Systems Administrator

The City of New Westminster has earned a proud reputation for civic leadership, service delivery and outstanding employee relations. We offer our employees great work-life balance; competitive salaries and benefit plans (including defined benefit pension and compressed day off); education and training opportunities; and challenging and rewarding work.

As a central hub in the Metro Vancouver area, the City of New Westminster delivers a broad spectrum of urban services to over 80,000 residents. It is a city rich in history with a viable and thriving economy, a population representative of the diversity of the region, and is staffed by talented and dedicated employees who work together to achieve its strategic vision.

The City of New Westminster is looking for an outstanding candidate to join its Information Technology department in the role of Systems Administrator. This is a key role in the City's journey to Microsoft 365 and hybrid cloud systems, and will also maintain and further develop the City's virtualization, server and storage environments. The successful candidate will be responsible for various aspects of the city's systems, including evaluating opportunities for improvements; designing and developing new solutions; conducting upgrades; engaging in projects; in addition to maintaining day-to-day operations of the Microsoft, cloud, systems infrastructure and security.

Objectives of the Role

• Maintain high levels of availability, security, and service delivery of the server, storage, Microsoft and cloud infrastructure.
• Provide advice and expertise to support Microsoft 365 and cloud environments.
• Ensure cyber security and privileged account management practices are implemented and followed.
• Understand stakeholder needs and develop system solutions and refinements that efficiently deliver services on project initiatives.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage, deploy, configure, and maintain servers in virtualized and traditional environments, ensuring operational capability and performance.
• Develop and implement strategies for high system availability, including backup and recovery, failover, load balancing, and redundancy.
• Help with the migration of servers and services to cloud computing, ensuring the security, reliability and efficiency of IT services.
• Provide advanced administration and support for the Active Directory infrastructure, including account management and network authentication.
• Provide technical leadership to solve complex problems and mentor junior IT staff.
• Recommend, design, test, deploy and manage all group policies for workstations and servers.
• Perform capacity and performance management of enterprise applications, storage and equipment, in anticipation of growth.
• Innovate by creating complex scripts and in-house tools to support system monitoring, diagnostics, problem correction, software and patch deployment, and automation of routine tasks.
• Ensure compliance of client accounts, permissions, and storage allocations, keeping security and privacy best practices in mind.
• Ensure maintenance programs for servers, storage and enterprise infrastructure applications.
• Adhere to change management procedures for system implementations and modifications.
• Maintain effective and collaborative working relationships with stakeholders, consultants and users.
• Participate in the City's ongoing cyber security program including administration of the City's cybersecurity awareness program.
• Develop and revise procedures, keep technical documentation up to date and provide implementation support for infrastructure solutions.
• Assess and analyze technology project requirements to recommend and develop solutions.
• Participate actively in backup testing and continuous improvement of the IT infrastructure.
• Able to work non-standard hours to perform systems/network maintenance and may require on-call support on a rotational basis.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Knowledge

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Windows Server administration, patch management and optimization, including Active Directory, DNS/DHCP, Group Policy Object design and related infrastructure.
• In-depth technical skills with Microsoft platforms, such as Exchange, IIS, Teams, M365, and Azure, including EntraID.
• Experience with cybersecurity fundamentals, next-gen EDR/MDR platforms, modern cloud-based email security systems.
• Experience with enterprise endpoint management systems (SCCM, Intune, Blackberry).
• Proven tier 3-level skills in the administration, maintenance and upgrading of virtualization solutions, including VMWare (vSphere, vCenter). Experience with other virtualization solutions (Hyper-V) is an asset.
• Experience with certificate infrastructure administration (e.g., PKI, SSL certs) for secure communication and authentication.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with enterprise high-availability storage systems. Should be well versed with storage protocols and storage administration best practices.
• Strong diagnostic skills and experience with system monitoring tools.
• Experience in backup and recovery management. Experience with Cohesity is an asset.
• Experience with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and remote access solutions.
• Familiarity with firewalls, VPN, routing and switching.
• Working knowledge of scripting languages such as PowerShell, PowerCLI.
• Working knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite of applications.
• Strong project organization and coordination skills, and ability to manage time and priorities effectively.
• Ability to plan, analyze logically, solve problems, make critical decisions, and assess risks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (or 2-year Diploma of Technology in Computer Science) supplemented by an Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Solutions Architect Expert certifications or equivalent.
• 6+ years of direct experience as a System Administrator in a complex network system environment supporting multiple sites and providing services to 700+ users.
• ITIL foundation certification is an asset.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to work professionally with staff and colleagues at all levels.
• Technical versatility and commitment to a variety of IT projects, demonstrating adaptability and an interest in continuous learning.
• Physically able to lift up to 40lbs to install physical hardware as required.
• Ability to obtain and pass a BC Police Information Check (PIC).

What we offer:

• Work-life balance - 35 hour work week including a hybrid of remote and in-office days, vacation, and an optional compressed day off program.
• Health and wellness - comprehensive benefits, plus other wellness-focused programs and benefits.

Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to include cover letters with their applications as one document. If you enjoy learning and challenges, have outstanding skills, and want to take a leading role in the modernization of technology at the City of New Westminster, we welcome your application for this exciting role.

Apply online with your resume and cover letter in one document.