Senior Systems Engineer

Apex Systems; Charlottesville (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401K with company match

ESPP (employee stock purchase plan)

Job summary

Everforth Apex Systems seeks a Sr Infrastructure Engineer to design, implement, and optimize Microsoft-centered infrastructure across on‑prem, hybrid, and Azure environments. You’ll own full lifecycle work from requirements to retirement, focusing on automation, reliability, and secure operation.

You will work independently on complex changes, coordinate with teams and vendors, and serve as a senior escalation point. Requires strong Windows Server, AD, Entra ID, and backup expertise.

Qualifications

• Typically 7 or more years of progressively responsible experience in Microsoft infrastructure.
• Strong hands-on Windows Server and Active Directory engineering experience.
• Experience with Microsoft Entra ID, hybrid identity, Microsoft 365, and hybrid Exchange dependencies.
• Infrastructure engineering experience with virtualization, storage/SAN concepts, and backup/recovery.
• Advanced PowerShell skills and automation; REST APIs/JSON.
• Strong networking fundamentals for DNS, DHCP, routing, switching, firewalls, VPNs, VLANs, TLS.

Responsibilities

• Translate business requirements into infrastructure designs with dependencies, capacity, resilience, security, lifecycle and cost.
• Lead platform evaluation, implementation planning, procurement specs, deployment, validation and handoff.
• Develop change, test, rollback, recovery, and maintenance plans for production work.
• Maintain architecture diagrams, configurations, inventories and procedures.
• Engineer and support Windows Server/AD, Entra ID and hybrid Exchange/Exchange Online.
• Engineer and support Dell server, Azure Stack HCI, and Veeam backup and recovery.

Tools

Windows Server

Active Directory

Microsoft Entra ID

Azure Arc

Azure Stack HCI

Veeam

DNS

TLS certificates

IIS

SQL Server

Job description

Position Summary

The Sr Infrastructure Engineer designs, implements, and improves the organization’s Microsoft-centered infrastructure across on-premises, hybrid, and Azure environments. The role owns technical work through its full lifecycle: from requirements, design, and capacity planning to implementation, validation, operational handoff, and eventual refresh or retirement. It emphasizes engineering, automation, reliability, and secure operation rather than routine account or ticket administration.

The engineer works independently on complex infrastructure changes and incidents, coordinates with internal teams and vendors, and serves as a senior technical escalation point. The position focuses on core infrastructure platforms while partnering with network, security, application, and service teams where their services intersect.

Key Responsibilities

Infrastructure design and lifecycle

• Translate business and technical requirements into supportable infrastructure designs; evaluate dependencies, capacity, resilience, security, lifecycle, and cost before implementation.


• Lead technical research, platform evaluation, implementation planning, procurement specifications, deployment, validation, operational handoff, refresh, and retirement for assigned infrastructure.


• Develop change, test, rollback, recovery, and maintenance plans for production work; coordinate implementation with affected teams and vendors.


• Maintain clear architecture diagrams, configuration standards, inventories, and operating procedures for systems within the role’s scope.

Microsoft server and identity services

• Engineer and maintain Windows Server services, including secure configuration, patching, upgrades, performance and capacity analysis, troubleshooting, and lifecycle management; use Azure Arc for centralized management where applicable.


• Maintain Active Directory Domain Services and its dependencies, including domain controllers, replication, sites and services, Group Policy, DNS integration, trusts, authentication, service accounts, delegated access, and recovery readiness.


• Support Microsoft Entra ID and hybrid identity services, including synchronization, authentication dependencies, privileged access considerations, and troubleshooting across on-premises and cloud systems.


• Engineer and support hybrid Exchange and Exchange Online infrastructure, including mail flow, connectors, certificates, recipient and directory dependencies, planned changes, and advanced troubleshooting.

Compute, storage, backup, and recovery

• Engineer and support Dell server and Azure Stack HCI infrastructure, including compute, cluster health, firmware and driver lifecycle, capacity, performance, and vendor coordination.


• Maintain Windows Server Failover Clusters and associated SAN/storage services, including cluster dependencies, storage presentation, multipathing concepts, quorum, patching, monitoring, and recovery.


• Own Veeam backup and recovery engineering, including job and repository design, scale-out repositories and cloud capacity tiers, monitoring, security considerations, restore testing, and recovery documentation.


• Validate recoverability through planned restore and recovery exercises and address gaps identified through testing or incidents.

Azure, applications, and connectivity

• Engineer and support Azure-hosted remote desktop, including their identity, network, security, availability, performance, monitoring, and cost dependencies.


• Support Windows file and print services, including permissions, availability, capacity, migration, secure access, and recovery planning.


• Provide infrastructure-level support for IIS and SQL Server hosted services, including Windows and SQL authentication, Kerberos/SPNs, service identities, TLS certificates, connectivity, backup integration, availability concepts, and troubleshooting. This role is not the primary database administrator or application developer.


