IT System Engineer
Torentify# IT System Engineer
## About the Role
Nearfield Instruments (NFI) is looking for a hands-on **Senior Systems Administrator & Infrastructure Engineer** to operate and improve the **Operational Technology (OT) environment within its products**. This role focuses exclusively on the product control environment rather than corporate IT or site infrastructure.
You will help keep product systems stable, secure, recoverable, and supportable throughout their lifecycle. The environment includes **Windows and Linux servers, virtual machines, storage, control boxes, industrial switches, firewalls, sensors, and machine communication networks**. Success in this role requires the ability to troubleshoot across software, operating systems, networking, virtualization, storage, and machine communication layers.
## Key Responsibilities
- Operate and improve product control systems and infrastructure, focusing on uptime, security, recovery, and supportability.
- Troubleshoot complex connectivity, communication, and performance issues across networking, operating systems, virtualization, and storage.
- Diagnose communication issues between servers, control boxes, sensors, machine controllers, and product subsystems.
- Analyze network traffic and communication protocols using **Wireshark, tcpdump, and packet captures**.
- Identify root causes of product issues, distinguish infrastructure problems from software problems, and escalate issues with clear evidence.
- Manage networking components including **subnets, routing, VLANs, DNS, gateways, NAT, VPNs, managed switches, and firewall rules**.
- Build and maintain site-to-site VPNs and remote-access solutions.
- Administer **Windows Server and Ubuntu/Linux** systems within the product environment.
- Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot virtualization platforms such as **Hyper-V, VMware, and QEMU** or equivalent technologies.
- Configure and troubleshoot RAID arrays and storage controllers.
- Manage backup, restore, disaster recovery, and data recovery activities.
- Implement and maintain **Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)**, Active Directory permissions, service accounts, and least-privilege access models.
- Strengthen security through hardening, patching, access controls, secure baselines, vulnerability remediation, and structured change management.
- Perform vulnerability assessments, security remediation, malware validation, antivirus validation, and security compliance checks.
- Maintain documentation, monitoring, backup, and recovery processes.
- Collaborate with **Software, Production, Service, and IT teams** on cross-functional product troubleshooting.
- Participate in incident response and on-call support when needed.
## Required Qualifications
- Around **5 years of hands-on experience** in systems administration, infrastructure engineering, OT, industrial automation, or product environments.
- Strong networking skills, including:
- Routing and switching
- VLANs
- DNS
- Gateways
- VPNs
- Firewalls
- Experience with packet-level troubleshooting using **Wireshark, tcpdump, or similar tools**.
- Hands-on **Windows Server** experience, including Active Directory, Group Policy, patching, permissions, and security hardening.
- Hands-on **Ubuntu/Linux administration** experience, including services, updates, permissions, networking, and logging.
- Experience troubleshooting communication between servers, controllers, control boxes, sensors, and machine subsystems.
- Experience with virtualization platforms such as **Hyper-V, VMware, QEMU, or equivalent**.
- Hands-on experience with **RAID configuration, storage management, backup, restore, and disaster recovery**.
- Experience implementing and managing **RBAC, access control, and least-privilege security models**.
- Experience performing **vulnerability assessments and security remediation**.
- Security-oriented mindset with strong attention to system hardening, system integrity, and incident handling.
## Preferred Qualifications
- Preferably located in the **Netherlands**.
- Familiarity with **OT, semiconductor, manufacturing, or industrial environments**, including their availability and change-control requirements.
- Experience with industrial communication protocols and machine-control networks.
- Experience with monitoring, logging, observability, incident management, and root-cause analysis.
- Automation skills in **PowerShell, Bash, or Python**.
- Experience with **Ansible**.
- Experience with virtualization, backup, disaster recovery, and high-availability solutions.
- Experience with network segmentation, industrial firewalls, and cybersecurity controls for product environments.
## Skills & Competencies
- Systems administration
- Infrastructure engineering
- Operational Technology (OT)
- Industrial automation
- Network administration
- Network troubleshooting
- Routing and switching
- VLANs, DNS, NAT, VPNs, and firewalls
- Packet analysis
- Wireshark and tcpdump
- Windows Server
- Active Directory
- Group Policy
- Ubuntu/Linux
- Virtualization
- Hyper-V, VMware, and QEMU
- RAID and storage management
- Backup and disaster recovery
- RBAC and access control
- Least-privilege security
- Vulnerability assessment and remediation
- Security hardening
- Incident response
- Root-cause analysis
- Monitoring and logging
- PowerShell, Bash, or Python
- Cross-functional troubleshooting
- Technical documentation
- On-call support
## Education & Experience
**Education**
- No specific education requirement is stated in the source job description.
**Experience**
- Around **5 years of hands-on experience** in systems administration, infrastructure engineering, OT, industrial automation, or product environments.
- Relevant hands-on experience across networking, Windows Server, Linux, virtualization, storage, backup/recovery, access control, and security remediation is required.
## Work Arrangement & Schedule
- **Location:** Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands
- **Work Arrangement:** Remote
- **Location Preference:** Candidates are preferably located in the Netherlands.
- **Employment Type:** Not specified in the source job description.
- **Weekly Hours:** Not specified.
- **Schedule:** Not specified.
- **On-Call:** Participation in on-call support when needed.
- **Weekend Requirements:** Not specifically stated.
## Compensation & Benefits
- **Compensation:** EUR 70–100
- Specific benefits are not provided in the source job description.
## Compliance / Additional Information
**Employer:** Nearfield Instruments (NFI)
This position focuses exclusively on the **product control environment** and does not cover corporate IT or site infrastructure.
The role is expected to contribute to improved product troubleshooting, reduced downtime, stronger security, reliable virtualized and storage environments, clearer documentation and support processes, and stronger collaboration between Software, Production, Service, and Infrastructure teams.