Senior Systems Engineer

American Public Education, Inc. (APEI); United States; On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

American Public Education, Inc. is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer to design and optimize hybrid infrastructure across Windows Server, virtualization, cloud services, identity platforms, and security systems.

The role emphasizes reliability, performance, security, audit readiness, and operational continuity in production and non-production environments. The engineer will apply disciplined change management, documentation, and automation while partnering with infrastructure, application,

Qualifications

• 5+ years in systems engineering or infrastructure operations in an enterprise environment.

Responsibilities

• Provides support for production enterprise environments located in Charles Town, WV; co-location facilities; DR site; and other branch offices.
• Supports on‑premises and Cloud environments (dev, test, staging, prod copy).
• Partner with engineering, application, security, and business teams to implement, maintain, and document hardware, software, virtualization, cloud, and automation solutions.
• Install, manage, and troubleshoot servers (physical, virtual, cloud).
• Administers and maintains server-level accounts, groups, permissions, and access rights.
• Manage updates, patches, upgrades, configurations, and code deployments across on‑prem and cloud environments via change control.
• Maintain documentation and evidence of operational procedures for audit readiness.
• Monitor system performance, usage, capacity, and cloud costs; identify optimization opportunities.
• Recommend and perform infrastructure improvements and repairs.
• Mitigate and resolve problems affecting server performance and availability.
• Develop enterprise network/server solutions with project plans and implementation steps.
• Develop instructions and guidelines for assigned functions.
• Support availability, resiliency, monitoring, and incident response for mission‑critical services.
• Perform backup, recovery, and archiving duties.
• Provide escalation guidance to infrastructure engineers and service desks.
• Administer enterprise virtualization platforms (VMware/Hyper‑V) and manage VM lifecycles.
• Support integration of on‑prem with Cloud for consistent operations.
• Develop automation/scripts (PowerShell or IaC) to improve provisioning and maintenance.
• Support cloud resource optimization and rightsizing.

Skills

Problem solving

Communication skills

Independent work

Mentoring

Attention to detail

Education

Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in MIS/CS/IT

Certifications (Microsoft, Azure, VMware, AWS, Cisco, ITIL, CompTIA)

Tools

VMware vSphere/ESXi

Hyper-V

PowerShell

Active Directory

Entra ID

Job description

American Public Education, Inc. The Senior Systems Engineer supports and improves hybrid infrastructure across Windows Server, virtualization, enterprise applications, cloud services, identity platforms, and security-related systems. This role helps ensure system reliability, performance, security, audit readiness, and operational continuity across production and non-production environments. The Sr Systems Engineer is expected to apply disciplined change management, documentation, automation, and troubleshooting practices while partnering with infrastructure, application, security, and support teams.

American Public Education, Inc. The Senior Systems Engineer supports and improves hybrid infrastructure across Windows Server, virtualization, enterprise applications, cloud services, identity platforms, and security-related systems. This role helps ensure system reliability, performance, security, audit readiness, and operational continuity across production and non-production environments. The Sr Systems Engineer is expected to apply disciplined change management, documentation, automation, and troubleshooting practices while partnering with infrastructure, application, security, and support teams.

Responsibilities

• Provides support for production enterprise environments located in Charles Town, WV; co-location facilities; the disaster recovery site; and other branch offices.
• Provides support for additional on-premises and Cloud environments (development, test, staging, production copy, etc.).
• Partners with engineering, application, security, and business teams to implement, maintain, and document hardware, software, virtualization, cloud, and automation solutions in alignment with approved designs, standards, and operational procedures.
• Install, manage, and troubleshoot servers (physical, virtual, and cloud-based), backup systems, and related operating systems/software.
• Administers and maintains server-level user accounts, groups, permissions, and access rights across supported infrastructure platforms in accordance with approved access management, least-privilege, and segregation-of-duties practices.
• Supports segregation of duties and least-privilege principles in account and access management.
• Manages updates, patches, upgrades, configuration changes, and code deployments across on-premises and cloud environments through approved change control processes to support availability, security, audit readiness, and compliance with SOX and internal controls.
• Maintains documentation and evidence of operational procedures to support audit readiness.
• Monitors and reports on system performance, usage, capacity, and costs—including Cloud resource utilization and optimization opportunities.
• Recommend, schedule, and perform infrastructure improvements, upgrades, and repairs across on-premises and Cloud environments.
• Anticipate, mitigate, identify, respond to and resolve problems affecting server performance, efficiency, and availability.
• Assists in developing enterprise network and server solutions per requirements including the creation of functional requirement documents, project plans and detailed implementation plans.
• Develops and documents instructions and guidelines for assigned functions.
• Supports the availability, resiliency, monitoring, and incident response processes for identified mission‑critical infrastructure and application services.
• Performs backup, recovery, and archiving duties.
• Provides escalation support and technical guidance to infrastructure engineers, systems engineers, VoIP support, endpoint support, and service desk teams as needed.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Administers and maintains enterprise virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware vSphere/ESXi, Hyper‑V, or equivalent), including management of virtual machine lifecycles, templates, snapshots, and resource allocation to support performance, availability, and capacity requirements.
• Supports hybrid infrastructure environments by integrating on‑premises virtualized systems with Cloud services to ensure consistent operations across platforms.
• Develops and uses automation and scripting (e.g., PowerShell or infrastructure‑as‑code tools where applicable) to improve consistency, efficiency, and reliability of system provisioning, configuration, and maintenance tasks.
• Supports cloud resource optimization efforts, including evaluating utilization and rightsizing workloads.

