Senior Systems & Networking Administrator

Seattle-Art-Museum; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Seattle Art Museum seeks a Senior Systems & Networking Administrator to lead the museum’s infrastructure across three sites. You will own servers, networking, backups, and security, and mentor a junior administrator while building durable documentation and runbooks.

You’ll drive capacity planning, disaster recovery testing, and cross‑site project execution, ensuring continuous operation of critical applications like Tessitura and CRM.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, IT, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain on-premises servers (HPE hardware; Windows Server; Linux).
• Manage ~60 VMs on a six-node Hyper‑V cluster; host maintenance, patching, capacity, and storage.
• Oversee Tessitura (ticketing/CRM) backend and RAMP cloud migration.
• Plan server refreshes and capacity projects; manage server room UPS replacement.
• Own Active Directory and Microsoft 365/Entra ID in coordination with Technology leadership.
• Own backup and recovery stack; test restores and meet recovery time objectives.
• Design, configure, and maintain network (firewalls, VPN, Juniper, Mist) across sites.
• Lead network projects, ensure internet redundancy and vendor relations.
• Mentor Junior Administrator; develop runbooks, diagrams, and SOPs.
• Maintain disaster recovery docs and cross-train staff; participate in on-call rotation.
• Coordinate infrastructure projects with vendors; manage budgets and calendars.
• Monitor health via alerts; manage physical server rooms and cabling across sites.
• Coordinate with ISPs, hardware vendors, MSPs for maintenance and tickets.
• Promote equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging initiatives.

Skills

Systems & Networking Admin

Hyper-V

Active Directory

Microsoft 365/Entra ID

Backup & DR

Network Security

Mentoring

Documentation

Project Management

Windows/Linux

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/IT or related

Equivalent education/experience

Tools

Hyper-V

Windows Server

Linux

Tessitura

Cloudflare

SIEM/EDR

Job description

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Senior Systems & Networking Administrator is SAM’s infrastructure lead — designing, deploying, securing, and maintaining the museum’s servers, network, backups, and server rooms across all three sites (SAM Downtown, the Seattle Asian Art Museum at Volunteer Park, and the Olympic Sculpture Park). The environment supports approximately 400 staff and includes roughly 60 virtual servers on a six-node Hyper‑V cluster, Windows and Linux systems, enterprise firewalls and switching, wireless across three public‑facing sites, and the server‑side infrastructure behind SAM’s ticketing, CRM, and collections platforms.

This is a backfill for a colleague retiring after more than twenty years in the role, serving as SAM’s sole systems administrator for most of that tenure. Much of the environment was personally architected by that colleague and is documented tersely or not at all. The person in this role should expect to take ownership of production infrastructure early, learn a complex environment quickly and largely independently, and — critically — rebuild the institutional knowledge that is departing with them so that SAM is never again dependent on a single person.

Two responsibilities distinguish this role from a standard senior administrator posting. First, it is the technical mentor to SAM’s Junior Systems & Networking Administrator, who is early in that role and actively growing into it; developing that colleague is a core, ongoing duty and not an occasional courtesy. Second, it is accountable for documentation and knowledge continuity as a deliverable in its own right, not as cleanup work that happens when there is time.

ABOUT SAM

As SAM heads into its second century, we are boldly reimagining what we can and should be. Our goal is to be a model for the future of museums - a bold, dynamic hub of creativity, belonging, and cultural leadership, shaping the future of art and community. Embracing new ways of engaging communities and seeking innovative partnerships - all while keeping art and community at the center of what we do. This ambitious effort represents a transformative shift and radically redefining how art museums operate. This is a pivotal moment for SAM, and we are seeking great talent to join us on our journey. Working at SAM is not just a job—it's a chance to be part of a vibrant, creative community.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Systems & Server Administration

• Administer and maintain on-premises servers (HPE hardware, Windows Server, Linux) supporting museum-wide applications and file services
• Administer the virtualization platform: approximately 60 virtual guests on a six-node Hyper‑V cluster, including host maintenance, patching, capacity, and clustered storage
• Manage server‑side infrastructure for Tessitura (ticketing/CRM) and support the Tessitura RAMP cloud migration
• Plan and execute server refresh and capacity projects, including the current server room UPS replacement
• Administer core identity and directory services (Active Directory, Microsoft 365/Entra ID) in coordination with the Director of Technology
• Own the backup and recovery stack end to end (on-premises backup plus cloud/offsite copies); test restores on a defined schedule and be able to meet documented recovery time objectives

