Lead Server Administrator

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Regular Full Time Dearborn, MI, US

2 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $95,000.00 To $ Annually

Jackson Dawson is looking for a Lead Server Administrator to own the design, deployment, and day-to-day health of our hybrid server environment. You'll be the senior technical voice on the Infrastructure team — bridging on-premises Windows Server with Microsoft Azure IaaS across multiple sites, and serving as the go‑to escalation point for anything server-related.

This is a hands‑on, deeply technical role for someone who enjoys running the platform, mentoring the team around them, and partnering closely with IT Security, Development, and PMO to keep the business running.

Work environment: On-Site (Dearborn, MI)

• Deploy, configure, and manage Windows Server 2016/2019/2022 across on-premises and Azure IaaS (with light AWS support).
• Administer VMware vSphere 9 (ESXi hosts and vCenter): VM provisioning, snapshots, resource allocation, DRS/HA cluster health, and host maintenance.
• Own the server lifecycle end-to-end: patching (Batch Patch), firmware updates (Dell Open Manage), hardware maintenance, and decommissioning.
• Maintain server build standards, CIS baseline hardening, and clean configuration documentation.

• Administer Active Directory Domain Services — domain controllers, sites and services, replication, and schema.
• Design, deploy, and troubleshoot Group Policy Objects with a regular review cadence for compliance.
• Manage DNS (AD-integrated zones, conditional forwarders, reverse lookup, split-brain DNS) and DHCP (scopes, reservations, failover).
• Run Entra  (Azure AD) hybrid identity:
  Entra Connect sync, hybrid join, and Conditional Access in partnership with IT Security.
• Enforce least-privilege access across on-prem and Azure AD user, group, and OU structure.
• Manage Azure IaaS resources:
  Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, NSGs, Load Balancers, Azure Bastion, and Storage.
• Administer Resource Groups, subscription cost management, and tagging governance.
• Configure and maintain Azure Site Recovery for DR across HQ and the secondary site.
• Manage Azure DNS zones, Private Endpoints, and VNet peering for hybrid connectivity.
• Support hybrid connectivity via VPN Gateway and/or Express Route alongside the on-premises networking team.

• Install, configure, and maintain IIS for internal and externally‑facing web applications.
• Manage application pools, bindings, SSL/TLS certificates (including renewal workflows), and HTTPS configuration.
• Troubleshoot IIS performance, failed request tracing, event log analysis, and HTTP errors.
• Apply IIS hardening standards: remove unnecessary modules, configure request filtering, manage app permissions.
• Partner with Development on deployment configurations, dependencies, and dev/staging/prod parity.

• Administer SQL Server at the OS and infrastructure layer: installation, patching, service accounts, and Windows-level performance.
• Configure and maintain HA/DR infrastructure — Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, and witness/quorum.
• Partner with DBAs on storage provisioning, tempdb placement, I/O configuration, and server-level resource governance.
• Monitor Windows Event and SQL Error logs for infrastructure issues; elevate database-layer issues to the DBA team.

Note:

This role owns SQL Server infrastructure. Database administration (schema, query tuning, backup jobs, agent jobs) is handled by the DBA function.

• Own and operate the enterprise backup platform (Veeam Backup & Replication or equivalent) — job scheduling, retention, and media management.
• Run and document regular backup verification and test restores; maintain RTO/RPO logs.
• Design and maintain DR runbooks for all critical workloads across HQ and the AA2 secondary site.
• Administer Azure Site Recovery replication, failover testing, and failback procedures.
• Coordinate DR tabletop exercises with IT leadership and…