Requirements

• 5+ years of progressively responsible systems engineering or infrastructure operations experience in a mid‑sized to large enterprise environment, preferably supporting Microsoft, virtualization, cloud, identity, networking, and security‑related platforms.
• Experience with cloud-based administration, including deployment, configuration, and management of Cloud resources.
• Working knowledge of infrastructure networking concepts used in systems engineering, including DNS, DHCP, routing, firewall concepts, load balancing, segmentation, and connectivity between on‑premises and cloud environments.
• Ability to perform occasional hands‑on infrastructure work, including lifting equipment up to 50 pounds and accessing data center, IDF, or office spaces as needed, with or without reasonable accommodation.
• Requires occasional travel to data centers, branch offices, and other company‑supported locations as business needs require.
• Core support hours are Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., and this role will participate in the rotating 24x7x365 on‑call schedule.
• Knowledge of identity services, directory platforms, SQL administration, and networking technologies, including experience with Active Directory, Entra ID or equivalent cloud identity services, DNS, DHCP, and related access management practices.
• Experience installing, configuring, troubleshooting, securing, patching, backing up, recovering, monitoring, and tuning Windows Server environments and related enterprise platforms. Advanced troubleshooting skills are preferred.
• Experience with Windows Server, Active Directory, Entra ID or equivalent identity platforms, IIS, endpoint or configuration management tools, collaboration platforms, and enterprise application hosting.
• Experience using PowerShell and automation practices to support provisioning, configuration, maintenance, reporting, and operational consistency across infrastructure platforms.
• Familiarity with load balancing, application delivery, and high‑availability technologies, such as F5, cloud load balancers, or equivalent platforms.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Ability to mentor Tier 1 technicians on application issues.
• Proven judgment and demonstrated understanding of operational priorities.
• Must be flexible enough to meet the demands of a fluid and changing environment.
• Excellent problem‑solving abilities.
• Methodical, organized, and detail‑oriented.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to learn new skills as needed.
• Experience with infrastructure monitoring, security and compliance tooling, certificate management, privileged access controls, backup and recovery platforms, enterprise applications, and service management processes is preferred.

Education/Certifications

• Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS), Computer Science, Information Technology
• Relevant certifications are preferred but not required, such as Microsoft, Azure, VMware, AWS, Cisco, ITIL, CompTIA, security, or other infrastructure‑related certifications.
  • A+
  • I‑NET+
  • MCP
  • MCSA
  • MCSE+I

Competencies

• Collaborates: Builds and maintains effective partnerships with team members and stakeholders, working collaboratively to achieve shared goals and resolve challenges effectively.
• Communicates Effectively: Delivers clear, concise, and tailored communications through various modes (e.g., written, verbal, and visual) to meet the unique needs of diverse audiences.
• Customer Focus: Cultivates strong relationships with internal and external customers by actively listening to their needs and providing timely, customer‑centric solutions.
• Demonstrates Self‑Awareness: Regularly seeks and incorporate feedback from peers, leaders, and stakeholders to understand and address personal strengths and areas for growth.
• Ensures Accountability: Consistently meets deadlines and delivers on commitments, ensuring work quality and aligning with organizational standards.
• Innovation & Improvement: Encourages forward‑thinking solutions, process improvements, and a culture of learning to enhance efficiency and team effectiveness.

About Us

Online, on campus and in the workplace, we provide higher education and training to our country’s heroes – military service members, veterans, nurses, government employees, and motivated professionals that want to make a difference. American Public Education, Inc. educates service‑minded students, ranging from the military, public service, federal agencies, and nursing communities, through American Public University System (APUS), Hondros College of Nursing (HCON), and Rasmussen University.

It is the policy of American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) to afford equal opportunity to all qualified persons. We treat all qualified individuals equally as to their recruitment, hiring, assignments, advancements, compensation, and all other terms and conditions of employment. American Public Education, Inc. does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical, mental, or sensory disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are a resident of a state with designated pay transparency requirements and this role is available remotely, you may be eligible to receive additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role, which we will provide upon request.