Infrastructure Systems Administrator

Position Overview

We are searching for an experienced, organized, positive, and self‑motivated Infrastructure Systems Administrator to join our Dev Sec Ops  Department within the Joint Mission Integration and Experimentation (JMIE) Division at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at Penn State. JMIE specializes in rapid development of warfighter capabilities in an aggregated and integrated multidomain environment.

• Asset installation/configuration, operation and maintenance of systems hardware, software, and related infrastructure
• Configure and manage operating systems (Windows and Linux), applications (commercial and government), networks (IPs, subnets, etc.), and network equipment (switches)
• Configure and manage DOD and IC standard distributed authentication services
• Build systems from "bare metal" in alignment with accredited baselines
• Ensure that system hardware, operating systems, software systems, and related procedures adhere to government security and readiness policies
• Perform regular security monitoring to identify any possible intrusions, including assessment of logs and reports
• Perform daily backup operations, regular file archival and purge, as necessary
• Create, change, and delete user accounts per request
• Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades, and resource optimization
• Repair and recover from hardware or software failures for multiple sites
• Establish, document, and monitor the government's cyber security program implementation plan
• Maintain facility video distribution system and displays

• System administration (server and desktop security implementation and management and software development IT infrastructure setup and management)
• U.S. Government computers, networks, and security
• Administering server‑side technology and networked computing systems
• Proven working experience with DNS / DHCP / Kickstart / LDAP / Kubernetes / Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Windows 11 and Server / ACAS / Rancher / Grafana / ELK Stack / Cross Domain Guards
• Configure and manage operating systems (Windows and Linux), applications (commercial and government), networks (IPs, subnets, etc.), and network equipment (switches)
• Configure and manage DOD and IC standard distributed authentication services
• Maintain and create system documentation, surge hours worked through events, and create simple scripts (i.e. Power Shell or bash)
• Cybersecurity Management Certification (CISSP, CISM), Cybersecurity IAT‑2 level Technical Certification (Security+, GSEC, etc.) and Risk Management Framework (RMF) accreditation experience (within six months of hire if you do not have them already)
• Demonstrated ability to work through difficult problems, using proper steps to define and formulate ideas to reach a solution
• Willingness to learn new technologies
• Ability to obtain an active security clearance, at the TS/SCI level, prior to beginning employment

• Automate installation, configuration, and provisioning using Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, and Chef
• Joint IO Range, Defense Research and Engineering Network, and/or other similar environments
• DOD and IC network infrastructures

Your working location will be hybrid on‑site/work from home (project‑dependent ability for hybrid work), located in San Diego, CA. Questions related to flexible work should be directed to the hiring manager during the interview process.

If filled as Systems Administrator – Senior Professional, this position requires a Bachelor's Degree and 6+ years of relevant experience (or an equivalent combination of education and experience). If filled as Systems Administrator – Advanced Professional, this position requires a Bachelor's Degree and 3+ years of relevant experience (or an equivalent combination of education and experience). No required certifications.

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background checks in accordance with University policies. All positions at ARL require candidates to possess the ability to obtain a government security…