Senior Systems Engineer, IT Operations and Infrastructure

Firestorm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 116,000 - 138,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision

401(k)

Equity

Unlimited PTO

Parental Leave

Life Insurance

Mental Health Resources

Job summary

Firestorm in San Diego, CA, is seeking a Systems Engineer to support critical operations across cloud and on‑premise infrastructure, GCC-High, and government environments. You will deploy, patch, monitor, and secure systems to keep production resilient.

You’ll work with Terraform, Ansible, Docker, and enterprise monitoring tools, collaborating with security and IT teams to maintain uptime in a fast-growing defense tech company.

Qualifications

• US Citizenship and ability to obtain government clearance.
• Proficiency with Linux distributions and Windows Server environments.
• Strong scripting skills (Bash, Python, PowerShell) to automate tasks.
• Solid understanding of core networking (DNS, DHCP, VPNs, firewall rules).
• Experience with virtualization and public cloud platforms (VMware, AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Experience with enterprise monitoring and logging tools (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch).
• Experience in GCC-High / AWS-Gov type secure environments and ITAR/CMMC familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Infrastructure provisioning and maintenance across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.
• System monitoring and health checks with observability tools.
• Incident response, RCA, and post-mortems to prevent recurrence.
• Automation and scripting; IaC with Terraform and Ansible to automate tasks.
• Network and connectivity management across environments including DNS, DHCP, VPNs, and firewalls.
• Backup and disaster recovery design, testing, and verification.
• Security & compliance: hardening, IAM/AD/SSO, log auditing, remediation.
• Capacity planning and performance tuning for compute, storage, and network.
• Documentation: runbooks, architecture diagrams, SOPs, and workflows.

Skills

Linux OS

Scripting

Networking

Cloud/Virtualization

Security Compliance

Incident Response

Tools

VMware ESXi

Hyper-V

KVM

AWS

Azure

GCP

Datadog

Prometheus

Grafana

CloudWatch

Job description

Who We Are

At Firestorm, we are building the future of expeditionary defense manufacturing and autonomous systems. Modern conflict has exposed a fundamental problem: the systems needed most by operators are often too expensive, too slow to produce, and too difficult to sustain at scale. Firestorm exists to change that.

Who We Are

At Firestorm, we are building the future of expeditionary defense manufacturing and autonomous systems. Modern conflict has exposed a fundamental problem: the systems needed most by operators are often too expensive, too slow to produce, and too difficult to sustain at scale. Firestorm exists to change that.

We develop mission-adaptable aerial systems and deployable manufacturing infrastructure designed to put capability directly into the hands of the warfighter. From modular unmanned aircraft to xCell — our deployable microfactory — our goal is to make defense systems rapidly deployable, adaptable, and producible at the point of need.

We are looking for builders, operators, and problem-solvers who want to work on meaningful technology with real-world impact.

About The Role

Firestorm builds uncrewed aircraft and the manufacturing network that produces them: full-capability plants, deployable xCell edge factories, and forward-deployed sites that stand up production near the point of need.

Crucible is the software that runs that network. It runs in the cloud, inside a factory, and air-gapped in classified environments. At the edge, Crucible has to operate reliably on local compute, connect to factory equipment, and keep working when cloud infrastructure and internet connectivity are unavailable.

We are hiring a Systems Engineer to support critical business operations, infrastructure in the cloud and on-premise, Microsoft 365 GCC-High, Amazon-Gov and other systems.

