System Administrator (Entry Level to SME) TS/SCI with Poly REQUIRED

CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc.; Arlington (TX); Hybrid; USD 89,600 - 204,000; Full time

Job summary

CGI Federal is hiring a System Administrator (Entry Level to SME) with TS/SCI and polygraph clearance for our Arlington, VA operations. The role supports Windows/macOS, AD/Entra ID, and basic network environments in a fast-paced, highly collaborative team.

The position offers a hybrid work model, with opportunities to work onsite in Arlington while engaging with enterprise IT staff, ensuring routine IT operations, backups, and asset management are performed to standard.

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI with Poly clearance required.
• Basic understanding of Windows and macOS operating systems, networking basics, and hardware components.
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and willingness to learn on the job.
• Ability to work in a highly collaborative, fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Troubleshoot and resolve routine desktop, laptop, and software issues for end-users.
• Set up new employee accounts, manage passwords, and configure access permissions for shared files and systems.
• Assist with imaging new computers, deploying hardware, and decommissioning outdated equipment.
• Monitor basic system logs and verify daily backups.
• Keep internal IT knowledge base updated with fixes, manuals, and SOPs.
• Maintain accurate inventory of company technology hardware and software licenses.

Skills

Windows basics

macOS basics

Networking basics

Problem solving

Documentation

Active Directory

Education

Bachelor's degree with 0 years of relevant experience

Associates Degree with 2 years of relevant experience

High School Diploma/GED with 4 years of relevant experience

Tools

Entra ID

Active Directory/Entra ID

Job description

System Administrator (Entry Level to SME) TS/SCI with Poly REQUIRED

Category: Database Administration

Main location: United States, Virginia, Arlington

Position ID: J0726-2094

Employment Type: Full Time

Position Description:

CGI Federal has an exciting opportunity for System Administrators within our Intel sector advancing the national security mission through cutting edge technology. You must have a passion for keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology advancements and leveraging your knowledge on a highly collaborative team to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities.

The System Administrator is an entry-level IT professional who helps maintain and support an organization’s computer networks and systems. They are typically responsible for routine technical support, hardware setups, managing basic user accounts, and monitoring system performance under the guidance of senior administrators.

CGI Federal is growing its high-performance team whose members share a passion for building high-quality, scalable, advanced IT solutions in a collaborative, fast-paced, outcome-driven mission.

This position is located in our Arlington office; however, a hybrid working model is acceptable.

Your future duties and responsibilities:

Key Responsibilities (Entry Level)

• Technical Support: Troubleshoot and resolve routine desktop, laptop, and software issues for end-users.
• User Management: Set up new employee accounts, manage passwords, and configure access permissions for shared files and systems.
• Hardware Setup: Assist with imaging new computers, deploying hardware, and decommissioning outdated equipment.
• System Monitoring: Monitor basic system logs and verify that automated data backups are running smoothly.
• Documentation: Keep our internal IT knowledge base or wiki updated with new fixes, manuals, and procedures.
• IT Asset Tracking: Maintain an accurate inventory of all company technology hardware and software licenses.

Key Responsibilities (Junior Level)

• User Support: Act as the first point of contact for technical assistance via tickets, phone, or email.
• Access Management: Manage user accounts, onboarding/offboarding, and permission controls within Active Directory or Entra ID.
• System Maintenance: Perform routine tasks such as monitoring system health, deploying software updates, and verifying daily backups.
• Hardware & Software Setup: Install, configure, and troubleshoot hardware (PCs, laptops, printers) and software applications.
• Escalation: Identify complex network or server issues and elevate them to Tier 2 or Tier 3 administrators.

Key Responsibilities (Mid-Level)

• Infrastructure Management: Administer and monitor physical/virtual servers, storage arrays (SAN/NAS), and cloud environments (AWS, Azure) to maintain peak performance.
• Tier-2 Escalations: Troubleshoot and resolve complex hardware, software, and network issues that cannot be solved by Tier-1 support.
• Automation & Scripting: Write and maintain scripts (PowerShell, Python, Bash) to automate routine tasks, patch deployments, and system configurations.
• Identity & Access: Manage enterprise directory services (Active Directory, Entra ID) including group policies, user permissions, and access controls.
• Security & Compliance: Apply security patches, manage antivirus/EDM, and assist with vulnerability remediation and compliance audits.
• Backup & Disaster Recovery: Execute and test routine data backups, replication, and failover procedures to ensure data integrity.
• Documentation: Create and maintain thorough documentation for network topologies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and system architecture.
• Vendor Management: Liaise with third-party vendors for hardware maintenance, software licensing, and escalated technical support.

Key Responsibilities (Senior Level)

• Complex Troubleshooting & Escalation Management: Own and resolve Tier-3, Priority-1 (P1) catastrophic incidents (e.g., massive storage array failures, global Active Directory corruption, widespread ransomware containment).
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Conduct rigorous RCA for all major outages and design architectural changes to prevent recurrence.
• Third-Party Vendor Collaboration: Act as the direct point of contact for third-party enterprise vendors (e.g., Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, AWS) to elevate and manage complex bug fixes.
• Infrastructure Architecture & Deployment: Architect, test, and deploy hyper-converged infrastructure, virtualized environments, and clustered systems.
• Cross-forest Active Directory migrations, Office 365 tenant consolidations, and data center relocations: Execute complex integrations and maintain reliability.
• Disaster Recovery Engineering: Engineer robust Disaster Recovery (DR) and business continuity architectures, leading regular failover testing and compliance audits.
• Automated Scripting Implementation: Eliminate repetitive manual labor through advanced scripting in PowerShell, Python, Bash, and IaC tools.
• Security Leadership: Design and implement stringent Zero Trust security postures, vulnerability management, and patch lifecycles.
• Compliance & Regulatory Assurance: Ensure organizational compliance with HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or NIST/DoD 8570 via configuration baselines.
• Penetration Testing Oversight: Lead remediation activities for penetration tests and security incident response.
• Vendor Management & Business Continuity: Lead multiple contractor/vendor teams to project completion.

