Senior Systems Engineer/ Administrator

This is a remote position.

Hirezon (Interview Exchange) provides hiring, onboarding, and HR forms software for higher education institutions. We are part of the Embrace EdTech portfolio.

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Senior Systems Engineer/Administrator to independently manage Hirezon's production infrastructure hosted in a Rackspace private-cloud environment.

This is a full-time, hands-on production operations role, with primary responsibility for Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, infrastructure monitoring, backups, disaster recovery, patching, troubleshooting, security hardening, and overall system reliability.

You will be the primary infrastructure resource responsible for keeping our production environment stable, secure, and available. You must be comfortable independently troubleshooting and resolving infrastructure issues, coordinating with hosting providers, and working closely with Engineering and Security teams.

Beyond day-to-day administration, you will help improve infrastructure reliability, performance, capacity planning, automation, documentation, and cost efficiency.

The immediate and ongoing focus of this position is Hirezon's existing private-cloud environment. Over time, there may be opportunities to support infrastructure initiatives across other Embrace portfolio companies, depending on business needs.

Technology You Will Work With

• Rackspace private-cloud and managed hosting environments
  
• Microsoft Windows Server and Active Directory
  
• Microsoft SQL Server, including clustering and high availability
  
• VMware and virtualized infrastructure
  
• Apache HTTP Server and Tomcat hosting Java web applications
  
• SAML/Shibboleth single sign-on
  
• Cloudflare, CDN, WAF, DNS, and TLS certificates
  
• Backup, recovery, and disaster recovery systems
  
• Infrastructure monitoring, logging, and security tools
  
• PowerShell and infrastructure automation tools
  
• Storage, networking, firewalls, and vulnerability management platforms
  

What You Will Own

Production Infrastructure and System Administration

• Independently manage the day-to-day operations of Hirezon's Rackspace-hosted production infrastructure.
  
• Administer Windows Server environments, including server configuration, maintenance, troubleshooting, patching, upgrades, and performance optimization.
  
• Manage Active Directory, Group Policy, service accounts, privileged access, and related infrastructure dependencies.
  
• Monitor server health, resource utilization, storage, networking, availability, and overall infrastructure performance.
  
• Coordinate with Rackspace and other hosting providers on infrastructure incidents, maintenance, upgrades, and service issues.
  
• Maintain infrastructure architecture diagrams, configuration records, operational procedures, and system documentation.
  

SQL Server Administration

• Administer and maintain Microsoft SQL Server production environments.
  
• Manage SQL Server high availability, Always On configurations, Windows failover clustering, and related infrastructure.
  
• Perform and validate database backups, restores, and point-in-time recovery.
  
• Monitor SQL Server performance, availability, storage utilization, and database health.
  
• Troubleshoot database performance issues, connectivity problems, failed jobs, and production incidents.
  
• Manage SQL Agent jobs, index maintenance, integrity checks, upgrades, and database maintenance activities.
  
• Work with Engineering and specialized database consultants when complex issues require additional expertise.
  

Backup, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity

• Own backup and recovery operations across servers, databases, and critical infrastructure components.
  
• Regularly validate backups through scheduled restore testing.
  
• Maintain and test disaster recovery procedures and recovery plans.
  
• Monitor backup success, storage availability, retention policies, and offsite or protected backup integrity.
  
• Document recovery procedures, recovery objectives, and operational dependencies.
  
• Identify and address gaps that could affect business continuity or production availability.
  

Application Infrastructure and Production Support

• Support Apache HTTP Server, Tomcat, and Java application hosting infrastructure.
  
• Manage TLS certificates, DNS, domains, reverse proxies, and related application infrastructure.
  
• Support SAML/Shibboleth authentication infrastructure and troubleshoot connectivity or configuration issues.
  
• Work with Engineering to diagnose production issues across application, database, and infrastructure layers.
  
• Support application deployments, infrastructure changes, and upgrades with appropriate testing and rollback procedures.
  
• Troubleshoot production incidents and coordinate resolution with Engineering, Security, and hosting providers.
  

Security, Monitoring, and Patch Management

• Implement and maintain infrastructure security configurations, server hardening, and access controls.
  
• Manage regular Windows Server and infrastructure patching, including maintenance windows, validation, and rollback planning.
  
• Work with the Security team on vulnerability remediation, security findings, and infrastructure risk reduction.
  
• Support Cloudflare/WAF configurations, firewall rules, access controls, and security-related infrastructure changes.
  
• Maintain infrastructure monitoring, logging, alerting, and operational health checks.
  
• Support security audits and compliance requirements by providing infrastructure documentation, operational records, and evidence.
  
• Ensure critical infrastructure alerts and production issues are investigated and resolved promptly.
  

Infrastructure Optimization and Automation

• Monitor infrastructure utilization, performance, capacity, and growth trends.
  
• Identify opportunities to improve infrastructure reliability, performance, security, and cost efficiency.
  
• Recommend improvements to server configurations, storage utilization, backup systems, and infrastructure architecture.
  
• Automate repetitive administration, monitoring, maintenance, and validation tasks using PowerShell or other appropriate scripting tools.
  
• Maintain operational runbooks, checklists, and documented procedures to reduce manual effort and improve consistency.
  
• Evaluate infrastructure lifecycle requirements, including upgrades, replacements, capacity expansion, and vendor renewals.
  

Production Ownership and Operational Support

• Serve as the primary hands-on infrastructure resource for Hirezon.
  
• Take ownership of infrastructure-related production incidents from investigation through resolution.
  
• Coordinate with internal teams, external consultants, and hosting providers when additional support is needed.
  
• Participate in scheduled maintenance and provide support for urgent production issues during evenings or weekends as required.
  
