Senior Sever Engineer

Hire Resolve; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Hire Resolve in Johannesburg is seeking a Senior Server Engineer to design, implement, and support our enterprise server and cloud infrastructure. You will work across Windows Server, AD, Exchange Hybrid, M365, Azure, VMware, and SAN storage, ensuring stability, security, and high service availability.

The role requires independent problem solving, incident management, and collaboration with development teams in a regulated financial services environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of enterprise server, systems, or infrastructure engineering experience.
• Strong Windows Server administration and troubleshooting.
• Strong Active Directory, DNS, Group Policy, and authentication support.
• Strong Exchange administration including mailflow troubleshooting.
• Experience with Exchange Hybrid and Exchange Online.
• Strong Microsoft 365 / Office 365 administration experience.

Responsibilities

• Support, maintain, and troubleshoot Windows Server environments across production, UAT, development, and DR platforms.
• Manage OS configuration, patching, hardening, performance optimisation, and service availability.
• Investigate server performance issues, service failures, resource constraints, and application dependencies.
• Support server lifecycle activities including provisioning, upgrades, migrations, and decommissioning.
• Maintain server build standards, configuration baselines, operational procedures, and runbooks.
• Participate in planned maintenance windows and provide after-hours support as required.
• Act as escalation point for complex server, platform, and infrastructure incidents.
• Administer and support Active Directory Domain Services including users, groups, service accounts, and organisational units.
• Manage Group Policy design, troubleshooting, maintenance, and controlled rollout.
• Troubleshoot authentication, replication, DNS, Kerberos, LDAP, and domain controller health issues.
• Assist with identity-related incidents affecting users, applications, servers, and scheduled tasks.
• Support privileged access management, access reviews, and audit readiness.
• Support Exchange environments including hybrid coexistence with Exchange Online.
• Troubleshoot mailflow issues across internal, external, hybrid, cloud, and third‑party mail routes.
• Investigate delayed, failed, rejected, quarantined, or misrouted email.
• Support connectors, accepted domains, transport rules, relay permissions, and mail routing.
• Troubleshoot mailbox access, Outlook connectivity, Autodiscover, and hybrid mailbox moves.
• Assist with Exchange certificate management, namespace configuration, and hybrid configuration health.
• Collaborate with network, firewall, DNS, and security teams on mailflow dependencies.
• Support email security gateways and related DMARC/SPF/DKIM workflows.
• Support Microsoft 365 administration across Exchange Online, identity integration, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
• Administer Exchange Online mailboxes, groups, connectors, transport rules, and mailbox permissions.
• Support hybrid mailbox management and cloud mailbox troubleshooting.
• Investigate Microsoft 365 service incidents affecting email, identity, collaboration, or authentication.
• Use Microsoft 365 admin centres and PowerShell for administration and troubleshooting.

Skills

Windows Server

Active Directory

Exchange Hybrid

Microsoft 365

Azure

VMware

SAN storage

Tools

Nagios

PRTG

SolarWinds

Job description

Our client operates in the financial services industry, specifically focusing on insurance is looking for a Senior Server Engineer to join their team in Johannesburg, GP.

You will be responsible for the design, implementation, and support of our enterprise server and cloud infrastructure. This role requires a self-sufficient professional who can operate independently, serve as a technical escalation point, and collaborate effectively with development teams in a regulated financial services environment where stability, security, and service availability are paramount.

Purpose of the role:

This is a hands‑on infrastructure engineering position focused on managing and improving our hybrid infrastructure across Windows Server, Active Directory, Exchange (including Hybrid), Microsoft 365, Azure, VMware, and SAN storage. The successful candidate will troubleshoot complex incidents from end to end, working across application, network, security, and infrastructure boundaries.

Responsiblities:

1. Enterprise Server Infrastructure

• Support, maintain, and troubleshoot Windows Server environments across production, UAT, development, and disaster recovery platforms

• Manage operating system configuration, patching, hardening, performance optimisation, and service availability

• Investigate server performance issues, service failures, resource constraints, and application dependencies

• Support server lifecycle activities including provisioning, upgrades, migrations, and decommissioning

• Maintain server build standards, configuration baselines, operational procedures, and support runbooks

• Participate in planned maintenance windows and provide after-hours support as required

• Act as an escalation point for complex server, platform, and infrastructure incidents

2. Active Directory and Identity Services

• Administer and support Active Directory Domain Services including users, groups, service accounts, and organisational units

• Manage Group Policy design, troubleshooting, maintenance, and controlled rollout

• Troubleshoot authentication, replication, DNS, Kerberos, LDAP, and domain controller health issues

• Support domain controller patching, time synchronisation, AD-integrated DNS, and recovery activities

• Support Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD Connect synchronisation and hybrid identity dependencies

• Assist with identity-related incidents affecting users, applications, servers, and scheduled tasks

• Support privileged access management, access reviews, and audit readiness

3. Exchange, Exchange Hybrid, and Enterprise Mailflow

• Support and maintain Microsoft Exchange environments, including hybrid coexistence with Exchange Online

• Troubleshoot mailflow issues across internal, external, hybrid, cloud, and third‑party mail routes

• Investigate delayed, failed, rejected, quarantined, duplicated, or misrouted email

• Support connectors, accepted domains, transport rules, relay permissions, and mail routing

• Troubleshoot mailbox access, Outlook connectivity, Autodiscover, and hybrid mailbox moves

• Support shared mailboxes, resource mailboxes, distribution groups, and mailbox lifecycle operations