Key Responsibilities (SME Level)

• Enterprise Architecture & Infrastructure: Design, deploy, and maintain hyper-converged, cloud-hybrid, and on-premises environments.
• High-Availability Systems: Engineer highly available systems ensuring zero-downtime clustering, failover, and multi-site redundancy.
• Active Directory Management: Manage multi-tenant Active Directory forests, identity access management, and complex enterprise virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox).
• Cybersecurity & Compliance: Evaluate enterprise security postures, implement risk mitigation, and enforce zero-trust frameworks.
• Vulnerability & Incident Response: Oversee vulnerability management, patch compliance (e.g., STIGs), and forensic analysis of security breaches.
• Incident Response & Recovery: Develop comprehensive incident response plans and disaster recovery protocols.
• Advanced Automation & Scripting: Architect complex automation scripts to manage systems configuration, diagnostics, and routine remediation tasks.
• Leadership & Vendor Management: Assume a team-lead role, supervising technical staff, delegating complex workloads, and providing tier-4 escalation support.

Required qualifications to be successful in this role:

All roles require an active TS/SCI with Poly

Entry Level

• High School Diploma/GED with 4 years of relevant experience
• Associates Degree with 2 years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's Degree with 0 years of relevant experience
• Basic understanding of Windows and macOS operating systems, networking basics, and hardware components.
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities, strong communication skills, and a willingness to learn on the job.

Junior Level/Moderate

• High School Diploma/GED with 6 years of relevant experience
• Associates Degree with 4 years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's Degree with 2 years of relevant experience
• Masters Degree with 0 years of relevant experience
• Foundational understanding of Windows Server, Linux, and cloud-based office environments (e.g., Microsoft 365).
• Moderate communication skills for training end-users and documenting technical solutions.
• Ability to evaluate basic systems and make routine, independent decisions on standard IT requests.

Mid-Level/Complex

• High School Diploma/GED with 8 years of relevant experience
• Associates Degree with 6 years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's Degree with 4 years of relevant experience
• Masters Degree with 2 years of relevant experience
• PhD with 0 years of relevant experience
• Operating Systems: Windows Server, Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Red Hat).
• Virtualization: VMware vSphere, Hyper-V.
• Networking: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPNs, and LAN/WAN troubleshooting.
• Enterprise Apps: Microsoft 365, Exchange, and enterprise monitoring tools (e.g., Datadog, SolarWinds).
• Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate
• CompTIA Server
• VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
• Cisco CCNA
• Strong problem-solving, exceptional written and verbal communication, and the ability to operate independently with minimal oversight.

Senior Level/Exceptionally Complex

• High School Diploma/GED with 10 years of relevant experience
• Associates Degree with 8 years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's Degree with 6 years of relevant experience
• Masters Degree with 4 years of relevant experience
• PhD with 2 years of relevant experience
• Microsoft: MCSE, Azure Solutions Architect, or M365 Enterprise Administrator.
• VMware: VCAP or VCP (VMware Certified Professional).
• Cloud/Linux: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator, Linux Foundation Certified Engineer (LFCE), or Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).
• Unparalleled understanding of TCP/IP networking, SAN/NAS storage ecosystems, hypervisors (VMware ESXi, Hyper-V), and public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).

SME Level/Exceptionally Complex

• High School Diploma/GED with 12 years of relevant experience
• Associates Degree with 10 years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's Degree with 8 years of relevant experience
• Masters Degree with 6 years of relevant experience
• PhD with 4 years of relevant experience
• Advanced certifications heavily preferred, such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), or CISSP.

Compensation and Benefits

A reasonable estimate of the current range for this role in the U.S. is $89,600.00 - $204,000.00.

• Competitive compensation
• Comprehensive insurance options
• Matching contributions through the 401(k) plan and the share purchase plan
• Paid time off for vacation, holidays, and sick time
• Paid parental leave
• Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
• Wellness and Well-being programs

What you can expect from us:

Together, as owners, let's turn meaningful insights into action.

Life at CGI is rooted in ownership, teamwork, respect and belonging. Here, you'll reach your full potential because...

You are invited to be an owner from day 1 as we work together to bring our Dream to life. That's why we call ourselves CGI Partners rather than employees.

You'll shape your career by joining a company built to grow and last. You'll be supported by leaders who care about your health and well-being and provide you with opportunities to deepen your skills and broaden your horizons.

Come join our team---one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, ethnicity, ancestry, color, sex, religion, creed, age, national origin, citizenship status, disability, pregnancy, medical condition, military and veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and gender expression, familial status or responsibilities, reproductive health decisions, political affiliation, genetic information, height, weight, or any other legally protected status or characteristics to the extent required by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws where we do business.

CGI provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities.

All CGI offers of employment in the U.S. are contingent upon the ability to successfully complete a background investigation. Background investigation components can vary dependent upon specific assignment and/or level of US government security clearance held. Dependent upon role and/or federal government security clearance requirements, and in accordance with applicable laws, some background investigations may include a credit check. CGI will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records in accordance with all local regulations and ordinances.

CGI will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with CGI's legal duty to furnish information.