System Administrator – SME; Cloud, Hybrid

Peraton is seeking an experienced System Administrator – Subject Matter Expert (SME) specializing in cloud and hybrid computing environments to support the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In this senior-level role, you will serve as a key technical advisor and hands‑on administrator across a complex hybrid infrastructure spanning on‑premises data center environments and multi‑cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Work location:

Remote

• Hybrid Systems Administration:
  Administer and maintain Windows Server and Linux/UNIX-based operating systems (Red Hat, Ubuntu, macOS, and comparable distributions) running on enterprise hardware including Dell, HP x86, and Oracle SPARC platforms across multiple physical data centers.
• Virtualization Management:
  Administer VMware vCloud, vSphere, vCenter, and Enterprise Plus virtualization environments; manage VMware
  
  Operations (vROPS) and Log Insight for performance monitoring, optimization, and troubleshooting; support System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) as needed.
• Cloud Administration & Optimization:
  Administer and optimize AWS environments (EC2, S3, Cloud Formation, Application Migration Service, and related services); provide expert guidance on cloud and cluster computing architectures; research, evaluate, and deploy advanced cloud computing capabilities and large‑data analytics solutions for the program.
• Migration & Modernization:
  Lead and support data integration and workload migration efforts from on‑premises infrastructure to cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP); document migration paths, develop runbooks, and execute cutovers with minimal‑to‑no customer downtime.
• Storage & Backup/DR Administration:
  Administer NAS and SAN storage devices; manage enterprise backup software; implement and maintain Backup‑to‑Cloud replication and disaster recovery (DR) solutions to meet program continuity requirements.
• Architecture Advisory:
  Advise OCIO leadership and program stakeholders on cloud and hybrid computing architectures, system and memory management optimization across distributed platforms, and best practices for workload placement and resource utilization.
• Security & Patch Management:
  Apply OS, hypervisor, and application‑level security patches to resolve vulnerabilities; maintain compliance with DOI/USGS security standards and Information Assurance Vulnerability Alert (IAVA) remediation timelines.
• Monitoring, Observability & Incident Response:
  Design and maintain operational monitoring dashboards (vROPS, Datadog, Cloud Watch, or comparable tools) for CPU, memory, and storage utilization; troubleshoot and resolve performance and availability incidents across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructure.
• Dev Ops & Automation Support:
  Leverage container and automation tooling (Kubernetes, Jenkins, Ansible, or comparable platforms) to support workload modernization, CI/CD pipeline operations, and infrastructure‑as‑code deployments.
• Documentation &
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Maintain accurate technical documentation including architecture diagrams, configuration records, migration plans, and runbooks; collaborate using Government‑provided tools (Jira, Confluence, Microsoft Teams).

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree and 10 years professional experience, or a Masters degree and 8 years professional experience, or an Associates degree and 12 years professional experience; or a high school diploma/equivalent and 14 years’ professional experience.
• U.S. Citizenship required; must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance; all work must be performed within the United States
• Extensive experience in…