SENIOR SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR

City of Surprise; Surprise (AZ); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

City of Surprise is seeking an experienced Senior Systems Administrator to design, operate, and continuously improve our enterprise technology environment. The role combines hands-on technical work with strategic, scalable operations in a hybrid infrastructure that balances stability, security, and innovation.

The position focuses on supporting a Microsoft 365 ecosystem integrated with on-premises systems, ensuring reliable hybrid connectivity, identity management, and secure collaboration

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, GIS or Computer Science and five years of related information technology experience in assigned area; or, an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience with Microsoft 365 and hybrid environments, and administering on-premises systems.
• Strong understanding of virtualization, storage, and high availability in enterprise environments.

Responsibilities

• Configure and maintain operating system workstations and servers.
• Administer and optimize data storage devices and ensure high availability.
• Manage service level agreements, monitor performance, and optimize systems.
• Collaborate with IT leadership and cross-functional teams; mentor technical staff.

Skills

Systems administration

Hybrid infrastructure

Identity management

Storage management

Network troubleshooting

Education

Bachelor's Degree in IT/GIS/CS

Tools

Microsoft 365

Hyper-V/VMware

Active Directory

Backup solutions

Job description

The City of Surprise is seeking an experienced Senior Systems Administrator to play a key role in the design, operation, and continuous improvement of our enterprise technology environment. This position is ideal for a hands‑on technical professional who thrives in a hybrid infrastructure and enjoys balancing stability, security, and innovation.

The Senior Systems Administrator will support a Microsoft 365 ecosystem integrated with on-premises systems, ensuring reliable hybrid connectivity, identity management, and secure collaboration services. This role is responsible for administering and optimizing server virtualization platforms, managing enterprise storage systems, and ensuring high availability and performance across critical services.

A strong emphasis is placed on operational efficiency and stability.

The successful candidate will help develop, maintain, and streamline system administration tasks, enforce standards, and support scalable, repeatable operations.

This role requires a deep understanding of modern infrastructure practices, the ability to troubleshoot complex system issues in both on-premises technologies and hybrid cloud integrations, and the judgment to make sound technical decisions in a mission‑critical public sector environment. The Senior Systems Administrator will collaborate closely with IT leadership and cross‑functional teams, mentor technical staff, and contribute to long‑term infrastructure planning.

SUMMARY

Incumbents may be responsible for assigning and reviewing daily work of mission critical resources. Incumbents have extensive knowledge of complex systems and/or applications and their interactions. Duties may include: configuring and maintaining operating system workstations, servers, data storage devices in support of business processing requirements. Incumbents administer service level agreements, develop new applications, and manage vendor contracts; monitors and tunes systems to maintain optimum performance levels. Incumbents perform project management duties.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, GIS or Computer Science and five years of related information technology experience in assigned area; or, an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the job such as those listed above. Additional education cannot be substituted for experience.

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

Must have at the time of hire and be able to maintain a valid Arizona driver license.

SELECTION PROCESS

Applicants whose education, training and experience most closely meet the needs of the position may be invited to participate in a selection process to include a panel interview.

Successful candidates will receive a post‑offer, pre‑employment background screening to include:

• Fingerprinting
• Drug Screen
• Criminal Background screening
• E-Verify
• Education and Experience Verification
• 39 Month Motor Vehicle Department Records Check

The City of Surprise is an EEO/ADA reasonable accommodation employer.