What are the responsibilities and job description for the Systems Administrator position at Meridian Systematics?
Systems Administrator – Skill Level 5
Location: Springfield, VA
Position Type: Full-Time
Position Overview
We are seeking an expert-level Systems Administrator (Skill Level 5) to design, deploy, secure, and maintain multi-cloud infrastructure and complex enterprise web analytics systems across high-security enclaves. This role provides critical technical leadership, handles system accreditation (ATO/cATO), and builds custom automated inventory solutions in accordance with DoD, IC, and NGA policies.
Key Responsibilities
- Cloud Infrastructure Management: Design, deploy, configure, secure, monitor, and manage cloud infrastructure components across multiple cloud providers, emphasizing AWS services (VPC, EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, CloudFormation, CloudWatch, IAM).
- Operating System & Server Administration: Install, configure, secure, upgrade, and maintain RHEL, CentOS, and Windows Server environments aligned with DoD, IC, and NGA security standards.
- Web Stack & Analytics Maintenance: Maintain enterprise-class web analytics platforms built on PHP, MySQL, Apache, and related web technologies.
- Custom Automation & Scripting: Design, develop, and utilize complex, custom scripts to inventory, track, and report NGA’s official Web Inventory and associated web attributes across all security enclaves.
- Accreditation & Compliance (ATO/cATO): Execute and document actions required to obtain and maintain full Authority To Operate (ATO) and Continuous ATO (cATO). Implement STIGs, populate XACTA, develop POA&Ms, collaborate with accreditation authorities, and monitor Enterprise Security Services (ESS) and vulnerability dashboards.
- Security Patching & System Health: Perform daily, weekly, and monthly system health checks and backups. Evaluate and install OS/application security patches while maintaining logs for system errors, trends, downtime metrics, and hardware/software inventory.
- Account & Access Management: Administer application user accounts using strict least-privilege methodologies.
- Technical Guidance: Provide senior and program leadership with expert technical guidance on emerging web analytics technologies, industry trends, and potential system issues.
Required Qualifications & Experience
- Clearance: Active Top Secret SCI clearance.
- Operating Systems: Deep expertise in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, and Windows Server administration.
- Cloud Architecture: Hands-on experience provisioning and securing AWS resources (VPC, EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, CloudFormation, CloudWatch, IAM).
- Web & Database Stack: Direct experience administering Apache web servers, PHP applications, and MySQL relational databases.
- Security & ATO: Demonstrated experience implementing DISA STIGs, managing POA&Ms, utilizing XACTA, and maintaining ESS/cATO compliance.
- NGA Enterprise Services: Experience with NGA Enterprise Services, including GEOAxIS, VDSS, Cloud Operations, Active Directory, and DNS.
Desired Skills
- Comprehensive understanding of NGA’s web ecosystem and network topology.
- Proficiency in scripting and programming using PHP, Python, Bash, PowerShell, JavaScript, and SQL.
- Experience maintaining high-traffic web servers, cloud encryption standards, and web services/HTML environments.
- Experience creating, deploying, and optimizing cloud-based MySQL and other relational database architectures.
Salary : $140,000 - $175,000