Senior Cisco Systems Administrator

invictusic; Alexandria (VA); Remote; USD 100,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

invictusic is seeking a Senior Cisco Systems Administrator to remotely manage Cisco UCS and VMware vSphere/VCF environments. The role requires hands-on experience, security-focused administration, and DR readiness.

Candidates should have Security+ or higher and ideally a VCP certification, with the ability to automate tasks via scripting. Responsibilities include monitoring, patching, hardening per STIGs, capacity reporting, and participating in DR exercises to ensure mission continuity.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of hands-on Cisco UCS and VMware vSphere/VCF administration experience.
• Security+ or higher certification required; VCP preferred.
• Knowledge of server virtualization, vSAN, NSX, and SDCC concepts.
• Experience with automation via scripting for admin tasks preferred.
• Public Trust required, Secret preferred.

Responsibilities

• Perform daily administration and monitoring of Cisco UCS domains, fabric interconnects, chassis, and blade servers.
• Manage, maintain, and upgrade VMware vSphere, vCenter, and VMware Cloud Foundation components (ESXi, vSAN, NSX-T).
• Design, implement, and maintain virtualization policies per data handling rules.
• Execute health checks and performance monitoring of UCS and VMware infrastructure.
• Perform disaster recovery testing and documentation for audits and continuity.
• Handle firmware updates and patches for Cisco UCS and VMware.
• Harden infrastructure according to DISA STIGs and STIG guidelines.
• Monitor environment using vRealize Operations and Intersight.
• Manage RBAC and audit logging for VMware and UCS environments.
• Support incident response, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis.
• Produce capacity, performance, and compliance reports for audits.
• Participate in DR exercises and update SOPs.

Skills

Cisco UCS administration

VMware vSphere/VCF administration

Scripting (PowerShell/PowerCLI/Python)

Security best practices

Disaster recovery planning

Education

Security+ or higher certification

VMware Certified Professional (VCP)

Tools

PowerCLI

vRealize Operations

Intersight

NSX-T

vSAN

Job description

Title: Senior Cisco Systems Administrator

Location: Remote

Clearance: Secret

Responsibilities

• Perform daily administration and monitoring of Cisco UCS domains, fabric interconnects, chassis, and blade servers
• Manage, maintain, and upgrade VMware vSphere, vCenter, and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) components, including ESXi, vSAN, and NSX-T
• Design, implement, and maintain virtualization and computing policies in compliance with classified data handling rules
• Execute and validate daily/weekly/monthly health checks and performance monitoring of UCS and VMware infrastructure
• Perform regular failover and disaster recovery testing and documentation to meet audit and mission continuity requirements
• Manage server profiles, templates, and firmware updates for Cisco UCS
• Apply VMware and Cisco patches, hotfixes, and feature releases following change-management and security approval processes
• Harden computing and virtualization infrastructure according to DISA STIGs and agency security technical implementation guides (STIGs)
• Monitor the computing environment using vRealize Operations, Intersight, and other alerting systems
• Manage role-based access control (RBAC) and audit logging for VMware and UCS environments
• Support incident response, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis for computing infrastructure issues
• Produce capacity, performance, and compliance reports for internal audits
• Participate in working groups and disaster recovery exercises
• Maintain up-to-date SOPs, system diagrams, and operational procedures

Requirements

• A minimum of three (3) years of hands-on Cisco UCS and VMware vSphere/VCF administration experience
• Security+ or higher certification required; current VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certification preferred
• Knowledge of server virtualization, vSAN, NSX, and software-defined data centers (SDDC)
• Strong experience with virtualized environments and cloud infrastructure
• Proficiency in hardware lifecycle management
• Solid understanding of SAN/NAS storage integration with VMware
• Deep knowledge of VMware Cloud Foundation architecture and deployment preferred
• Experience with scripting (e.g., PowerShell, PowerCLI, Python) for automation of administrative tasks preferred
• Public Trust required, Secret preferred

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled