations with stakeholders at all organizational levels.
- Participate in on-call, after-hours, evening, and weekend support as required.
- Travel to Chicagoland data center to perform server hardware installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and administration.
Documentation & Collaboration- Maintain accurate and current system documentation, configurations, procedures, diagrams, and operational standards.
- Collaborate with network, security, cloud infrastructure, application, and other IT teams to resolve issues and implement solutions.
- Demonstrate leadership, ownership, accountability, and responsibility across IT functions.
- Identify opportunities to improve system reliability, security, performance, and operational efficiency.
The compensation for this position is $82k to $95k annually. Base pay will vary depending on factors, including but not limited to, a candidate's location, job-related knowledge, skills and work experience. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus. Vistex provides highly competitive benefits including comprehensive healthcare plan, 401(k) and paid time off, including paid volunteerism days!
