Senior Systems Engineer

OVERVIEW

A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. The NPR audience values information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility - and our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide. 

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

Intro to Position

NPR is seeking an experienced, technically rigorous Senior IT Systems Engineer to join our IT Systems team. In this role, you will serve as a primary technical lead responsible for the design, deployment, administration, and optimization of NPR’s core virtualized data center infrastructure. The ideal candidate brings deep, hands-on expertise in VMware vSphere, enterprise Storage Area Networks (SAN/NAS), and Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) environments.

You will play a critical role in ensuring the high availability, scalability, performance, and security of our enterprise systems while partnering across Technology to advance infrastructure modernization and automation initiatives in support of our nationwide public media mission.

Responsibilities

Data Center Architecture & Storage Administration

• Architect Virtualized Infrastructure: Design, deploy, and manage core virtualized data center infrastructure, leading enterprise VMware vSphere environments, Cisco UCS compute platforms, and SAN/NAS storage arrays.
• Administer Enterprise Compute & Storage: Execute routine server builds, security patch management, virtual machine lifecycle administration, and enterprise storage capacity allocation.
• Advance Cloud & Hybrid Integration: Evaluate systems architecture and hybrid-cloud strategy, taking operational ownership of the maintenance and integration of cloud infrastructure (AWS or Azure).

Systems Governance & Disaster Recovery

• Govern Disaster Recovery Strategies: Design, maintain, and rigorously test business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, including enterprise backups, data replication, and automated site failovers.
• Manage Structured Change Processes: Recommend, test, and implement system enhancements in strict adherence to established organizational change management policies and procedures.
• Publish System Documentation & SOPs: Author and maintain comprehensive systems architecture diagrams, standard operating procedures (SOPs), runbooks, and technical documentation for IT colleagues and system stakeholders.

Incident Escalation & Operational Automation

• Lead Tier-3 Escalations & Root Cause Analysis: Serve as the senior technical escalation point for enterprise technology teams, isolating root causes and resolving complex production incidents.
• Automate Infrastructure Operations: Design and execute automation scripts using modern scripting languages to streamline routine administrative tasks, infrastructure provisioning, and systems health reporting.
• Maintain Operational Communications: Provide timely status reporting on system health to engineering leadership, manage incident response on a 24x7 rotation, and articulate outage impact clearly to technical and operational partners.

The above duties and responsibilities are not an exhaustive list of required responsibilities, duties and skills. Other duties may be assigned, and this job description can be modified at any time.

Minimum Qualifications 

• 5+ years of dedicated experience as a Systems or Infrastructure Engineer supporting, administering, and troubleshooting systems in an enterprise data center environment.
• Proven, hands-on experience designing and managing complex VMware vSphere environments (clustering, DRS, HA, vMotion).
• Extensive experience with Cisco UCS Manager, configuring service profiles, templates, and physical hardware deployment.
• Strong background in configuring and managing enterprise SAN/NAS storage arrays and storage networking protocols.
• 2+ years of experience planning, designing, and maintaining cloud infrastructure (AWS or Azure).
• Strong working knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Windows Server (2016+), Active Directory, Azure AD, Office 365, IIS, SQL, DFS, DHCP, and DNS.
• Experience creating detailed systems documentation and flow charts.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to successfully handle multiple projects in a high-pressure, collaborative environment.
• Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and a 2-week onsite rotation every two months (or as required).

Preferred Qualifications

• Infrastructure Automation & Scripting: Experience utilizing configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet) and writing automation scripts (PowerShell, Python, or Bash).
• Identity, Access & Messaging Services: Practical experience managing enterprise SSO/MFA solutions, Exchange Online/Hybrid environments, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
• Industry Certifications: Active professional certifications in VMware (VCP), Cisco (CCNA/CCNP Data Center), Microsoft, or AWS/Azure solutions architecture.

Required Skills/Competencies

• Expert-level analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to resolve complex hardware, software, and performance issues under pressure.
• Deep understanding of networking concepts (VLANs, routing, switching, LACP, DNS, DHCP) as they relate to virtualization and server infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of security best practices for data center infrastructure and virtualization platforms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of translating technical challenges to cross-functional teams and leadership.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to lead infrastructure upgrades and migrations independently.
• Self-motivated team player with a willingness to participate in an on-call rotation and perform after-hours maintenance.

Education Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Work Location & Requirements

• Hybrid Permitted: This is a hybrid permitted role. Some aspects of this role require duties better performed at an NPR facility. The employee will be required to be in the office at the Washington, D.C. location for a two-week block approximately every two months. The employee will also be  expected to be onsite as needed to support onsite projects.

Job Type

• This is a full-time, exempt position.

Compensation

Salary Range: The U.S.-based anticipated salary range for this opportunity is $125,000 - $145,000 plus benefits. The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum salaries NPR expects to provide for new hires for the position across all US locations.

NPR Benefits: NPR provides comprehensive benefits for employees and dependents. Regular, full-time employees scheduled to work 30 hours or more per week are eligible to enroll in NPR’s benefits options. Benefits include access to health and wellness, paid time off, and financial well-being. Plan options include medical, dental, vision, life/ accidental death and dismemberment, long-term disability, short-term disability, and voluntary retirement savings to all eligible NPR employees. 

Does this sound like you? If so, we want to hear from you.

The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum salaries NPR expects to provide for new hires for the position across all US locations.

NPR Pay Range

$125,000—$145,000 USD

NPR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. NPR is committed to being an inclusive workplace that welcomes diverse and unique perspectives, all working toward the same goal - to create a more informed public. Qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, age, religion, religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, lactation, and reproductive health decisions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender status, gender non-conforming status, intersex status, sexual stereotypes, nationality, citizenship status, personal appearance, marital status, family status, family responsibilities, military status, veteran status, mental and physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, genetic characteristics of yourself or a family member, political views and affiliation, unemployment status, protective order status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, or any other basis prohibited under applicable law.

If you are a person with a disability needing assistance with the application process, please reach out to [email protected].

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