Senior Systems Engineer

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Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

NPR is seeking an experienced, technically rigorous Senior IT Systems Engineer to join our IT Systems team. In this role, you will serve as a primary technical lead responsible for the design, deployment, administration, and optimization of NPR’s core virtualized data center infrastructure. The ideal candidate brings deep, hands-on expertise in VMware vSphere, enterprise Storage Area Networks (SAN/NAS), and Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) environments.

You will play a critical role in ensuring the high availability, scalability, performance, and security of our enterprise systems while partnering across Technology to advance infrastructure modernization and automation initiatives in support of our nationwide public media mission.

1. Architect Virtualized Infrastructure: Design, deploy, and manage core virtualized data center infrastructure, leading enterprise VMware vSphere environments, Cisco UCS compute platforms, and SAN/NAS storage arrays.
2. Administer Enterprise Compute & Storage: Execute routine server builds, security patch management, virtual machine lifecycle administration, and enterprise storage capacity allocation.
3. Advance Cloud & Hybrid Integration: Evaluate systems architecture and hybrid-cloud strategy, taking operational ownership of the maintenance and integration of cloud infrastructure (AWS or Azure).

1. Govern Disaster Recovery Strategies: Design, maintain, and rigorously test business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, including enterprise backups, data replication, and automated site failovers.
2. Manage Structured Change Processes: Recommend, test, and implement system enhancements in strict adherence to established organizational change management policies and procedures.
3. Publish System Documentation & SOPs: Author and maintain comprehensive systems architecture diagrams, standard operating procedures (SOPs), runbooks, and technical documentation for IT colleagues and system stakeholders.

1. Lead Tier-3 Escalations & Root Cause Analysis: Serve as the senior technical escalation point for enterprise technology teams, isolating root causes and resolving complex production incidents.
2. Automate Infrastructure Operations: Design and execute automation scripts using modern scripting languages to streamline routine administrative tasks, infrastructure provisioning, and systems health reporting.
3. Maintain Operational Communications: Provide timely status reporting on system health to engineering leadership, manage incident response on a 24x7 rotation, and articulate outage impact clearly to technical and operational partners.

• 5+ years of dedicated experience as a Systems or Infrastructure Engineer supporting, administering, and troubleshooting systems in an enterprise data center environment.
• Proven, hands-on experience designing and managing complex VMware vSphere environments (clustering, DRS, HA, vMotion).
• Extensive experience with Cisco UCS Manager, configuring service profiles, templates, and physical hardware deployment.
• Strong background in configuring and managing enterprise SAN/NAS storage arrays and storage networking protocols.
• 2+ years of experience planning, designing, and maintaining cloud infrastructure (AWS or Azure).
• Strong working knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Windows Server (2016+), Active Directory, Azure AD, Office 365, IIS, SQL, DFS, DHCP, and DNS.
• Experience creating detailed systems documentation and flow charts.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to successfully handle multiple projects in a high-pressure, collaborative environment.
• Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and a 2-week onsite rotation every two months (or as required).

• Infrastructure Automation & Scripting: Experience utilizing configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet) and writing automation scripts (PowerShell, Python, or Bash).
• Identity, Access & Messaging Services: Practical experience managing enterprise SSO/MFA solutions, Exchange Online/Hybrid environments, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
• Industry Certifications: Active professional certifications in VMware (VCP), Cisco (CCNA/CCNP Data Center), Microsoft, or AWS/Azure solutions architecture.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

• Hybrid Permitted: This is a hybrid permitted role. Some aspects of this role require duties better performed at an NPR facility. The employee will be required to be in the office at the Washington, D.C. location for a two-week block approximately every two months. The employee will also be  expected to be onsite as needed to support onsite projects.

• Expert-level analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to resolve complex hardware, software, and performance issues under pressure.
• Deep understanding of networking concepts (VLANs, routing, switching, LACP, DNS, DHCP) as they relate to virtualization and server infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of security best practices for data center infrastructure and virtualization platforms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of translating technical challenges to cross-functional teams and leadership.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to lead infrastructure upgrades and migrations independently.
• Self-motivated team player with a willingness to participate in an on-call rotation and perform after-hours maintenance.

• This is a full-time, exempt position.

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