Lead System Administrator

Lead Systems Administrator

Location: Rockville, MD

Onsite: Yes (on an as needed basis)

Synopsis of the job: This is a sysadmin / network admin role with growth pathway to Principal IT Architect. On-prem 3 days a week - Tues to Thurs (some flexibility here). Not a helpdesk role but qualified to help if there's a critical issue and no one else available. T3 support when normal helpdesk staff can't solve a problem.

Sys Admin for:

• Active Directory
• Azure
• Backup & DR
• Hybrid on-prem/cloud environments
• M365
• Network admin & engineering
• SQL Server DB
• VDI / Broadcom”

Be Part of One Team, One Purpose.

At Emmes Group, we’re shaping the future of clinical research—where human intelligence meets cutting-edge technology to drive meaningful advancements in healthcare. With over 47 years of scientific excellence, we’ve led groundbreaking research in cell and gene therapy, vaccines, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, rare diseases, and neuroscience.

Through our two business units—Emmes, a full-service CRO, and Veridix AI, our technology, data, and analytical solutions —we are modernizing clinical trials and accelerating the development of life-changing therapies.

We believe that every clinical breakthrough starts with people—people who are passionate, purpose-driven, and ready to make an impact. At Emmes Group, we bring People, Science, and Technology together to collaborate with our customers and deliver global health impact. Our culture is built on integrity, collaboration, and innovation, ensuring that every challenge is met with perseverance and accountability.

The Lead Systems Administrator is responsible for providing technical and operational leadership for the organization's IT infrastructure, ensuring reliability, performance, scalability, and security across on-premises and cloud environments. This role serves as a technical lead for IT Operations, overseeing day-to-day infrastructure activities, guiding operational strategy, leading complex initiatives, and driving continuous improvement efforts.

The Lead Systems Administrator partners closely with the Director, IT Operations, IT leadership, business stakeholders, vendors, and project teams to ensure operational excellence, maintain service availability, support organizational growth, and align infrastructure services with business objectives. This position provides mentorship, direction, and technical guidance to system administrators and support personnel while serving as the escalation point for critical infrastructure issues and strategic technology decisions.

• Serve as the technical lead for IT Operations, providing guidance and direction across infrastructure, systems, networking, cloud, and operational support functions.
• Oversee the administration, monitoring, maintenance, and optimization of enterprise servers, networks, storage systems, cloud platforms, and associated services.
• Act as the highest level operational escalation point for complex infrastructure incidents, outages, and problem management activities.
• Lead root cause analysis efforts and implement corrective and preventive actions to improve service reliability.
• Develop and execute infrastructure roadmaps, operational standards, and best practices aligned with organizational goals.
• Plan, coordinate, and lead system upgrades, migrations, patch management initiatives, and infrastructure modernization efforts.
• Manage system performance, capacity planning, availability, and scalability to support current and future business requirements.
• Lead disaster recovery, backup validation, business continuity planning, and recovery testing activities.
• Establish and monitor operational KPIs, SLAs, and service performance metrics, providing recommendations and action plans for continuous improvement.
• Drive automation, operational efficiency, and Infrastructure-as-Code initiatives to improve service delivery and reduce manual effort.
• Ensure compliance with security standards, regulatory requirements, audit controls, and organizational policies.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to strengthen infrastructure security posture and mitigate operational risks.
• Lead infrastructure-related projects, coordinating internal resources, vendors, and third-party service providers.
• Review and approve infrastructure changes through established change management processes.
• Mentor, coach, and develop IT Operations team members while promoting knowledge sharing and technical growth.
• Participate in workforce planning, task prioritization, resource allocation, and operational workload management.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and provide recommendations regarding infrastructure investments and operational improvements.
• Develop and maintain operational documentation, architecture diagrams, standard operating procedures, and technical knowledge repositories.
• Build strong partnerships with business stakeholders to ensure IT services effectively support organizational objectives.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Comply with all organizational policies and standards.

• 12 years of experience in IT Operations, Infrastructure Administration, Systems Administration, or related technical disciplines.
• 5+ years managing and supporting complex hybrid cloud and on-premises environments.
• Proven experience leading enterprise infrastructure initiatives, technology deployments, and operational improvement programs.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a technical lead, team lead, or senior escalation point within an IT Operations organization.
• Experience leading incident management, problem management, change management, and service reliability efforts.
• Experience mentoring and developing technical staff while coordinating operational workloads and priorities.
• Experience working with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Experience supporting highly available, secure, and regulated technology environments.

Preferred Certifications

• ITIL Foundation or higher
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA Security+
• VMware Certified Professional (VCP) or equivalent

If you’re looking for a career where your work advances global health and where scientific excellence meets real-world impact, join us and be part of something bigger. One Team, One Purpose.

Why work at Emmes?

At Emmes, your actions and hard work will have a direct impact on public health initiatives, both globally and in our local communities with opportunities for volunteerism through our Emmes Cares community engagement program. We offer a competitive benefits package focused on the health and needs of our growing workforce, including:

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Visit our website:https://www.theemmesgroup.com/

The Emmes Company, LLC is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability or protected veteran status.