Senior Systems Administrator

Senior Systems Administrator – Job Description & Application

Senior Systems Administrator

Job Summary & Purpose

The Senior Systems Administrator will be responsible for resolving escalated service issues, coaching other administrators to resolve, engineering and implementing complex projects, and maintaining and overseeing data center infrastructure.

This role is a key position within ICT operations and will be called upon to resolve higher levels of technical issues on Microsoft and other data center technologies, including end-user computer environment protection.

Organisational Relationships

• Reports To: Head, ICT Systems
• Direct Reports: Administrators
• Internal Relationships: All Users
• External Relationships: Vendors

Responsibilities

• Management of Microsoft M365 including all communication and collaboration services offered under it, including Teams, Exchange E-mail, SharePoint, etc.
• Device management and enrollment.
• Device compliance and configuration.
• Conditional Access.
• Mobile Application Management.
• DLP policies.
• Identify security risks within the Office 365 environment and services and suggest mitigations.
• Support hybrid Microsoft environments.
• Investigate and analyze resource utilization and prepare reports.
• Optimize network infrastructure to maintain the highest possible level of performance and security.
• Plan the replacement of obsolete resources that make up the enterprise network infrastructure.
• Build, support and maintain the VDI environment, including standardized templates, application delivery methods, enterprise antivirus, persona management infrastructure, host servers and zero clients.
• Build, support and maintain the configuration management suite, including multiple Windows Enterprise desktop images (WIMs), automated task sequences, automated backup infrastructure, central imaging environment, automated software deployment and patch management updates.
• Manage and support Veeam cloud/on-prem backup infrastructure.
• Build, support and maintain Active Directory Group Policy Objects used to secure and configure the enterprise client-computing infrastructure.
• Build, support and maintain role-based access control for enterprise computing solutions, including VDI, endpoint management suite and Print/Scan solutions.
• Build, support and maintain support documents, standard operating procedures and policies related to network, security systems, server and storage infrastructure, and client-computing infrastructure.
• Work with application developers and third-party vendors to develop software or virtualized installation packages for network deployment via the Enterprise configuration management suite.
• Build, support and maintain enterprise network, servers and storage infrastructure, both virtual and physical, using routine commands, administration techniques, tools and utilities.
• Build, support and maintain Microsoft and Linux infrastructure for the enterprise.
• Build, support and maintain protection of company data and systems through security solutions, backups, redundancy and disaster recovery solutions.
• Manage the asset lifecycle process through planning and forecasting, including recommendations for replacement of obsolete or end-of-life resources.
• Interact with external vendors to evaluate technology changes, including licensing and contracts, and their impact on the business.
• Investigate and analyze resource utilization and prepare reports and metrics, making appropriate changes to optimize infrastructure and provide the highest possible level of performance and security.

Person Specifications

Academic Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology or related discipline.

Professional Qualifications

• Microsoft Azure Administrator
• Microsoft 365 Security Administrator
• Microsoft Azure Security Engineer
• ITIL Foundation

Experience

• Minimum of 4 years of experience in Windows systems installation, operations, administration and maintenance of physical and virtualized servers.
• Experience managing Windows Server OS and domain architecture, including Active Directory, DNS/DHCP, Microsoft Exchange, Certificate Services, GPOs, policies and permissions.
• Extensive knowledge of Windows PowerShell, standard utilities and common Windows security tools.

Technical Knowledge & Expertise

• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services.
• Knowledge of authentication protocols and techniques including LDAPS, SAML and Kerberos.
• Strong knowledge of network tools and protocols such as TCP/IP.
• Excellent knowledge of VMware and administration of virtual servers.
• Working knowledge of NAS/SAN storage environments.
• Ability to evaluate and remediate security vulnerabilities.

Key Skills & Competencies

• Experience with large Exchange to Office 365 migrations.
• Office 365 administration, applications and services in a hybrid server environment.
• Deep knowledge of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Active Directory and Client/Server Architecture.
• Knowledge of Microsoft M365/O365 administration.
• Experience implementing Office 365 and Exchange Online.
• Experience working with Microsoft Skype for Business.
• Deep knowledge of High-Availability computing and networking, including load balancing, TCP/IP, DHCP and DNS.
• Experience using PowerShell and/or other scripting tools.
• In-depth technical expertise in messaging, video, voice, web conferencing and IP telephony technologies.
• Experience working with File Security and Classifications.
• Solid grasp of UCC Communications Protocols including SIP, RTV, WebRTC, H.264 and H.323, and understanding of the impact of QoS in the UCC ecosystem.
• Knowledge of Hyper-V, vSphere, Citrix, SQL and Terminal Services.
• Experience with Exchange Server 2003–2016.
• Experience with Windows Server 2003–2016.
• OSX troubleshooting experience.

Key Performance Metrics

| Performance Area | Performance Indicators | | --- | --- | | Secure and highly available server infrastructure | 99.9% Server infrastructure uptime Number of unplanned changes | | Highly available and secure e-mail infrastructure | 99.9% e-mail service uptime Number of e-mail security breaches | | Highly available UCC platform | 99.9% uptime on Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC) services Number of unplanned changes | | Functional data loss prevention | 100% backup of production data Adherence to data retention policy |