System Administrator III

$88,504 - $112,237/Yr

Yakima County - Yakima, WA

Full-time - Senior

Yakima, WA

Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support

About the position

The System Administrator III position at Yakima County is a senior-level role focused on managing and maintaining the County's IT infrastructure. This includes ensuring the efficient operation of servers, network systems, and related hardware and software components. The role involves configuring, deploying, monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimizing servers to meet performance, security, and availability requirements. This is a full-time, on-site position with no remote work opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Installs, configures, secures, manages, and monitors VMWare/vSphere ESXi clusters and physical servers.
• Configures, manages, and monitors virtual storage environments.
• Administers, monitors, and configures guest hosts within vCenter.
• Coordinates and helps install application software where necessary.
• Executes and monitors routine backup and disaster recovery processes.
• Manages cloud-based services (e.g. Intune, Azure, Exchange, SCCM).
• Supports internal and external user administration, permissions, and access.
• Develops technology disaster recovery plans, strategic plans, and security plans for server, cloud, and datacenter environments.
• Researches, tests, and recommends new server hardware, virtualization environments, operating systems, and data backup management.
• Investigates how existing technology can be modified for new applications.
• Gathers and studies resources to maintain expertise in multiple technical areas.
• Utilizes problem-solving to troubleshoot, analyze, and resolve county-wide server, data center, and virus issues.
• Provides senior-level hardware, server virtualization environments, and operating system expertise, consultation, leadership, and training to other Technology Services staff.
• Advises Manager regarding proposed solutions.
• Coordinates resources related to assigned projects including team members.
• Supervises technical team members.
• Monitors and evaluates performance by Technology Services team and outside contractors.
• Determines, develops, modifies, and maintains operational procedures, proposal specifications, security levels, and documentation.
• Performs ongoing server maintenance and applies all hardware and software updates.
• Performs routine security and performance monitoring.
• Maintains documentation on, and installs and configures a broad assortment of hardware and software platforms.
• Assists other IT staff to ensure optimal operation of all systems, supports operations at county data centers, and responds to user requests.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Information Management, Operating System Management, or Computer Hardware Architecture.
• Six (6) years full-time system support including application or server hardware support, or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Valid United States Driver's License upon appointment and proof of insurance, if requested.
• Successful completion of criminal background investigation and general employment verification.
• Advanced knowledge of Windows infrastructure components (e.g. SCCM, AD, DNS, DHCP).
• Strong understanding of virtualization technologies (VMWare, ESXi, vSphere, SAN/NAS).
• Strong understanding of AD attributes and knowledge of how permissions are granted to users and groups.
• Strong understanding of group policies and how they are applied within Active Directory.
• Strong understanding of backup strategies and familiarity with backup software processes.
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to think outside of the box.
• Good understanding of cyber threats and security solutions.
• Good understanding of infrastructure monitoring tools.
• Good understanding of performance tuning methods.
• Ability to interact with all levels of staff.

Nice-to-haves

• Strong understanding of Microsoft cloud technologies (Azure, Exchange, Intune).
• Familiarity with process automation and basic scripting (PowerShell, Python).
• Familiarity with common industry regulations and security frameworks (HIPAA, CJIS, NIST).
• Knowledge of Unix/Linux, SQL syntax, and networking fundamentals.
• Basic project management skills.
• Supervisory experience.

Benefits

• Health Care Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, Basic Life and Basic LTD)
• Retirement Benefits
• Paid Vacation
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Sick Leave