Systems Engineer

GENERAL SUMMARY

The Systems Engineer’s role is to design, install,administer, and optimize servers and related components to achieve highperformance of the various business applications supported by City of CedarRapids. This includes local, remote, and cloud-based solutions, ensuring theavailability of applications, configuring new implementations, and developingprocesses and procedures for ongoing management of the server environment.Where applicable, the Systems Engineer will assist in overseeing the physical security,integrity, and safety of the data center/server environment. 

The Systems Engineer plays a key role in providing creative,dynamic solutions for a variety of needs at the City of Cedar Rapids.  The city maintains a highly availableenvironment requiring coordination with local departments and providingcritical services.  As a customer-centricDivision of the City, IT staff must display the highest levels ofprofessionalism, teamwork, and flexibility.  

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

The intent of this job description is to provide arepresentative summary of the major duties and responsibilities performed byincumbents of this job. Employees may be requested to perform job-related tasksother than those specifically presented in this description.

• •                    Collaborate with IT, City management and leadersto assess near- and long-term virtualization capacity needs with financiallysound solutions.
• •                    Develop strategies for service implementations;architect the infrastructure required to support those strategies.
• •                    Act as project lead in the design and review ofnew services, applications, and hardware; conduct capacity planning as needed.
• •                    Lead, coordinate and participate in key processimprovements as they relate to the server environment.
• •                    Coordinate and collaborate with networkengineering, business application, and database administration function toensure availability, reliability, and scalability of servers and cloud servicesto meet business demands.
• •                    Collaborate on and implement policies,procedures, and technologies to ensure services security and compliance.
• •                    Develop, implement and maintain policies,procedures, and associated training plans for systems administration, usage,and disaster recovery.
• •                    Check the service desk database for Incidentsand Service Requests; prioritize and respond to tickets as appropriate andwithin stated SLAs.
• •                    Serve as cornerstone for escalating serverissues; provide timely response to customer escalations.
• •                    Define and document best practice procedures forimplementation and maintenance of the environment.
• •                    Perform file system configuration andmanagement; define and perform server backups and recovery procedures.
• •                    Plan and implement strategies for Disasterrecovery and Business continuity solutions within the environment. 
• •                    Plan and implement server upgrades, softwareupgrades, maintenance fixes, and vendor-supplied patches and coordinate thoseefforts with System Engineer and applications team.
• •                    Provide Web administration support by overseeingand maintaining Web server functions, such as assuring logging and metrics dataare stable.
• •                    Monitor and test system performance and provideperformance statistics and reports.
• •                    Stay current on security related trends and makerecommendations based on research.
• •                    Create shell scripts as required.
• •                    Manage enterprise directory services andsupporting server infrastructure.
• •                    Manage all cloud-based back-office services andprovide integration support for all other cloud-based services.  
• •                    Define and implement strategies for integratingdisparate operating environments.
• •                    Recommend and execute modifications to serverenvironment to improve efficiency, reliability, and performance.
• •                    Develop and server documentation and maintaintraining materials.
• •                    Manage and/or provide guidance to junior membersof the team.
• •                    Perform services and security audits, andbackups and recovery.

MINIMUM ENTRANCE QUALIFICATIONS

• •                    University degree in computer science or relatedfiles and / or 5 – 7 years equivalent work experience.
• •                    Microsoft Certified Professional or higher 
• •                    VMware Certifications

COMPETENCIES FOR SUCCESSFULPERFORMANCE OF JOB DUTIES

Knowledge of:

• •                    At least five years’ equivalent work experiencein a senior technical analytical position responsible for managing serverenvironments.
• •                    Moderate to advanced knowledge of VMware.
• •                    Experience implementing a new ESX cluster,migrating clusters, decommissioning hosts, updating VMware tools, and buildinga new vCenter.
• •                    Troubleshooting ESX issues related to storage,network and performance issues.
• •                    Advanced knowledge of the following: WindowsServer, Active Directory, RedHat, SharePoint and MS Teams.
• •                    Moderate to advanced knowledge of the followingTechnologies including Pure Storage, Nimble Storage and Dell Servers.
• •                    Not required, but beneficial if familiar with;VEEAM.
• •                    Experience installing, configuring, andmaintaining all manners of server hardware and associated network equipment,including SCSI, RAID, and I/O topology.
• •                    Experience with server performance tuning andmonitoring tools.
• •                    Excellent hardware troubleshooting experience.
• •                    Ability to follow the City’s change managementpolicy.
• •                    Ability to work tickets through the City’sservice desk ticketing system with detail. 
• •                    Working technical knowledge of scripting codeusing VBScript, Command Shell, PowerShell or related tools.  
• •                    Good understanding of the organization’s goalsand objectives.
• •                    Knowledge of applicable data privacy practicesand laws