• Assist with Exchange certificate management, namespace configuration, and hybrid configuration health

• Collaborate with network, firewall, DNS, and security teams on mailflow dependencies

4. Email Security, DMARC, SPF, and DKIM

• Support email security gateway platforms (MailMarshall or equivalent)

• Investigate blocked, quarantined, delayed, or incorrectly classified messages

• Review and troubleshoot filtering policies, allow/block lists, content rules, and anti‑spam behaviour

• Troubleshoot SPF, DKIM, DMARC alignment, DNS validation, and sender authentication issues

• Assist with DNS record validation for MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and Autodiscover

• Investigate spoofing, phishing, and email authentication failures with security teams

• Maintain documentation for mail routing, security gateways, and email authentication standards

5. Microsoft 365 Administration

• Support Microsoft 365 administration across Exchange Online, identity integration, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint

• Administer Exchange Online mailboxes, groups, connectors, transport rules, and mailbox permissions

• Support hybrid mailbox management and cloud mailbox troubleshooting

• Investigate Microsoft 365 service incidents affecting email, identity, collaboration, or authentication

• Use Microsoft 365 admin centres and PowerShell for administration and troubleshooting

• Support Microsoft 365 connectivity requirements from server, DNS, certificate, and network perspectives

6. Azure and Cloud Infrastructure

• Support Azure infrastructure services where cloud services integrate with on‑premises systems

• Assist with Azure virtual machines, storage accounts, virtual networks, private endpoints, DNS, and hybrid connectivity

• Troubleshoot Azure‑related access, connectivity, performance, and authentication issues

• Support Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, update management, and operational visibility

• Understand hybrid identity and dependencies between on‑premises AD, Exchange Hybrid, and Microsoft 365

• Work with security, application, and infrastructure teams on secure cloud‑hosted services

7. VMware Virtualisation

• Support and maintain VMware vSphere environments including ESXi hosts, vCenter, and clusters

• Manage virtual machines, templates, snapshots, resource allocation, and host‑level configuration

• Troubleshoot VM performance, CPU ready, memory pressure, storage latency, and availability issues

• Support HA, DRS, vMotion, storage vMotion, patching, and lifecycle management

• Maintain documentation for VMware hosts, clusters, datastores, and operational procedures

8. SAN, Storage, and Backup Integration

• Support SAN‑attached storage environments from server and VMware operational perspectives

• Troubleshoot storage latency, datastore utilisation, LUN connectivity, and performance constraints

• Collaborate with storage vendors or internal teams during incidents and maintenance

• Understand storage dependencies for VMware, SQL, file services, Exchange, and backup platforms

• Support capacity planning, storage risk identification, and proactive growth management

• Assist with backup and restore troubleshooting where server, VMware, or storage dependencies are involved

9. Application and Developer Support

• Work closely with developers and application teams during production, UAT, and development investigations

• Troubleshoot infrastructure issues affecting business applications including authentication, DNS, mail, certificates, and server resources

• Assist with application deployments involving server configuration, service accounts, certificates, and SMTP relay

• Review event logs, application logs, Windows services, IIS logs, and performance counters during incidents

• Help isolate whether issues are caused by application code, infrastructure, network, or external dependencies

• Communicate technical findings clearly to developers, vendors, and management

• Assist with root‑cause analysis, post‑incident reviews, and long‑term stability improvements

10. Monitoring and Operational Health

• Monitor server, VMware, Exchange, mailflow, storage, backup, Active Directory, Azure, and Microsoft 365 service health

• Investigate alerts relating to system availability, disk usage, CPU, memory, mail queues, and service health

• Build, maintain, and improve monitoring checks, dashboards, and alert thresholds

• Perform trend analysis and capacity planning across all infrastructure layers

• Work with tools such as Nagios, PRTG, SolarWinds, Azure Monitor, or similar platforms

11. Security, Compliance, and Governance

• Support infrastructure security hardening across servers, identity, messaging, and cloud services

• Assist with vulnerability remediation, patching, secure configuration, and certificate lifecycle management

• Support privileged access reviews, service account governance, and operational compliance

• Support incident investigations involving servers, identity, email, or cloud services

• Ensure infrastructure changes follow approved change control and validation processes

• Maintain accurate documentation for systems, dependencies, and operational procedures

12. Disaster Recovery and Resilience

• Support disaster recovery planning, testing, and execution for critical infrastructure services

• Maintain awareness of production and DR dependencies across all infrastructure components

• Assist with failover testing, recovery validation, and post‑test remediation

• Identify resilience gaps and recommend practical improvements

• Participate in infrastructure recovery activities during major incidents

Requirements:

• Minimum 7 years of experience in enterprise server, systems, or infrastructure engineering

• Strong Windows Server administration and troubleshooting

• Strong Active Directory, DNS, Group Policy, and authentication support

• Strong Exchange administration including mailflow troubleshooting

• Practical experience with Exchange Hybrid and Exchange Online

• Strong Microsoft 365 / Office 365 administration experience

• Experience troubleshooting SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX, Autodiscover, and email authentication

• Experience supporting email security gateway platforms

• Strong VMware vSphere operational support experience

• Experience working with SAN-backed virtualisation or enterprise storage environments

• Ability to work with developers and application teams to isolate complex technical issues

• Experience in production environments with change control and incident management

• Ability to act as an escalation point during outages and high‑pressure incidents

Our client is offering a highly competitive salary for this role based on experience.