What You’ll Do

• Infrastructure Provisioning & Maintenance: Deploy, configure, patch, and manage physical servers, virtual machines, cloud instances (AWS, Azure, GCP), and enterprise storage.
• System Monitoring & Health Checks: Implement and maintain observability tooling (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch) to track system performance, resource utilization, and uptime.
• Incident Response & Triage: Serve as an escalation point for system outages and critical alerts; lead root-cause analysis (RCA) and document post-mortems to prevent recurrence.
• Automation & Scripting: Write and maintain scripts (Bash, Python, PowerShell) and infrastructure-as-code configurations (Terraform, Ansible) to automate routine operational tasks and deployments.
• Network & Connectivity Management: Monitor core network services (DNS, DHCP, VPNs, routing, and firewalls) to maintain secure, low-latency communication across environments.
• Backup & Disaster Recovery: Design, schedule, test, and verify automated backups, data replication, and disaster recovery plans to ensure strict Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives (RPO/RTO).
• Security & Compliance: Apply system hardening standards, manage access control (IAM/Active Directory/SSO), audit system logs, and remediate CVE vulnerabilities in coordination with the security team.
• Capacity Planning & Performance Tuning: Analyze compute, storage, and network trends to optimize system performance and forecast hardware or cloud resource scaling needs.
• Documentation & Standard Operating Procedures: Author and update runbooks, system architecture diagrams, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and operational workflows for team use.

Required Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance
• Operating Systems: Deep operational proficiency with Linux distributions (RHEL, Ubuntu, Rocky) and/or Windows Server environments, including OS hardening, kernel tuning, and troubleshooting.
• Scripting & Automation: Strong practical scripting skills in at least one language (Bash, Python, or PowerShell) to automate administrative tasks and repetitive workflows.
• Networking Fundamentals: Solid understanding of core networking protocols and services (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, HTTP/S, SSH, VPNs, and firewall rules.
• Virtualization & Cloud: Hands-on experience administering virtualized infrastructure (VMware ESXi/vCenter, Hyper‑V, KVM) or public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Monitoring & Tooling: Experience configuring and operating enterprise monitoring, logging, and APM tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk, ELK, or CloudWatch).
• Experience with Microsoft GCC-High environments, AWS‑Gov and similar secure environments that have CUI and ITAR data
• Experience with CMMC v2 and NIST 800.171 compliance needs

Preferred Qualifications

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Working knowledge of configuration management and provisioning tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, or SaltStack.
• Containerization: Familiarity with Docker and container orchestration platforms (Kubernetes, ECS).
• Identity & Security: Experience managing enterprise directory services, IAM, and SSO protocols (Active Directory, Entra ID, Okta, SAML, LDAP).
• Disaster Recovery: Direct experience designing, executing, and auditing multi-site backup strategies and failover simulations (e.g., Veeam, Zerto, AWS Backup).
• Experience with High Performance Compute (HPE, Supermicro)
• Experiene with Enterprise Storage (NetApp)

Work Environment

• This role is based in San Diego, CA.
• We welcome candidates who are local or open to relocating; relocation assistance is available and may be included in the offer package where appropriate.

Compensation

US Salary Range: $116,000 – $138,000 USD

The posted salary range reflects an estimate based on a variety of compensation factors, including but not limited to relevant experience, education, certifications, specialized skills, geographic location, and business needs. Actual compensation may vary, and this range is subject to change as our compensation structure or market conditions evolve.

Benefits & Perks

Our culture fosters collaboration, respect, and trust, empowering passionate people to do their best work. We offer a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for career growth. In addition to an opportunity to take part in an innovative, collaborative and fast-growing business with a highly motivated and skilled team, we also take pride in taking care of our employees. Here are just a few ways that we show our appreciation:

• We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plans
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals
• Equity grants for new hires
• Unlimited PTO
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in July & December.
• Generous Parental Leave
• Lifestyle Spending Account
• FSA
• DCFSA
• HSA
• Hospital Indemnity insurance
• Critical Illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Basic Life/AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance, 100% covered by Firestorm. Plus, the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your family.
• Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support, are available to you as well.

Export Control Compliance

To conform to U.S. government export control regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or otherwise eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State or U.S. Department of Commerce.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Firestorm is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and upholding equitable hiring practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic under federal, state, or local law, including those with a criminal history, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the CA Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. We actively encourage members of recognized minorities, women, Veterans, and those with disabilities to apply, and we work to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all applicants throughout the interview process.

Firestorm is committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require accommodations or assistance during the application process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [e-mail] so we can provide the support you need.