Senior Systems Engineer

Kforce has a client that is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer in Mesa, AZ. This is a full-time role with Kforce's client. The role requires hybrid work and can be based in Chicago, New York, Indianapolis, or Phoenix. Overview: The Senior Systems Engineer plays a critical role in delivering and supporting modern infrastructure solutions across on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud environments. This position partners closely with architecture, engineering, and IT operations teams to design, implement, and maintain scalable and secure systems that enable key business initiatives. In this role, you will lead the deployment and support of hybrid cloud environments, primarily leveraging Microsoft Azure, while also contributing to broader cloud ecosystems. You will be responsible for managing and optimizing hyperconverged platforms such as Cisco UCS, VMware, and VxRail, ensuring high levels of performance, availability, and reliability. Responsibilities include designing and implementing system monitoring frameworks, establishing, and validating high availability and disaster recovery strategies, and maintaining strong operational visibility across infrastructure components. The role also involves developing and maintaining automation solutions using tools such as PowerShell, DSC, and comparable scripting frameworks to improve efficiency and consistency across environments. You will interpret complex architectures, recommend improvements, and deliver secure cloud-based solutions aligned with best practices. Additionally, you will support incident management efforts, coordinating with internal teams and external vendors to resolve issues effectively. Participation in a follow-the-sun support model, including on-call responsibilities, is expected. You will provide task breakdowns and effort estimates for complex initiatives, while delivering high-quality support to stakeholders across the organization.

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent experience), along with relevant cloud or data center certifications, is preferred
• The ideal candidate brings 6+ years of hands-on experience in enterprise infrastructure environments, including on-premises data centers, cloud platforms, storage systems, and networking
• A strong foundation in both Windows Server administration and Linux systems is required, along with demonstrated expertise in designing and supporting hybrid cloud architectures
• Candidates should have deep experience with virtualization and hyperconverged infrastructure, including VMware technologies such as vSphere, NSX, VxRail, and vRealize Operations
• Proven ability to manage and optimize multi-site environments and support high-availability (-hot-hot-) architectures is essential
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Azure services is required, including virtual machines, networking, storage accounts, private endpoints, NSGs, and identity services such as Entra ID
• Experience with automation and scripting (PowerShell, DSC, or Linux-based scripting) is critical, along with exposure to enterprise tooling such as Tanium, Rubrik, Zerto, and storage platforms like NetApp or Qumulo
• Candidates should also have solid understanding of Active Directory, DNS, patching practices, and systems lifecycle management
• Experience with cloud cost optimization strategies, including resource tagging, is highly valued
• Familiarity with AWS and infrastructure-as-code tools such as CloudFormation is a plus
• Additional requirements include experience supporting compliant environments (SOX, SOC2, ISO, PCI), participating in structured on-call rotations, and collaborating across engineering and QA teams to resolve deployment and infrastructure issues