Sr. Systems Engineer

The Company: GIA is the world’s foremost authority in gemology. GIA is a global organization with headquarters located in Carlsbad, CA. GIA in Carlsbad boasts a 17-acre ocean view campus that accommodates approximately 600 of its 3,000 total employees worldwide. It offers many competitive health and commuter benefits that promote the well-being of its employees as well as that of the environment. Click here to learn more about GIA!

The Location: Overlooking the iconic Flower Fields & Pacific Ocean, this position is located in Carlsbad, California at our corporate headquarters. We offer a hybrid schedule with 03 days in the office (subject to change), provided if metrics such as productivity and the quality of the deliverables are achieved.

The Environment:

• On-site cafe - affordable custom breakfast and lunch meals and Starbucks drink!

• Economic friendly services - electric vehicle charging stations on-site

The Culture: At GIA, our people are at the center of everything we do. We foster a culture of innovation, collaboration and curiosity, where teams learn from one another, celebrate successes and grow together while doing meaningful work with real impact.

We’re committed to creating an environment where everyone feels valued and inspired to contribute their best. That commitment extends to employee well-being, with robust benefits tailored by location, including medical insurance, retirement contributions, paid time off, life insurance and more.

Passionate people coming together with a shared purpose—that’s life at GIA.

What to expect:

• We offer competitive medical, dental, vision and matching 401-K plans (no vesting required)

• Paid vacation, sick and holidays, tuition assistance, commuter benefits

JOB OVERVIEW/SUMMARY

The Sr. Systems Engineer designs, improves, and operates enterprise server infrastructure across on-premises and cloud environments. This senior technical individual contributor leads complex Linux and Windows engineering work, automation, infrastructure modernization, resilience planning, and technical evaluation of vendors and costs.

In partnership with infrastructure architects, procurement, finance, and IT leadership, the engineer develops recommendations and implements approved infrastructure standards and projects. The role mentors engineers and coordinates cross-functional work to improve performance, security, availability, and cost efficiency.

The position reports to the Sr. Manager IT Infrastructure Services and has no direct reports.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Infrastructure Strategy & Architecture (20%)

• Develop technical input to the long-term infrastructure strategy and roadmap for approval by IT leadership, including on-premises modernization, cloud adoption, and cost optimization initiatives.
• Lead architectural design and capacity planning for business-critical infrastructure, evaluating and recommending technology solutions (hyperconverged, cloud, storage) based on performance, cost and risk.
• Oversee infrastructure technology refresh cycles, lifecycle planning and asset retirement to balance innovation, cost and operational stability.
• Drive infrastructure transformation and modernization projects, including cloud migration, datacenter consolidation and platform upgrades.
• Develop, document, and maintain approved infrastructure standards, reference architectures, and best practices across on-premises and cloud environments.

Infrastructure Operations & Resilience (20%)

• Provision, configure, harden and maintain Linux servers (RHEL, CentOS, Rocky, Ubuntu) hosted on-premises and as AWS instances, covering the full lifecycle from build through decommission.
• Administer and support Wintel / Windows Server systems at working level, including patching, Active Directory integrated services, and day-to-day troubleshooting.
• Manage AWS components supporting Linux workloads with build parity between cloud and on-premises instances and cost-optimization oversight.
• Design and implement resilient, highly available infrastructure that meets performance, availability and scalability requirements with disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities.
• Maintain and monitor system health through automated monitoring and manual checks, responding to alerts and performance degradation with root cause analysis.

Automation, Change Management & Compliance (20%)

• Build and maintain Ansible playbooks, roles and inventories to automate provisioning, hardening, patching and remediation of configuration drift with measurable efficiency gains.
• Own and execute recurring OS patching cycles with structured validation, managing compliance with security timelines and regulatory requirements (CIS, SOC 2, etc.).
• Author and maintain comprehensive runbooks for patching, builds, upgrades, failovers and recovery that are repeatable, auditable and transferable across team.
• Follow and enforce change control procedures, managing infrastructure change requests, rollback planning and stakeholder communication.
• Develop scripting solutions (Bash, Python, PowerShell) and automation to eliminate repetitive tasks and reduce configuration drift with documented performance improvements.

Vendor Management, Cost Optimization & Budget Governance (20%)

• Serve as technical lead for infrastructure vendor evaluations, service reviews, and renewal recommendations; support procurement in contract negotiations and monitor agreed service delivery.
• Lead technical cost optimization initiatives across infrastructure, including cloud right-sizing, utilization analysis, and license recommendations; contribute to capital planning.
• Provide technical inputs to infrastructure budget forecasts, track assigned project and platform costs, and recommend cost-saving opportunities to IT leadership.
• Evaluate and recommend infrastructure solutions based on business requirements, total cost of ownership, vendor viability and risk profile.
• Work with procurement and finance to evaluate proposed infrastructure spending, prioritize technical investments, and document expected costs and benefits.

Technical Leadership, Team Development & Knowledge Transfer (20%)

• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to junior and mid-level engineers on Linux, automation, operational best practices, and technical skill development.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams (network, security, applications) on infrastructure initiatives and troubleshooting issues.
• Conduct technical knowledge transfer, establish documentation standards and build institutional knowledge across the engineering team.
• Lead root cause analysis for critical incidents and drive permanent fixes through post-incident reviews and process improvements.
• Present infrastructure recommendations and project updates to IT leadership and other stakeholders as needed.

