Systems Administrator, Federal Programs
- Compensation
- $110.2K–$170.2K / yr
- Location
- District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia - Onsite, DC
- Work setup
- Onsite
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Devops
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Minimum of three (3) years of experience in systems administration, infrastructure operations, or site reliability engineering, including at least one (1) year in a government or regulated environment
- Demonstrated experience administering Linux environments, including comfort with command-line and terminal interfaces.
- Working experience with AWS and/or Azure cloud environments, including compute, storage, networking, and identity services.
- Experience with scripting for operational automation using PowerShell, Bash, Python, or equivalent.
- Experience with monitoring and observability tooling and with responding to production incidents.
- Experience applying patches, updates, and configuration changes in controlled environments.
- Experience implementing and remediating STIGs and supporting vulnerability management activities.
- Ability to work independently and execute technical tasks with limited oversight.
- Active Secret clearance required at time of hire.
- Must meet DoD 8570 / 8140 IAT Level II requirements at time of hire (e.g., Security+, CySA+, SSCP, or equivalent).
- Must be local to the DMV area and commutable to one or more preferred federal work depots, including: Naval Air Station Patuxent River (Pax River), MD and Washington Navy Yard, DC.
Nice to have
- Experience supporting systems operating under an Authority to Operate (ATO) framework.
- Experience supporting Department of War, Navy, or other federal environments.
- Experience preparing and submitting configuration change documentation in government systems (e.g., DADMS).
- Experience participating in compliance reviews, audits, or control assessments.
- Experience with infrastructure as code tooling such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible.
- Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and release automation.
- Relevant certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect or SysOps Administrator, Azure Administrator Associate, Red Hat Certified System Administrator, or Linux+. Certifications may be obtained after
- Experience with reporting and dashboard tools such as Looker, Tableau, or Power BI.
- Ability to independently use and refine AI-driven prompts to enhance the quality, efficiency, and insight of regular work processes.
Full description
Systems Administrator, Federal ProgramsLocation: Hybrid – Ability to travel to Patuxent River, MD, and work onsite 3x a week. Candidates must be located in or willing to commute within the DMV area.
Compensation: $110,228 - 170,241 per year, depending on experience and qualifications.
Employment Type: Full-Time
Clearance Requirement: Active Secret clearance is required at time of hire
What you can expect as the Systems Administrator, Federal Programs at Fortress…
The Systems Administrator maintains and operates the technical systems that support Fortress risk initiatives for federal customers. The role owns day-to-day system health across AWS, Azure, and Linux environments, ensuring the platforms government customers depend on remain available, secure, compliant, and performant.
The position is hands-on and operations-focused. Core work includes monitoring system health, responding to incidents, applying patches and secure configuration baselines, and automating recurring operational work. The role partners with engineering and cybersecurity colleagues to resolve technical issues before they reach customers.
This is an individual contributor role requiring independent execution, disciplined troubleshooting, and comfort operating in regulated federal environments.
Responsibilities Include:
- Maintain, monitor, and administer complex technical IT systems supporting federal vendor and product risk programs, ensuring availability and performance against service commitments.
- Operate and sustain infrastructure across AWS and Azure cloud environments and Linux-based operating systems.
- Implement and maintain secure configuration baselines in accordance with DoD standards, including applying, validating, and remediating STIG findings to maintain required compliance thresholds.
- Respond to system incidents and outages, perform root cause analysis, and implement corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
- Apply patches, updates, and configuration changes on a defined cadence through established change control processes, including submitting required change documentation for new software versions and configuration updates.
- Automate routine operational and administrative tasks using scripting and configuration management tooling.
- Implement and maintain monitoring, alerting, and logging to provide visibility into system health and performance.
- Support backup, recovery, and continuity procedures, and participate in periodic restoration testing.
- Manage identity, access, and account provisioning in accordance with least-privilege and federal access control requirements.