Principal Systems Administrator

Overview

1st Edge is a growing business seeking top performers to join in our mission of developing Artificial Intelligence solutions for government customers. We offer technically advanced, challenging work in an employee-centered environment and collaborate with Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and DEVCOM.

We believe in a balanced relationship between the company and its employees, with benefits and time off designed to support meaningful work and strong performance.

1st Edge is seeking a hands-on Principal Systems Administrator to support a hybrid Windows/Linux infrastructure across engineering and software/AI development teams. The role owns day-to-day administration, troubleshooting, and secure infrastructure maintenance across both enterprise IT and lab/test environments supporting development and compute-intensive workloads.

• Administer and support Windows Server infrastructure, including Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and Certificate Services
• Manage and maintain a fleet of Linux servers (Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, RHEL) across engineering and development environments
• Design, build, and support VMware vSphere virtualized infrastructure from the ground up, including GPU-accelerated compute environments
• Manage networking infrastructure including switches, VPNs, firewalls, and secure communications
• Troubleshoot hardware, software, and systems integration issues across lab and test environments
• Work closely with engineering and software development teams to support project- and program-level integration efforts
• Maintain and support hybrid on-prem/cloud connectivity (Entra  / GCC High)
• Support infrastructure for software development and AI/ML workloads, including GPU compute resources and job scheduling
• Maintain secure infrastructure in accordance with CMMC compliance requirements
• Support high-performance/GPU compute infrastructure (e.g., SLURM-based clusters) for ML training and development pipelines
• Provide hands-on systems administration across both Windows and Linux environments, including patching, backups, monitoring, and incident response
• Write and maintain scripts to automate routine administration, monitoring, and deployment tasks

• Active DoD security clearance (or clearance-eligible)
• Bachelor's Degree
• 10+ years of systems administration experience, including at least 3 years in a mixed Windows/Linux environment
• Working knowledge of Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and PKI/Certificate Services
• Experience administering Linux servers in a production environment (Ubuntu, RHEL, Rocky Linux, or similar)
• Demonstrated experience designing and building VMware vSphere environments from the ground up (host configuration, cluster design, storage/network integration) — not just administering an existing environment
• Practical knowledge of networking fundamentals: switching, VPNs, firewalls, and secure communications
• Experience with enterprise-level backup, monitoring, and logging solutions
• Practical scripting ability (Bash, Python, or Power Shell) sufficient to automate tasks and solve problems
• Strong troubleshooting skills across hardware, software, and integrated systems
• Ability to work cross-functionally with engineering and software development teams
• Understanding of DoD/CMMC compliance requirements in a defense contracting environment

• Experience supporting developer application platforms such as Git Lab, Artifactory, MLflow, or similar tools
• Experience supporting software development environments (CI/CD infrastructure, dev/test environments, artifact repositories)
• Experience supporting AI/ML infrastructure — GPU-accelerated compute, model training pipelines, or job scheduling (e.g., SLURM)
• Experience with hybrid cloud environments (Entra , GCC High)
• Security certifications (Security+, CISSP, or similar)
• Experience in lab/test environment support

• Experience with configuration management and automation tools such as Ansible
• Experience designing or building CI/CD pipelines (Git Lab CI, Jenkins, or similar)
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code practices in a defense or regulated environment