JOB COMPETENCIES (Skills & Abilities)

• Strategic Infrastructure Leadership: Ability to think strategically about infrastructure investments, technology direction and business alignment; experience developing infrastructure roadmaps and transformation initiatives.
• Technical Depth: Advanced, practical Linux and Windows administration backed by working knowledge of hyperconverged infrastructure, cloud platforms, and emerging technologies.
• Automation Expertise: Proficiency with Ansible and scripting to automate complex infrastructure operations; demonstrated track record of delivering measurable efficiency and reliability improvements.
• Cloud Architecture & Cost Optimization: Working understanding of cloud economics, cost management, right-sizing and total cost of ownership analysis; experience optimizing cloud consumption.
• Vendor Management & Negotiation: Ability to manage vendor relationships, evaluate solutions, negotiate contracts and drive accountability for service delivery.
• Budget & Financial Acumen: Understanding of infrastructure capital budgeting, operational budgets, ROI analysis and ability to communicate business case to leadership.
• Problem-Solving & Analysis: Advanced analytical skills to troubleshoot complex infrastructure issues and identify root causes; ability to design systemic solutions.
• Operational Discipline: Runbook-driven execution, adherence to change control, thorough pre/post change validation and documentation discipline.
• Documentation & Knowledge Transfer: Ability to create clear runbooks, technical documentation and mentor engineers on best practices.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills to engage with technical teams, business stakeholders and senior leadership.
• Leadership & Mentoring: Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop technical talent; experience leading or coordinating cross-functional infrastructure initiatives.
• Accountability & Autonomy: Ability to own infrastructure systems end-to-end, make sound technical decisions independently and take ownership of outcomes.
• Business Acumen: Understanding of how infrastructure investments align with business strategy and ability to present technical recommendations in business context.
• Change Management: Experience leading organizational change, managing technical transitions and driving adoption of new infrastructure solutions.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS (Knowledge & Experience)

• Bachelor's degree (or foreign educational equivalent) in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a closely related field is required; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Seven (7) years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience in systems engineering or infrastructure operations, with minimum 3 years in a senior or lead technical role.
• Demonstrated experience with each of the following:
  • (a) administration and modernization of Linux servers in a production enterprise environment at scale;
  • (b) design and implementation of highly-available infrastructure solutions;
  • (c) cloud infrastructure design and cost optimization (AWS or equivalent);
  • (d) vendor management and contract negotiation;
  • (e) infrastructure budgeting and cost analysis;
  • (f) automation tooling such as Ansible; and
  • (g) mentoring or technical leadership of engineering teams.
• Proven track record of delivering infrastructure transformation or modernization initiatives with measurable business impact.
• Experience presenting infrastructure strategy and business cases to IT leadership and executive stakeholders.

Certifications Preferred

• Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Solutions Architect Expert
• Certified Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or equivalent advanced certification

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Position is based at the GIA campus in Carlsbad, California. Hybrid schedule; no telecommuting outside normal commuting distance of the worksite.
• May require on-call support outside standard business hours, including weekends, for infrastructure incidents and production support.
• Occasional flexibility in working hours to collaborate with global infrastructure teams, vendors and stakeholders across time zones.

WORK ENVIRONMENT / PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Work is performed in a designated professional office workstation and environment.
• Extensive use of office equipment including computer, keyboard, monitor, telephone, and business-related software.
• Prolonged periods sitting at workstation; use of keyboard and mouse.
• Need to access server rooms and data centers for hands-on infrastructure maintenance.

Management Scope

Senior technical individual contributor with coordinative responsibility for cross-functional infrastructure initiatives. While not a direct line manager, this role coordinates with and provides technical guidance to infrastructure teams, mentors junior engineers, and leads infrastructure strategy efforts. Accountability extends to infrastructure outcomes, technology decisions, vendor partnerships and team technical development.

Pay: $139k to $160k

An Equal Opportunity Employer
All employment decisions are made without regard to unlawful considerations of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or any other legally protected status. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.

Disclaimer: This job description indicates in general terms, the type and level of work performed as well as the typical responsibilities of employees in this classification and it may be changed by management at any time. Other duties may also apply. Nothing in this job description changes the at-will employment relationship existing between the Company and its employees.

About Us

Working at GIA

With a reach that spans the globe — GIA is a nonprofit institute dedicated to ensuring the public trust in gems and jewelry through cutting edge gemological research and rigorous education programs. We have shaped the gem industry, protected millions of consumers and taught generations of jewelers and gemologists all over the world since 1931.

Comprising over 3,000 employees in 13 countries, GIA is a place of diversity, innovation, creativity and engagement. Whether you are passionate about science, history, design, education, IT or a corporate career, GIA has a place for you. Join one of the world’s most colorful and brilliant industries with an organization that serves the public good by bringing knowledge and objectivity to gems and jewelry.

What GIA Does

• Research that deepens the world’s understanding of gems and jewelry manufacturing and shares these findings with academia, the industry, and the gem-buying public

• Education that builds careers and enhances the knowledge and integrity of the gem and jewelry industry

• Standard setting that protects those who buy gems by ensuring the qualities of gems and jewelry are objectively and consistently described

• Laboratory services that provide an unbiased and scientific assessment of gem quality

Employee Benefits

GIA offers competitive salaries and exceptional benefits as well as training opportunities to employees all over the globe.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

All employment decisions are made without regard to unlawful considerations of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or any other legally protected status. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.

Crime Statistics (For U.S. Only)

In accordance with the Jeanne Clery Act, GIA's current annual crime statistics are available at: Clery Report: Annual Disclosure of Campus Security Policies and Crime Statistics