Systems Engineer - AD Migration (Contract)

hedgehog lab; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Part time

Job summary

A technology consultancy is seeking a Systems Engineer for a critical Active Directory migration project. This role involves assessing the current environment, designing a new architecture in AWS, and leading the migration process. Candidates should have strong experience with Active Directory migrations, Windows Server operations, and AWS workloads. This is a remote-first position with some collaboration in Manchester, focusing on improving operational resilience and disaster recovery capabilities.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience with Active Directory migrations and consolidation.
• Deep knowledge of Windows Server and AD operations.
• Experience running Windows workloads in AWS (EC2).
• Proven ability to deliver high-risk infrastructure change safely.

Responsibilities

• Assess and validate the current AD setup, risks, and dependencies.
• Design the target-state AD architecture and migration approach.
• Build a new consolidated AD environment in AWS.
• Migrate identities and services using a staged approach.
• Migrate an initial service as a blueprint, then scale across the remaining estate.
• Ensure AD supports reliable backup, recovery, and DR testing.
• Document decisions, risks, and runbooks clearly.

Skills

Active Directory migrations and consolidation

Windows Server operations

AWS (EC2)

Infrastructure change delivery

Job description

Overview

Job title: Systems Engineer (Active Directory Migration)
Location: UK (Remote-first) | Occasional travel: Manchester
Type: Contract (initially 2-3 month with possible extension).

We are hiring an experienced Systems Engineer to deliver a critical Active Directory migration within an AWS-hosted legacy estate. This work is essential to improving operational resilience and enabling disaster recovery testing across Windows-based services.

You will take ownership of untangling a partially completed AD migration and leading the move to a single, well-managed Active Directory domain within our core AWS platform environment. This role requires strong technical judgement, not just execution.

What you’ll do

• Assess and validate the current AD setup, risks, and dependencies.
• Design the target-state AD architecture and migration approach.
• Build a new consolidated AD environment in AWS.
• Migrate identities and services using a staged approach, preserving SIDs where required.
• Migrate an initial service as a blueprint, then scale across the remaining estate.
• Ensure AD supports reliable backup, recovery, and DR testing.
• Document decisions, risks, and runbooks clearly.

What we’re looking for

Essential

• Strong hands-on experience with Active Directory migrations and consolidation.
• Deep knowledge of Windows Server and AD operations.
• Experience running Windows workloads in AWS (EC2).
• Proven ability to deliver high-risk infrastructure change safely.

Nice to have

• Experience migrating away from AWS Managed Microsoft AD.
• Infrastructure-as-code experience.
• AWS disaster recovery and backup experience.

Ways of working

• Remote-first, with Manchester-based collaboration preferred where useful