• Maintain clear incident records, troubleshooting documentation, and follow-up actions.
  
• Proactively identify infrastructure risks and recommend corrective actions before they affect production.
  

How You Will Work With Others

Engineering Team: Engineering owns application code and software releases. You own infrastructure and production operations. You will work together on deployments, troubleshooting, performance issues, and infrastructure changes.

Security Team: Security defines policies, standards, and risk priorities. You implement and maintain infrastructure security controls, patching, access management, and operational safeguards.

Hosting Providers: You coordinate with Rackspace and other vendors, manage operational escalations, and ensure hosting services meet availability and performance expectations.

External Consultants: You may work with specialized database or infrastructure consultants when needed, while retaining primary ownership of day-to-day operations.

Embrace Technology Group: You may collaborate with other portfolio companies on infrastructure-related initiatives as business needs evolve.

Requirements

• 7+ years of hands-on Windows Server administration in production SaaS, enterprise, or hosted application environments.
  
• Strong Microsoft SQL Server administration experience, including Always On/high availability, clustering, backups, restores, point-in-time recovery, SQL Agent jobs, maintenance, and performance troubleshooting.
  
• Experience independently managing production infrastructure in private-cloud, hosted, VMware, or other virtualized environments.
  
• Strong knowledge of Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, Windows failover clustering, service accounts, and server security.
  
• Experience managing compute, storage, networking, server capacity, and infrastructure availability.
  
• Hands-on experience supporting Apache HTTP Server, Tomcat, TLS certificates, DNS, and web application hosting infrastructure.
  
• Experience with Cloudflare or similar CDN/WAF platforms, firewall configurations, and infrastructure security controls.
  
• Strong production troubleshooting skills, including monitoring, incident response, root-cause analysis, change management, and operational recovery.
  
• Experience managing backup systems, performing database and server restores, and testing disaster recovery procedures.
  
• Experience with server patching, vulnerability remediation, security hardening, and operational monitoring tools.
  
• Working knowledge of PowerShell scripting for system administration, automation, monitoring, and operational checks.
  
• Experience coordinating with hosting providers and managing infrastructure-related vendor escalations.
  
• Ability to independently manage production infrastructure without relying on a dedicated infrastructure team.
  
• Strong documentation, communication, and problem-solving skills.
  
• Willingness to participate in scheduled maintenance and urgent production support during evenings and weekends.
  

Nice to Have

• Experience with Rackspace or similar managed private-cloud hosting providers.
  
• Experience with VMware infrastructure administration and virtualization technologies.
  
• Experience with SAML/Shibboleth authentication and single sign-on.
  
• Familiarity with Solr, Elasticsearch, or similar search platforms.
  
• Experience supporting Java-based enterprise applications.
  
• Experience with SOC 2, HECVAT, GovRAMP/StateRAMP, or similar security and compliance requirements.
  
• Experience with infrastructure automation tools such as Ansible or Terraform.
  
• Experience with immutable or protected backup storage and automated recovery testing.
  
• Familiarity with SIEM, EDR/XDR, vulnerability management, and security monitoring platforms.
  
• Experience with infrastructure capacity planning, cost optimization, and lifecycle management.
  
• Exposure to AWS or Azure environments.
  
• Experience creating infrastructure health dashboards, monitoring reports, and operational runbooks.
  

What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days

First 2 Weeks – Understand the Environment

• Become familiar with Hirezon's Rackspace infrastructure, Windows Server environment, SQL Server architecture, and application hosting setup.
  
• Review existing monitoring, backups, recovery procedures, security configurations, and operational documentation.
  
• Understand production dependencies, escalation procedures, and responsibilities shared with Engineering, Security, and hosting providers.
  
• Begin participating in daily production health checks and operational activities.
  

By Day 30 – Take Ownership of Daily Operations

• Take ownership of daily infrastructure monitoring, alerting, and production health checks.
  
• Review and validate backup processes, including performing a test database restore.
  
• Understand SQL Server clustering, high availability, and recovery procedures.
  
• Manage routine Windows Server maintenance, patching, and infrastructure troubleshooting.
  
• Establish clear escalation paths for production issues.
  

By Day 60 – Independently Manage the Environment

• Independently manage routine production infrastructure operations.
  
• Complete a review of infrastructure health, capacity, backups, recovery readiness, and security risks.
  
• Identify gaps in monitoring, documentation, patching, or operational processes.
  
• Document critical infrastructure procedures and recovery runbooks.
  
• Recommend improvements to infrastructure stability, performance, and operational efficiency.
  

By Day 90 – Establish Reliable Operational Ownership

• Demonstrate independent ownership of Hirezon's production infrastructure.
  
• Establish consistent monitoring, backup validation, patching, and maintenance processes.
  
• Produce a prioritized infrastructure improvement plan covering reliability, security, capacity, automation, and cost optimization.
  
• Ensure critical operational procedures are documented and usable by another qualified engineer.
  
• Establish regular infrastructure health reporting covering backups, recovery tests, patching, certificates, incidents, and capacity.
  

How We Hire

Our interview process focuses on practical, hands-on production experience.

Candidates should be prepared to discuss:

• Windows Server environments they have personally administered.
  
• SQL Server clustering, backups, restores, and production troubleshooting.
  
• Production incidents they have independently investigated and resolved.
  
• Their experience managing private-cloud or virtualized infrastructure.
  
• Backup and disaster recovery procedures they have implemented or tested.
  
• How they would approach taking ownership of an existing production environment.
  

The process may include practical troubleshooting or recovery scenarios using sample materials provided by the interview team.

We may request references who can speak to your hands-on technical capabilities and independent operational ownership.

Hirezon is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from every background and do not discriminate on any basis protected by law.

Benefits