Systems Engineer

Job Description

Reporting to the Director for IT Operations the Systems Engineer designs builds and maintains on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure supporting library systems and research computing. Maintains production services including repository platforms search and indexing systems metadata pipelines (including ML/AI-driven metadata generation workflows) and associated data stores. Develops automated deployment and configuration workflows using infrastructure-as-code and configuration management practices ensuring that systems are configured and operated in accordance with university policy and standard security practices. Supports containerized services and contributes to deployment practices and orchestration platforms. Works with library faculty to provision and maintain computational environments including GPU-backed systems for machine learning workloads.

Required Qualifications

-Bachelors degree in computer science computer engineering information science or a related field (or a Bachelors in another field with equivalent professional experience directly related to the position).
-Experience administering Linux-based systems including networking security practices and system performance management as demonstrated through professional experience academic coursework or applied projects.
-Experience with version control workflows using Git in a collaborative environment including branching strategies pull requests code review and integration with CI/CD pipelines in team-based projects.
-Demonstrated scripting experience in languages such as Bash Python or Powershell for automation and systems integration. Evidence may include development of scripts or small utilities that automate system administration tasks interact with APIs or support data or metadata processing workflows.
-Experience deploying and managing containerized applications using Docker including building images defining services with Dockerfiles or Compose managing multi-service deployments and troubleshooting containerized environments.
-Experience working independently and in coordination with other engineers on diagnosing and resolving system-level issues debugging production or lab environments analyzing logs and system metrics.

Preferred Qualifications

-Experience supporting research computing or digital scholarship environments including repository systems metadata workflows or data/ML processing pipelines.
-Experience with cloud services including compute networking and storage (e.g. S3 Glacier).
-Experience building or maintaining CI/CD pipelines (e.g. GitLab CI or similar systems).
-Experience with infrastructure-as-code concepts and tools (e.g. Terraform or equivalent).
-Experience with centralized logging and monitoring platforms (e.g. Splunk or equivalent).
-Experience working with storage systems including network-attached storage or distributed storage platforms (e.g. TrueNAS Ceph).
-Experience supporting GPU-backed compute environments for machine learning training or inference workloads.

Overtime Status

Exempt: Not eligible for overtime

Appointment Type

Regular

Salary Information

$85000 minimum dependent on qualifications and experience

Hours per week

40

Review Date

6/10/26

Additional Information

The application package needs to include a resume cover letter addressing the candidates experience with the responsibilities associated with the position and the required and preferred qualifications and the names of three(3) references and their contact information.

PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENT:
To be considered applicants are required to submit a portfolio that demonstrates experience related to the Required Qualifications. The portfolio or a URL to the portfolio must be submitted separately from the résumé. Portfolio materials may include professional educational or personal projects.

Examples of appropriate portfolio content may include but are not limited to:

-Infrastructure: Documentation demonstrating experience with virtualization technologies storage solutions and other core infrastructure services. Materials should include architecture diagrams tools utilized security considerations and relevant configuration documentation.
-Configuration and Automation: Examples of scripts or automation tools used for provisioning backups or other repeatable tasks; configuration-as-code samples; or continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows.
-Security: Sample firewall configurations backup and recovery processes patch management workflows or other documentation or code illustrating the implementation of layered security practices.
-Troubleshooting: Documentation of a representative technical issue including diagnostic approach tools used resolution steps and actions taken to prevent future occurrences.

The successful candidate will be required to have a criminal conviction check.

About Virginia Tech

Dedicated to its mottoUt Prosim(That I May Serve) Virginia Tech pushes the boundaries of knowledge by taking a hands-on transdisciplinary approach to preparing scholars to be leaders and problem-solvers. A comprehensive land-grant institution that enhances the quality of life in Virginia and throughout the world Virginia Tech is aninclusive communitydedicated to knowledge discovery and creativity. The university offers more than 280 majors to a diverse enrollment of more than 36000 undergraduate graduate and professional students in eightundergraduate colleges aschool of medicine aveterinary medicinecollegeGraduate School andHonors College.The university has a significant presence across Virginia including Blacksburg the greater Washington D.C. area the Health Sciences and Technology Campus in Roanoke sites in Newport News and Richmond and numerousExtension officesandresearch institutes.A leading global research institution Virginia Tech conducts more than $650 million in research annually.

Virginia Tech endorses and encourages participation in professional development opportunities and university shared governance. These valuable contributions to university shared governance provide important representation and perspective along with opportunities for unique and impactful professional development.