L3 Network Support Engineer

System One; Highland Beach (MD); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

401(k) plan

Life insurance

Voluntary plans

Job summary

System One is seeking a Network & Systems Administrator in Annapolis, MD to join a 24/7/365 operations team. You will be a senior escalation point ensuring performance, reliability, and security of networking and IT systems across on-premises and cloud environments.

The role requires a bachelor’s degree and multiple certifications (JNCIP, RHCE) plus 3+ years of senior experience in a mission-critical setting. On-site, with opportunities for advanced automation and security improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/telecommunications required.
• JNCIP Routing & Switching and JNCIP-SEC certifications required.
• RHCE and RHCE Security certifications preferred.
• 3+ years of senior-level systems/network admin experience in 24/7/critical environments.
• Experience with ISP/carrier-grade networks.
• Experience deploying virtualized Linux servers (on-prem/cloud).
• Strong expertise in VPNs, VLANs, firewalls, and routing protocols.

Responsibilities

• Provide L3 technical support through 24/7/365 service desk with on-call rotations.
• Monitor IT systems, networks, and cloud infrastructure; remediate issues before impact.
• Design, deploy, and maintain IT networks including cloud environments; emphasize resilience and security.
• Ensure security and compliance; plan upgrades, patches, and hardening activities.
• Maintain user accounts, access controls, and software licenses.
• Audit IT systems and assets; document configurations and policies.
• Document policies and configurations to professional standards.
• Test and deploy patches in a controlled manner.
• Mentor junior staff; contribute to knowledge base and training materials.

Skills

Bash

Python

Ansible

Grafana

Prometheus

Elasticsearch

Nagios

Git workflows

Terraform

CI/CD

Active Directory

LDAP

VMware

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/telecommunications

JNCIP Routing & Switching

JNCIP-SEC

RHCE

RHCE Security

Tools

OpenStack

OpenShift

VMware

Azure

Terraform

Ansible

FRR routing

Job description

Job Title: Network & Systems Administrator

Location: Annapolis, MD

Work Model: On-Site

Hours: 40.0

Job Summary: Based in Maryland, you will be a key member of a 24/7/365 operations team responsible for supporting highly available, mission-critical communications infrastructure. This role serves as a senior escalation point, ensuring the performance, reliability, and security of networking and IT systems

Responsibilities

• Provide L3 technical support through Etherstack's 24/7/365 service desk, including on-call rotations and shift-based coverage; respond to, triage, elevate, and resolve incidents in accordance with defined SLAs.
• Proactively monitor all IT systems, networks, and cloud infrastructure using observability tooling; identify and remediate issues before they impact operations.
• Design, deploy, and maintain Etherstack's IT networks—including cloud-hosted environments—with a focus on resilience, redundancy, and security; augment infrastructure to support new projects and services.
• Ensure IT systems meet security and compliance standards; plan and execute upgrades, patches, and hardening activities.
• Maintain and administer user accounts, access controls, and application software licenses.
• Conduct regular audits of IT systems and software; maintain an accurate, up-to-date asset register.
• Document policies, procedures, infrastructure, and system configurations to a professional standard.
• Analyze, test, and deploy software patches and updates in a controlled, risk-managed manner.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior team members; contribute to knowledge base articles and training materials.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a field related to IT, computer science, or telecommunications.
• Juniper Engineer level certification in Routing and Switching (JNCIP) and Network Security (JNCIP-SEC).
• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), and Red Hat Certified Specialist in Security certifications.
• At least three years of senior-level experience in systems and network administration, ideally within a 24/7 operations or NOC environment, with demonstrable on-call and shift rotation experience in a mission-critical setting.
• Proven experience in an ISP or carrier-grade networking environment.
• Experience deploying and maintaining virtualized Linux servers (on-premises and cloud).
• Experience designing and implementing secure, robust network architectures including VPNs, VLANs, and firewall configurations; hands-on experience with Cisco, Juniper, and open-source tools such as FRR routing.
• Strong scripting and automation proficiency in Bash, Python, and Ansible.
• Experience with Linux on virtualized platforms (OpenStack, OpenShift, VMware, Microsoft Azure), with strong expertise in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), including Subscriptions, Licensing, IdM Server, and Satellite Server.
• Experience configuring, troubleshooting, and hardening VMs and servers using Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS).
• Hands‑on experience with monitoring and observability stacks: Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, or Thanos.
• Excellent written and oral English communication skills, including the ability to write clear incident reports and post‑mortems.
• Ability to remain composed and make sound decisions under pressure during critical incidents; strong professional relationship skills in a fast‑paced, always‑on environment.
• Routing & Switching: Deep expertise in IP routing and switching, including MPLS, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, RIP, Multicast, VLANs, Inter‑VLANs, Spanning Tree, BFD, VXLAN, eVPN, IS‑IS, and VRRP.
• VPN & Security: Solid experience with IPSec VPNs, SSL VPNs, and advanced firewall configuration.
• Network Troubleshooting: Strong ability to diagnose and resolve complex, time‑sensitive networking issues efficiently.
• Systems Administration: Installation, configuration, hardening, maintenance, and patching of network and server infrastructure; advanced troubleshooting in disk/storage management including LVM, RAW, XFS, EXT4, and BTRFS.
• Monitoring & Observability: Configuring, troubleshooting, and managing systems including Grafana, Prometheus, Elasticsearch, and related tooling.
• DevOps Practices: Familiarity with Git‑based workflows and automated deployment strategies in production environments.
• Cloud certification (Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud) and experience with Terraform or similar IaC tools for cloud provisioning.
• Cybersecurity training and certification (e.g., CompTIA Security+, CISSP).
• Experience contributing to DevOps or SRE frameworks, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure‑as‑code (Terraform, Ansible), and version‑controlled configuration management.
• Quality of Service (QoS) configuration on routers, switches, and firewalls.
• Experience with network management tools (e.g., Nagios) and protocols (e.g., SNMP); expertise in authentication technologies, particularly Active Directory and LDAP.
• Familiarity with ITIL or similar service management frameworks relevant to 24/7 operations.

System One, and its subsidiaries including Joulé and Mountain Ltd., are leaders in delivering outsourced services and workforce solutions across North America. We help clients get work done more efficiently and economically, without compromising quality. System One not only serves as a valued partner for our clients, but we offer eligible employees health and welfare benefits coverage options including medical, dental, vision, spending accounts, life insurance, voluntary plans, as well as participation in a 401(k) plan.

System One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, family care or medical leave status, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.