Cloud / System Engineer (Journeyman)
Description
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Cloud / System Engineer (Journeyman) based in the United States.
Join an enterprise infrastructure engineering team supporting secure, reliable, and resilient IT services for a federal government mission. In this hands-on role, you will manage enterprise servers, operating systems, virtualization platforms, cloud services, and infrastructure appliances while supporting system upgrades and technology modernization. You will troubleshoot complex technical issues, implement approved configurations, and help restore critical services during outages and operational disruptions. Working closely with engineering leads, network and application teams, cybersecurity specialists, government stakeholders, and vendors, you will contribute to infrastructure performance, security, and continuity. This remote opportunity is best suited to an experienced systems professional with an active Secret security clearance, strong technical troubleshooting skills, and the flexibility to support maintenance windows and after-hours incidents when required. Candidates located in the Chicago area are preferred.
Accountabilities
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Install, configure, administer, maintain, monitor, and troubleshoot enterprise servers, operating systems, and supporting infrastructure.
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Support Windows Server, Linux, and other approved enterprise operating systems, including physical and virtual servers, system services, enterprise applications, and infrastructure appliances.
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Administer virtualization platforms, including hypervisors, management servers, clusters, hosts, and virtual machines, while monitoring availability, utilization, capacity, performance, and system health.
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Diagnose and resolve complex issues involving operating systems, virtualization, storage, infrastructure appliances, cloud connectivity, and system performance.
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Integrate infrastructure appliances with network, storage, identity, monitoring, logging, backup, virtualization, and security services.
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Support cloud operations and connectivity across cloud, on-premises, remote, and continuity environments, including virtual private clouds (VPCs), DNS, load balancers, APIs, and digital certificates.
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Implement approved infrastructure configurations, operating-system updates, vendor patches, firmware upgrades, security fixes, and other technical changes, testing changes before production deployment when required.
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Support technology refreshes, hardware replacements, software upgrades, workload migrations, and infrastructure modernization initiatives from planning and staging through installation, testing, validation, and documentation.
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Develop and execute approved implementation plans, migration procedures, test cases, validation criteria, rollback procedures, and outage contingency plans.
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Participate in outage response activities, helping diagnose incidents, implement mitigations and workarounds, restore services, and validate operational recovery.
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Collect logs, configuration information, monitoring data, incident timelines, and other technical evidence to support investigations and root-cause analysis.
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Escalate complex issues to senior engineers, vendors, cloud providers, and relevant support teams while tracking recovery actions, technical dependencies, and corrective measures through resolution.
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Support backup and recovery, replication, high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and continuity-of-operations capabilities, including testing recovery procedures.
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Assist with infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) initiatives using approved tools and scripting technologies.
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Apply Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) and approved security baselines, supporting remediation of vulnerabilities, Information Assurance Vulnerability Alerts (IAVAs), Cybersecurity and Network Defense (CND) directives, Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms), and other security-control deficiencies.
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Maintain evidence and documentation supporting Risk Management Framework (RMF), Authority to Operate (ATO), cybersecurity, audit, and inspection requirements.
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Follow established incident, problem, change, configuration, release, availability, and service-continuity management processes.
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Maintain accurate system diagrams, asset inventories, configuration records, licensing and warranty information, build documents, operational procedures, and standard operating procedures.
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Identify recurring incidents, capacity limitations, outdated components, configuration risks, and opportunities to improve infrastructure security, automation, availability, scalability, and operational efficiency.
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Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field.
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At least six years of relevant experience in cloud engineering, systems engineering, systems administration, virtualization, or enterprise infrastructure operations.
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Active Secret security clearance or higher.
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Current professional certification relevant to systems engineering, cloud platforms, operating systems, virtualization, or enterprise infrastructure.
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Experience administering Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or comparable enterprise operating systems.
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Strong understanding of server administration, virtualization, infrastructure appliances, cloud connectivity, system monitoring, and enterprise IT operations.
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Experience with VMware vSphere, ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, Site Recovery Manager, NSX, VMware Cloud Foundation, or comparable virtualization technologies.
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Familiarity with Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS GovCloud, Microsoft Azure Government, or other government-authorized cloud environments.
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Experience configuring or troubleshooting VPCs, DNS, load balancers, APIs, certificates, compute and storage resources, and cloud integrations.
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Understanding of infrastructure integration with enterprise networking, identity, monitoring, logging, backup, and security services.
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Experience supporting hardware and software refreshes, platform upgrades, system migrations, infrastructure replacements, and modernization projects.
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Knowledge of outage response, incident resolution, root-cause analysis, service restoration, and corrective-action tracking.
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Experience with high availability, fault tolerance, backup and recovery, replication, disaster recovery, and continuity planning.
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Familiarity with automation and Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, AWS CloudFormation, PowerShell, Python, or Bash.
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Understanding of DISA STIG implementation and Department of Defense cybersecurity processes, including RMF, ATO, IAVA, CND directives, vulnerability remediation, and POA&M management.
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Strong documentation and configuration-management skills, including the ability to maintain implementation plans, system diagrams, build documentation, test results, and operational procedures.
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Strong analytical thinking, technical troubleshooting, problem-solving, and attention to detail.
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Effective written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across engineering, networking, application, cybersecurity, service-management, vendor, and government teams.
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Ability to work independently, manage technical priorities, follow established procedures, and maintain secure and reliable infrastructure operations.
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Flexibility to support after-hours outages, deployments, upgrades, migrations, maintenance windows, and component-refresh activities when needed.
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Ability to work remotely and coordinate effectively with distributed technical teams.
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Experience supporting enterprise IT systems or cloud infrastructure in a federal government or Department of Defense environment.
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Relevant certifications such as AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator, Red Hat Certified System Administrator, VMware Certified Professional, CompTIA Server+, or equivalent credentials.
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ITIL Foundation certification or higher.
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Experience with government cloud security requirements, infrastructure compliance, and secure enterprise service delivery.
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Remote work arrangement, with preference given to candidates located in the Chicago, Illinois area.
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Full-time, regular employment opportunity.
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Opportunity to support a federal government infrastructure and modernization mission.
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Hands-on experience with enterprise cloud services, virtualization, systems administration, cybersecurity, and infrastructure lifecycle management.
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Collaboration with multidisciplinary technical teams, government stakeholders, and infrastructure specialists.
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Opportunities to apply and expand expertise in enterprise systems, cloud platforms, automation, security compliance, and service continuity.
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Salary, healthcare coverage, retirement benefits, paid time off, and other specific compensation details were not provided in the source listing.
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Important: By applying, candidates acknowledge and consent to having their résumé included in an active competitive government contract bid.
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After-hours support may be required for outages, deployments, upgrades, maintenance windows, and infrastructure refresh activities.
Requirements:
Preferred qualifications:
Benefits:
Skills
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