Network & Security

• Design, configure, and maintain the museum’s network: enterprise firewalls and VPN, Juniper switching, and Mist wireless across all three sites, including public visitor WiFi
• Lead network infrastructure projects such as the multi-year switch replacement and internet redundancy (dual-ISP failover) initiatives
• Administer Cloudflare for WAF/DDoS/bot protection on public-facing web properties
• Monitor logs, alerts, and security tooling (SIEM, EDR/MDR); investigate and remediate incidents; support penetration testing and vulnerability remediation
• Maintain network documentation, diagrams, and access controls; enforce least-privilege and security best practices
• Manage certificate lifecycle, VLAN design, and segmented networks for vendors, events, and specialty gallery systems

Mentorship, Documentation & Knowledge Continuity

• Serve as the day-to-day technical mentor to the Junior Systems & Networking Administrator, who is newer to the role and still developing senior-level infrastructure skills
  • This is an explicit, recurring responsibility with a meaningful share of the week attached to it
• Provide structured, hands-on skill development — shadowing, paired troubleshooting, and supervised ownership of real work — across virtualization, backup and recovery, firewall and switching administration, and alert triage
  • Written handoff alone does not satisfy this duty
• Build and maintain the operational record the department currently lacks: runbooks and standard operating procedures, network and system diagrams, a credential inventory, an asset register, and a vendor contract and renewal calendar
• Ensure no critical recovery or maintenance task has only one capable owner; deliberately cross-train so that infrastructure knowledge is held by the department rather than by an individual
• Maintain disaster recovery and business continuity documentation and validate it against actual recovery testing
• Serve as senior escalation for the help desk and junior systems staff, using escalations as teaching opportunities where practical

Project & Vendor Leadership

• Serve as point person on infrastructure capital projects (switch replacement, UPS replacement, internet redundancy, five-year hardware replacement plan): scoping, budgeting, and managing vendor relationships
• Partner with the Director of Technology on technology budget planning and purchasing recommendations for infrastructure
• Manage vendor and carrier relationships directly — quotes, support contracts, renewals, escalations, and invoice review — and track license and support expirations proactively
• Sequence maintenance and project work around the museum’s exhibition, event, and public-hours calendar in coordination with affected departments

Monitoring, Maintenance & On-Call Support

• Proactively monitor server, network, and backup health using existing alerting and monitoring tools; investigate anomalies before they become outages
• Maintain and manage physical server rooms (power, cooling, cabling, UPS) across all sites, including regular physical inspection
• Participate in the on-call rotation for after-hours infrastructure issues
• Coordinate with vendors and contractors (ISPs, hardware vendors, MSPs) on maintenance, repairs, and support tickets

Other Duties

• Account management across core systems (AD, Tessitura, Microsoft 365, SaaS applications)
• Support museum-wide technology initiatives and construction/renovation projects as needed
• Participate in intentional learning efforts, including events relating to understanding institutional racism, building cultural competency, and exhibiting a commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging

WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 5+ years of progressive experience in systems and network administration, including server administration (Windows Server, Linux) and enterprise networking
• Demonstrated experience administering server virtualization at production scale (Hyper‑V, VMware, or comparable), including clustered hosts and shared storage
• Demonstrated experience administering firewalls and VPNs (enterprise platform; SAM’s estate is being consolidated — platform‑transferable skill is more important than a specific vendor)
• Demonstrated experience with enterprise switching and wireless (Juniper/Mist or a comparable platform)
• Experience owning enterprise backup and disaster recovery — not only configuring backups but testing and performing restores against defined recovery objectives
• Experience with Microsoft 365 / Entra ID administration and hybrid identity
• Demonstrated ability to become productive quickly in an unfamiliar, lightly documented environment: to read an existing system, form an accurate picture of it, and take safe ownership without a lengthy ramp or a predecessor to consult
• Demonstrated experience mentoring or developing a more junior technical colleague — for example, structured onboarding, deliberate cross‑training, or growing someone into greater ownership. Candidates should be prepared to speak to this specifically
• A track record of producing durable documentation — runbooks, diagrams, procedures — that other people actually used
• Strong troubleshooting and project management skills; able to lead infrastructure projects from scoping through completion
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly and respectfully to non-technical colleagues at all levels of the organization
• Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and prioritize a varied workload with minimal supervision
• Ability to participate in an on-call rotation, including evenings and weekends as needed
• Ability to pass and maintain security background check clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a museum, library, archive, performing arts organization, or other nonprofit or cultural institution — or comparable experience working within constrained budgets, mission-driven priorities, and multi-stakeholder decision making
• Experience as the sole or primary administrator for an environment