Principal Systems Engineer (IT Operations/VOIP)

City-of-Sacrament; Sacramento (CA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

The City of Sacramento is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to lead the VoIP and IT infrastructure projects, spanning PC to mainframe platforms. You will provide technical direction, mentor staff, and serve as SME for complex environments.

Ideal candidates bring extensive project management experience, cross‑platform expertise, and strong communication skills to drive system implementation and integration across citywide voice and data networks.

Qualifications

• Six years progressive OS programming experience in multi-platform IT environments.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field; additional experience may substitute for education.
• Experience supervising or leading projects on IT infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Identify and manage Citywide and large scale network needs; forecast workload and assess response times.
• Define and implement WAN/LAN connectivity to meet city needs.
• Write system level programs; perform installation, debugging, and maintenance.
• Develop and monitor Citywide security programs and audits.
• Supervise technical staff; provide training and performance evaluations.
• Develop project plans with scope, timeline, risks, and status reports.

Skills

Project management

Troubleshooting

Cross-platform system design

Staff supervision

Vendor negotiations

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Mainframe & network OS

Security tools

Job description

Please note: a candidate may be required to successfully pass a thorough background investigation, including a criminal history check for job-related convictions, fingerprinting, polygraph test, and a drug use history to be considered for this position.

With supervisor approval, incumbents may be eligible for intermittent remote work; however, they must physically reside within the Sacramento region or have the ability to regularly report to a City of Sacramento physical worksite with little notice.

This position, based in the Information Technology (IT) Department, serves as the technical expert and lead VoIP engineer. It oversees complex projects and delegates tasks to senior and systems engineers. It is responsible for designing, configuring, and maintaining the City’s VoIP infrastructure/environment and applications. Operating with discretion across Citywide call centers and voice applications including VoIP PBX, voice mail and E911, it provides leadership, training, mentoring, and direction to lower-level staff. Additionally, it acts as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) and final escalation point for operating, maintaining, troubleshooting the VoIP environment.

Ideal candidate statement

The ideal candidate will be an effective, articulate, and persuasive leader, capable of communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical staff. The ideal candidate will also possess the technical acumen to manage multiple projects in various stages, technologies and environments. Strong written and verbal communication skills are essential for collaborating with stakeholders and making critical decisions concerning system implementation and integration. The ideal candidate will have project management experience, strategic planning and execution, and the ability to optimize operating systems while leading multi-functional teams are also desirable.

Principal Systems Engineer

Under general direction, the Principal Systems Engineer performs a variety of professional, technical, and systems programming and/or network administration duties involving the design, development, testing, implementation and maintenance of the software and hardware infrastructure and connectivity capability between different platforms that manage information technology resources and/or support the execution of automated applications. The scope of systems includes all computing platforms from PCs to mainframes and associated networks. Incumbents may be assigned to duties in any one or a combination of platforms, operating systems and associated products.

Distinguishing Characteristics

This is an expert-professional-level classification and may be populated with multiple incumbents. The Principal Systems Engineer provides the highest level of technical expertise and knowledge in performing network design, administration and tuning, mainframe operating systems programming, and cross-platform system security. Incumbents provide technical leadership, training and informal work direction to lower-level staff and serve as technical experts who exercise discretion and have latitude in resolving complex technical issues. This classification is distinguished from the lower-level classification of Senior Systems Engineer by the highly complex nature of the duties performed including multi-platform system design, design and implementation of sophisticated security measures, complex technical specification development, technical project management and by the advanced level of knowledge and experience required.

Principal Systems Engineer is distinguished from Information Technology Supervisor in that the latter is the first full-supervisory level while the former, who may supervise as an incidental assignment, is the highest-level technical expert.

Supervision Received and Exercised

General direction is provided by an Information Technology Supervisor, an Information Technology Manager or higher-level management staff. Responsibilities may include supervision of technical and/or administrative staff. The following duties are typical for this classification. Incumbents may not perform all the listed duties and/or may be required to perform related duties as needed.

• Identifies and manages Citywide and/or large scale network needs through workload forecasting, response time evaluation, LAN/WAN throughput analysis.
• Defines, designs and implements WAN/LAN connectivity solutions to meet departmental and Citywide business needs.
• Writes system level programs and micro‑code as needed; performs systems software installation, debugging, testing, and maintenance.
• Integrates system software and conduct integration testing for internal and external interfaces.
• Develops and monitors Citywide security programs; implements and monitors security tools.
• Performs Citywide security audits.
• Supports departmental database applications and configures appropriate computing platform.
• Configures, troubleshoots and performs maintenance on servers, routers, switches, hubs, and related equipment.
• Evaluates and recommends vendor hardware and software products for purchase; coordinates problem resolution with outside vendors including outside consultants; tracks and documents software product licensing agreements.
• Supervises other technical staff by training, assigning tasks, monitoring progress, resolving problems, and conducting performance evaluations; develops hardware and software training programs for direct report, end‑users and other City staff.
• Develops project plans, defines project scope and timeline, identifies potential risks, develops contingency plans, provides cost estimates, identifies resource needs, tracks project progress, reviews milestones, resolves issues and conflicts, monitors and manages change, and prepares and presents status reports to management.
• Performs related or other duties as assigned.

Knowledge of

• Principles of and current trends in information technology design and implementation across all platforms from PCs to mainframes.
• Mainframe and network operating systems, programming languages, utilities and tools.
• Database administration.
• Project management techniques.
• Communication protocols, telecommunications and information processing environments.
• General programming and compilation techniques.
• Wired and wireless network design and implementation.
• Firewall architecture.
• Web architecture, protocols and languages.
• Network backup and recovery techniques.
• Security trends, risk assessment and products.

Skill in

• Project management.
• Troubleshooting complex technical problems.
• Developing and implementing complex technical solutions on multiple hardware and software platforms.
• Managing change, time, financial, technical and human resources.
• Vendor negotiations.

Ability to

• Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical personnel including the ability to provide fact-based details to support ideas, recommendations, and analysis.
• Reason logically in order to solve problems.
• Manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Supervise others by motivating, mentoring, training and guiding.

Experience and Education

Any combination of education and experience that would provide the required knowledge and abilities would be qualifying. A typical way to obtain the knowledge and abilities would be:

Experience

Six years progressively responsible operating systems programming experience in an IT environment consisting of multiple platforms, large-scale applications with multiple operating systems with a minimum of two years of supervisory or project leader experience.

Education

A Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science or a related degree.

Substitution

Additional experience may substitute for education on a year-for-year basis.

Proof of Education

Should education be used to qualify for this position, then proof of education such as, but not limited to, university/college transcripts and degrees should be submitted with your application and will be required at the time of appointment. Unofficial documents and/or copies are acceptable.

An applicant with a college degree obtained outside the United States must have education records evaluated by a credentials evaluation service. Evaluation of education records will be due at time of appointment.