Hybrid Cloud & Security Systems Engineer

Vanderbilt University; Nashville (TN); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanderbilt University seeks a Systems Engineer to design, secure, and operate the Wicked Problems Lab's research computing environment, spanning AWS cloud and on‑prem GPU/AI infrastructure. This hands‑on role offers autonomy in a fast‑moving national security research setting.

The ideal candidate will oversee Linux administration, IaC tooling (Terraform/Ansible), databases, ETL pipelines, and advanced networks. A strong security mindset and ability to support researchers are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field; equivalent experience may substitute.
• AWS/Linux/security certifications preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design, architect, and operate the Lab's hybrid environment — AWS (EC2, VPC, S3, IAM) and on-premises GPU/AI compute; scale storage and GPU capacity; ensure resilience.
• Administer Linux servers end to end; manage configuration as code with Terraform/Ansible; manage SSH/key lifecycle.
• Stand up, secure, tune, and back up research databases (PostgreSQL, NoSQL); build ETL and data-movement pipelines.
• Harden systems with patch/vulnerability management, segmentation, secrets management, and endpoint protection; ensure compliance.
• Serve as first point of contact for researchers' systems and AI tooling; stay current with cloud, GPU/AI, and security tech.
• Configure and troubleshoot network infrastructure; monitor traffic; deploy IDS/IPS and analyze packets.

Skills

AWS cloud

Linux administration

Security & compliance

Networking & traffic analysis

Education

Bachelor's in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Bash

Python

PostgreSQL

NoSQL

CUDA

Job description

Vanderbilt University seeks a Systems Engineer to design, secure, and operate the Wicked Problems Lab's research computing environment, spanning AWS cloud and on‑prem GPU/AI infrastructure. This hands‑on role offers autonomy in a fast‑moving national security research setting.

The ideal candidate will oversee Linux administration, IaC tooling (Terraform/Ansible), databases, ETL pipelines, and advanced networks. A strong security mindset and ability to support researchers are essential.