Systems Administrator

Ready to Ignite your career and work alongside some of the most innovative and brightest professionals in innovative technology? Join us and unleash your potential working in an Agile environment while modernizing enterprise systems and applications needed to support the men and women charged with safeguarding the American people and enhancing the Nation’s safety, security, and prosperity. As a Systems Administrator you operate as part of a dynamic and passionate team of industry-leading individuals supporting the best practices in Agile Software Development for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). You will be focused on the delivery of software solutions associated with customer-defined systems and software projects by working in close collaboration with software developers/engineers, stakeholders, and end users within Agile processes.

Responsibilities Include:

•Providing technical expertise in designing, implementing, and managing secure and compliant cloud-based solutions within a government or highly regulated environment, with a strong emphasis on AWS GovCloud or equivalent secure cloud offerings.

•Responsible for the support of a broad range of AWS services in a secure government context, including but not limited to: 

• EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) within a secure VPC configuration 

• S3 (Simple Storage Service) with appropriate encryption and access controls 

• VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) design and management for segmented networks 

• RDS (Relational Database Service) with robust security configurations 

• IAM (Identity and Access Management) for granular privilege management 

• CloudWatch for monitoring and logging of security and performance events 

• Route 53 for secure DNS resolution 

• ELB/ALB (Elastic Load Balancing/Application Load Balancing) for resilient application delivery 

• Manage full lifecycle of system engineering, including design, build, configuration, deployment, maintenance, and decommissioning of mission-critical server infrastructure that supports critical operational functions. 

• Provide support with the administration and secure hardening of both Linux (specify distributions if relevant, e.g., RHEL, Ubuntu) and Windows Server operating systems, with a focus on implementing security controls and mitigating vulnerabilities. 

• Support teams in planning and executing the migration of on-premises infrastructure to secure cloud environments, understanding the unique challenges of government data transitions. 

• Support teams in migrating and modernizing legacy applications and systems, particularly those supporting critical system functions, to current or cloud-based platforms. This includes understanding data integrity and operational continuity during migration. 

• Manage planning and executing SharePoint migrations, especially into secure government environments, ensuring data classification and access controls are maintained. 

• Support database administration for systems handling sensitive information, including installation, configuration, performance tuning, robust backup and recovery strategies, and security hardening for common database systems (e.g., SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL). 

• Involved with teams in conducting security assessments, vulnerability analysis, threat modeling, and implementing security best practices to ensure adherence to federal cybersecurity and privacy regulations. 

• Establish and maintain strong, collaborative working relationships with diverse internal teams, stakeholders, other government agencies, and prime contractors. 

 • Meticulous approach to tasks, recognizing the critical nature of government systems and ensuring extreme accuracy in configuration, documentation, and problem resolution to maintain system integrity and compliance. 

• Commitment to providing exceptional service and support to government stakeholders, understanding their operational needs and the importance of reliable IT systems. 

• Clear, concise, and effective verbal communication skills, particularly when reporting technical status, risks, and solutions to a variety of technical and non-technical government personnel. 

• Ability to understand complex operational challenges, translate them into actionable technical problems, and devise and implement robust, secure, and compliant solutions that meet CBP mission requirements. 

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact and responder for a majority of system-related incidents and requests, with a focus on minimizing downtime and impact to mission-critical CBP functions. 

• Evaluating and recommending hardware and software enhancements as needed, including managing and testing system updates and patches to maintain performance and security. 

• Troubleshooting configuration and integration issues across development, test, and production environments, ensuring smooth transitions and minimal service disruption. 

• Creating and maintaining a variety of scripts to automate routine tasks, improve system efficiency, and support operational needs. 

• Monitoring and optimizing system performance, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing recommended changes. 

• Ensuring backup procedures are in place, functioning correctly, and executed on a timely basis, including validating restore integrity when required. 

• Interfacing with vendor support service groups to ensure proper escalation during outages or periods of degraded system performance and following through to resolution. 

• Maintaining existing systems by analyzing, designing, and implementing changes to system baselines so that updates meet customer requirements, and supporting upcoming technology refresh projects. 

Requirements

Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to pass CBP background investigation, criteria will include: 

o   3 year check for felony convictions 

o   1 year check for illegal drug use 

o   1 year check for misconduct such as theft or fraud 

• College degree (B.S.) in Computer Science, Information Management Systems, experience considered in lieu of degree 

• Strong technical background, with a minimum of five (5) solid years of experience providing system administration support for Windows and /or Linux Operating systems in cloud-based environments. 

• In-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with a broad range of AWS services in a secure government context.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 

• Highly responsible, team-oriented individual with very strong communication skills and work ethic; self-starter and highly proactive 

• Thorough knowledge of server and system administration principles 

• Must be available to work a hybrid schedule with on-site requirements in Ashburn, VA. 

 You are good at: 

• Familiarity with the general IT practices and terminology 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 

• Highly responsible, team-oriented individual with very strong work ethic; self-starter 

 Nice to Have: 

• Technical Certifications 

• Experience working with Linux and Windows operating systems in cloud-based infrastructures. 

• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, and problem-solving skills in a high-pressure, secure environment. 

Benefits

• 401(k) with matching and 100% Vested
• Health Insurance - 3 plans to select from
• Dental insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Short Term Disability
• Long Term Disability
• AD&D
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Training
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flexible schedule
• Flexible spending account
• Referral program
• Paid Legal Plan
• and more....

Ignite IT is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, Veteran status, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristic. In accordance with EO 13665 Final Rule, Ignite IT will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant.

Applicants selected must be able to possess and maintain a government clearance

US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED'