Systems Administrator - IT Systems & Cloud

Overview

First Energy is a forward-thinking electric utility powered by a diverse team committed to making customers’ lives brighter, the environment better and our communities stronger. First Energy (NYSE: FE) is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, First Energy includes one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems, more than 24,500 miles of transmission lines in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, and a regulated generating fleet with a total capacity of 3,780 megawatts.

This open position with First Energy Service Co., a subsidiary of First Energy Corp, is accountable, under general supervision, for installing and maintaining our Microsoft Server & Storage environment while maintaining compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. The role will directly support First Energy’s critical systems with a blended focus on traditional system administration, automation of server administration, and building infrastructure services.

• Design, implement, and maintain system infrastructure to ensure high availability, resilience and performance.
• Install, manage and tune mission-critical Microsoft Server systems and VMware hosts that support operations 24x7x365 with minimal downtime.
• Automate and execute Microsoft Server standards that include Citrix servers, application servers, Active Directory servers, specialized support servers, Microsoft File and Print Servers.
• Leverage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) configuration management and automation technologies including Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, Chocolatey and Jenkins to automate infrastructure delivery.
• Automate repetitive tasks to streamline operations and reduce manual intervention.
• Develop and maintain scripting, code or interface APIs where necessary.
• Manage the testing, deployment and automation of patches and software upgrades for Microsoft servers and ESX Hosts.
• Solve complex problems and troubleshoot functionality for issue identification, and implement preventative measures in collaboration with IT personnel.
• Develop technical designs and estimates to meet business needs while supporting the company’s IT direction and standards.
• Create and maintain system documentation and procedures to ensure governance and standards.
• Provide consulting for new applications/systems requiring Microsoft servers and services.
• Maintain and administer operating systems, server security and Microsoft services.
• Install, upgrade, configure and maintain server systems hardware and software.
• Design and implement disaster recovery procedures.
• Investigate and resolve application problems and enterprise monitoring alarms.
• Adhere to company processes, change management and other procedures in accordance with regulatory requirements.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field with 3–5 years of related experience required; in lieu of a degree, 5–7 years of related experience required. VMware certification preferred.
• Related experience includes, but is not limited to: a production Microsoft Server Administration role, VMware Administrator role, patch management, Power Shell scripting, site reliability engineering, etc.
• Strong knowledge of the following:
• Microsoft Windows Server deployment using deployment software tools (e.g., Symantec Ghost, Ansible, Terraform).
• Intel/AMD server hardware maintenance and troubleshooting.
• Microsoft Windows Server operating system administration and patch management (2016/2019/2022/2025).
• VMware architecture and design of VMware server virtualization (ESX, vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, Aria/VCF Ops, etc.). VCP or higher certification preferred.
• Proficient in Power Shell and other scripting technologies.
• Power
  
  CLI, Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, Chef or other IaC/orchestration platform.
• Backup technologies such as Veeam.
• Strong network skills for server administration and performance troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of enterprise monitoring platforms.
• Ability and willingness to travel to company sites, work flexible hours, and be available for call-in and after-hours support (24/7 operations).
• Excellent oral and written…