Senior IT / System Administrator

Research And Developement Industries Inc; Iowa, Northern (LA, KY); Hybrid; USD 95,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Research And Developement Industries Inc is seeking a Senior IT / System Administrator & Network Engineer for an on-site role in the Iowa Great Lakes region. The candidate will manage complex LAN/WAN infrastructures, lead teams, and coordinate on-site customer deployments.

Strong troubleshooting, security, and hands-on network experience are essential. Qualified candidates will have substantial experience with Windows Server, Active Directory, DNS/Email systems, and virtualization, with a focus

Qualifications

• Typically requires a strong background in IT infrastructure and network engineering.
• Experience delivering on-site support and customer-focused service.
• Ability to lead teams and manage projects in enterprise environments.
• Proficiency with LAN/WAN design, virtualization, and security best practices.

Responsibilities

• Identify and design infrastructure upgrades for customers to enhance security and stability.
• Meet with customers to discuss challenges and develop secure, effective plans.
• Design LAN/WAN networks including VLANs and VPNs.
• Install, configure, and troubleshoot servers, virtualization infra, switches, routers, firewalls, and related tech.
• Respond to alerts and customer issues, documenting resolutions.
• Travel to customer sites to implement and support projects.
• Prepare accurate time/material estimates for large projects.
• Manage Active Directory, Group Policies, and Office 365 deployments.
• Ensure backups, firewall rules, and security baselines are maintained.

Skills

Customer service

Team leadership

Troubleshooting

On-site work

Learning new tech

Communication

Network design

Project planning

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS

Tools

VMware

vCenter

ESXi

Office 365

Job description

Position Overview

Our Senior IT / System Administrators & Network Engineers hold a wealth of knowledge regarding complex LAN and WAN network infrastructure. They are able to provide the highest level of network system maintenance and support and are expected to have leading-class knowledge of hardware, software, networking, and security. A Senior Systems & Network Engineer should have years of experience working in the field and should have a strong background in customer service and team leadership. Individuals must possess excellent technical and troubleshooting skills and must also have outstanding personal skills as working closely with customers is imperative.

*Note: This position is an on-site position. We may consider qualified candidates who are located within Iowa for a flexible work setup. Candidates outside of Iowa will be required to relocate to the Iowa Great Lakes region.

Qualified Candidates Must:

• Communicate effectively with customers on both a technical and non-technical level.
• Work as part of a team as well as work unsupervised.
• Strive to constantly learn new technology and devices.
• Be motivated and self-managed.
• Often travel to customer locations to directly work with customers and resolve issues on-site.

Common Duties and Tasks:

• Identify, propose, design, and deliver appropriate infrastructure upgrades/projects for customers to enable a more productive, secure, and stable environment in line with best-in-class IT practices.
• Meet with new customers to discuss their challenges and goals, and work with them to develop plans to address those challenges and to reach their goals, while still maintaining secure baselines and adhering to best practices.
• Design complex LAN and WAN infrastructure
• Install, configure, repair, maintain, troubleshoot, and diagnose PCs, servers, virtualization infrastructure, network switches, routers, firewalls, wireless access points, network software, VLANs, VPNs, and nearly any high-level issue that may occur in the enterprise.
• Respond to network alerts and customer issues to remediate issues in an efficient manner.
• Expediently answer customer calls, diagnose issues, respond quickly, and complete the service loop.
• Work with Level 2 Computer Network Technician to determine server and other equipment specifications for customer projects.
• Specify accurate time and material requirements for large-scale customer projects such as facility expansions and virtualization implementations.
• Design and implementation of new Windows Server-based infrastructure
• Management, deployment, and troubleshooting of Active Directory and Group Policies.
• Management, deployment, and troubleshooting of varied email systems, such as Office 365.
• Detailed troubleshooting of email flow issues, where a strong knowledge of DNS is required.
• Carefully organize customer documentation through project lifecycles.
• Service auditing, for example:
  • Periodically validating backups are configured to back up all data on all volumes, at specified intervals, and to all appropriate media.
  • Periodically validating firewall rules do not allow unnecessary traffic inbound or outbound.
  • Periodically validating that all machines on the network meet the specified baseline security settings.
• Test and implement new technologies for in-house as well as customer facilities.
• Implement monitoring and automation for various systems using in-house and third-party platforms.
• LAN and WAN design, including implementation of VLANs and VPNs.

Required Competencies:

• Server operating systems, up to Windows Server 2025
• Microsoft Active Directory, including group policies
• DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, SNMP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, as well as other protocols
• DNSSEC, SPF, DMARC, DKIM
• Ethernet, VLANs, VPNs, switching, and routing
• Wireless networking 802.11ac/ax/be
• Server virtualization using VMWare, vCenter, and ESXi
• NAS devices, security, and configuration
• Physical network infrastructure, including cabling standards

Helpful Competencies:

• Thorough understanding