Senior Classified Systems Administrator

MITRE; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 129,000 - 162,000; Full time

Job summary

MITRE is seeking a Senior Systems Administrator to join a distributed team in McLean, VA. The role focuses on hands-on system administration, lifecycle activities, and security compliance to support Classified Infrastructure.

Responsibilities include incident management, documentation, and collaboration across security, network, and systems teams to ensure mission success in a regulated environment. On-site work five days a week with TS clearance required.

Qualifications

• Minimum five years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or three years with a Master’s; or PhD with relevant experience.
• Must meet DoD 8570.01M IAT Level II requirements.
• Active Top Secret clearance and U.S. citizenship.
• Five days on-site work requirement.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on system administration across multiple environments within a distributed team.
• Handle incident and request management, ensuring timely SLAs.
• Create and maintain technical documentation and knowledge base articles.
• Collaborate with security, network, and systems teams to ensure compliant classified operations.
• Monitor system performance and generate management reports for process improvement.

Skills

Strong communication

Security clearance

Team collaboration

On-site work

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher

Tools

RHEL Linux

Scripting: Bash/PowerShell/Python/Ansible

Security clearance processes

DoD 8570 IAT II

Job description

At MITRE, your passion fuels work that impacts our nation and improves lives. This is where your skills strengthen national security, cybersecurity, health, transportation, and citizen services. We’re a nonprofit engineering, applied research, and advanced technology organization working in the public interest. With objectivity and integrity at our core, we lead federally funded research and development centers for U.S. government agencies – collaborating with industry and academia to deliver integrated, high-impact solutions that advance our nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Our people tackle the toughest technical challenges, supported by competitive benefits, meaningful career development, and a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence. Choose MITRE for a career with purpose — and help shape the future.

MITRE’s Classified Infrastructure is looking for a Senior Systems Administrator to be part of a distributed team. A successful candidate will be delivering timely, effective, and sustainable capabilities to Classified Infrastructure managed environments helping to ensure continued customer and mission success. This position will be heavily involved in hands‑on systems administration efforts through all phases of a system’s lifecycle, with emphasis on operations and maintenance, customer delivery, and maintaining security compliance.

Role & Responsibilities

• System Administration: provide technical-focused hands‑on support across multiple environments as part of a large, distributed team. Contribute to system lifecycle activities, including planning and initial deployment, system and application provisioning and delivery, troubleshooting and operational support, security compliance management and maintenance, routine operations & maintenance, and deprovisioning/decommissioning
• Incident and Request Management: Handle and resolve escalated service desk tickets, ensuring timely resolution of technical issues and user requests while adhering to established SLAs (Service Level Agreements).
• Documentation and Knowledge Base Maintenance: Create, update, and maintain technical documentation, user guides, and knowledge base articles to improve efficiency and empower end-users to resolve common issues independently.
• Escalation and Collaboration: Collaborate with higher‑level IT teams or vendors to escalat complex issues, ensuring proper communication and follow‑up until resolution.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Monitor system performance, service desk metrics, and ticket trends, providing regular reports to management and identifying opportunities for process improvement.
• Training and Support: Provide guidance and training to junior service desk staff and end‑users, promoting best practices and ensuring consistent adherence to Classified IT policies and procedures.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with relevant experience who can immediately contribute at this job step; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• In accordance with DoD 8570.01M, the selected individual must meet the requirements of an IAT Level II as a condition of employment and computing environment training/certification.
• Security+ Certification / 8570 Certification – IAT Level II (Must possess certification within 6-months of hire date).
• 3+ years of relevant system administration experience, with progressive growth in skillsets and technical depth.
• Demonstrated ability to follow strict procedures, document actions accurately, and ensure compliance with security policies and operational guidelines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to interact effectively with users, stakeholders, and security personnel while maintaining professionalism in a high‑stakes environment.
• Ability to work under pressure, adapt to rapidly changing priorities, and think critically to resolve issues in a secure and dynamic environment.
• Experience working in cross‑functional teams, including security, network, and systems administrators, to ensure seamless operations in a classified setting.
• Must have an active Top Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Per the U.S. Government’s eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
• This position requires 5 days a week on‑site.

Preferred Qualifications

• Significant operational experience with Linux platforms (Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)) at moderate scale (10-50 systems) including installations, patching/maintenance, monitoring, and compliance.
• Experience with scripting and automation tools on multiple platforms, including one or more of bash, PowerShell, python, and Ansible.
• Demonstrated exposure and understanding of related fields, including scalable infrastructure, virtualization, and networking.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to interact effectively with users, stakeholders, and security personnel while maintaining professionalism in a high‑stakes environment.
• Experience with classified IT systems, including secure networks (e.g., SIPRNet, JWICS), secure file transfer protocols, and government‑approved software and hardware.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

Top Secret

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Top Secret

Salary compensation range and midpoint

$129,200 - $161,500 - $193,800 Annual

Work Location Type

Onsite

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

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