• Troubleshoot infrastructure connectivity across campus, branch offices, and Azure, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, switching, VLANs, firewalls, VPNs, wireless, and certificate dependencies; support the branch Meraki environment as needed.

Automation, security, and operational reliability

• Design, test, document, and maintain production PowerShell automation; integrate services using REST APIs and JSON and use Azure Automation or Freshservice workflow automation where appropriate.


• Apply safe automation practices, including least privilege, secure secret handling, error handling, logging, repeatable execution, and change control.


• Build security, monitoring, patching, backup, and recovery into infrastructure designs; investigate and remediate infrastructure findings and Microsoft-platform incidents with security partners.


• Lead complex troubleshooting and root-cause analysis, then implement durable fixes that reduce recurrence and manual operational effort.


• Document designs, changes, support procedures, and recovery steps so systems can be operated and supported consistently.

Required Qualifications

• Typically 7 or more years of progressively responsible experience in Microsoft infrastructure, systems engineering, or a closely related field; equivalent practical experience will be considered.


• Strong hands-on Windows Server and Active Directory engineering experience, including advanced troubleshooting, patching, security hardening, identity dependencies, and recovery concepts.


• Experience with Microsoft Entra ID, hybrid identity, Microsoft 365, and hybrid Exchange or Exchange Online dependencies.


• Demonstrated infrastructure engineering experience with virtualization or clustered compute, storage/SAN concepts, server hardware lifecycle, and backup and recovery.


• Advanced PowerShell skills and experience creating maintainable automation; working knowledge of REST APIs and JSON.


• Strong networking fundamentals sufficient to diagnose infrastructure connectivity issues involving DNS, DHCP, routing, switching, firewalls, VPNs, VLANs, and TLS certificates.


• Ability to plan and deliver production changes, assess risk and dependencies, communicate technical decisions, and work effectively with technical teams, service owners, and vendors.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Dell servers, Azure Stack HCI, Windows Server Failover Clustering, Dell SAN, or Veeam Backup & Replication.


• Experience with Azure Arc, Azure Automation, Freshservice workflow automation, Azure-hosted remote desktop services, or Meraki networking.


• Experience supporting IIS-hosted applications, SQL Server infrastructure, or Microsoft 365 security controls.


• Relevant Microsoft, Azure, Veeam, Dell, or networking certifications.

Senior-Level Expectations

• Works with broad objectives and limited supervision, identifying missing requirements, dependencies, and risks early.


• Makes design decisions based on evidence, supportability, security, capacity, resilience, and lifecycle needs.


• Can diagnose issues that cross server, identity, storage, network, certificate, backup, application-hosting, and cloud boundaries.


• Improves team capability through clear standards, useful documentation, knowledge sharing, and thoughtful automation.

This is a full-time, exempt position based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Occasional after-hours work may be required for planned maintenance or urgent production issues. Periodic travel to the University Data Center in Charlottesville or Sands Family Grounds in Arlington may be needed.

Microsoft Windows Server, Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Arc, Microsoft 365 and hybrid Exchange, Dell server and SAN infrastructure, Azure Stack HCI, Windows Server Failover Clustering, Veeam, Azure-hosted remote desktop, VPN services, PowerShell, Azure Automation, Freshservice workflow automation, IIS, SQL Server infrastructure, and Meraki switches, firewalls, and wireless.

• Everforth Apex offers a range of supplemental benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and other insurance plans that offer an optional layer of financial protection.


• We offer an ESPP (employee stock purchase program) and a 401K program which allows you to contribute typically within 30 days of starting, with a company match after 12 months of tenure.


• Everforth Apex also offers a HSA (Health Savings Account on the HDHP plan), a SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with up to 8 free counseling sessions, a corporate discount savings program and other discounts.


• In terms of professional development, Everforth Apex hosts an on-demand training program, provides access to certification prep and a library of technical and leadership courses/books/seminars once you have 6+ months of tenure, and certification discounts and other perks to associations that include CompTIA and IIBA.


• Everforth Apex has a dedicated customer service team for our Consultants that can address questions around benefits and other resources, as well as a certified Career Coach. You can access a full list of our benefits, programs, support teams and resources within our 'Welcome Packet' as well, which an Everforth Apex team member can provide.

Everforth Apex Systems is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, genetic information, registered domestic partner status, marital status, disability, status as a crime victim, protected veteran status, political affiliation, union membership, or any other characteristic protected by law. Everforth Apex will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law.

If you require an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act to participate in an interview with a virtual recruiter or to use our website for a search or application, please contact our Benefits Department at [email protected] or 804-523-8228. Please note that this contact information is strictly to be used for medical ADA accommodations and that no other inquiries will be answered.

UnitedHealthcare creates and publishes the Transparency in Coverage Machine-Readable Files on behalf of Everforth Apex Systems.