Vantage Systems
Lead System Administrator Level III
4555 Overlook Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20375
On-site · Full-time · $140k–$161k (as posted)
First seen by offpeak October 5, 2026
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This is a journeyman-level position working on-site at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Naval Center for Space Technology in Washington, DC
Key Responsibilities:
- Administer desktop, server, storage, network, and mobile systems connected to local and wide area networks.
- Monitor user accounts, system security, operating system installations, and other local-area system administration functions.
- Support the implementation, troubleshooting, operation, and maintenance of IT systems
- Manage IT infrastructure and the technical processes associated with those systems.
- Provide day-to-day operational support, monitoring, and problem resolution for client, server, storage, network, and mobile devices.
- Provide Tier I help desk and Tier II advanced troubleshooting support, including problem identification, diagnosis, escalation, and resolution.
- Track system and hardware problems and remain involved through final resolution.
- Communicate system status, incidents, and resolution activities to agency management and internal customers.
- Configure and administer UNIX, Linux, Windows, Wintel, VxWorks, and VMware environments.
- Install and load operating systems, application software, patches, updates, and system enhancements.
- Isolate and resolve problems involving applications, operating systems, hardware, communications infrastructure, or combinations of these components.
- Configure and troubleshoot network components and implement operating system enhancements to improve reliability, security, and performance.
- Integrate new technologies into existing and newly developed systems, including system transition and migration activities.
- Define hardware, server, workstation, and network requirements for the NCST spacecraft and payload development environment.
- Design, implement, test, and maintain server and workstation system services.
- Manage the virtual machines required by the division using VMware, VMPlayer, or comparable virtualization technologies.
- Manage licenses, renewals, installations, and administrative support for third-party software, including Jira, VxWorks, Crucible/Fisheye, Klocwork, Red Hat, Jama, GitLab, and related development tools.
- Provide database design and administration support for SQL-based spacecraft interface databases.
- Maintain databases used to define software communication protocols, packet formats, data fields, field constraints, and embedded flight-software interfaces.
- Support automated generation of flight-software source code, ground-system data structures, data-handling procedures, interface specifications, and interface control documents.
- Continue the growth, maintenance, and adaptation of the existing spacecraft interface database for current and future space missions.
- Provide configuration management and defect-tracking support for software, procedures, documentation, plans, deliverables, and other program components.
- Maintain and improve configuration management and problem-reporting systems supporting multiple spacecraft programs, common software baselines, and mission-unique processing.
- Support configuration management requirements applicable to NCST personnel, subcontractors, and other Government customers.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Education: Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a closely related technical discipline.
- Experience Level: Level III, with senior-level experience administering complex technical environments supporting spacecraft, payload, engineering, scientific, research, or mission-critical systems.
- Demonstrated experience supporting the infrastructure, database, configuration management, and defect-tracking requirements
- Ability to support both stable production systems and rapidly changing research and development environments.
- Experience operating within DoD cybersecurity, information assurance, and system-security requirements.
- U.S. citizenship is required for this position.
Clearance:
Active, final DoD-granted Top Secret security clearance with SCI eligibility.
Personnel must be able to maintain TS/SCI access throughout performance.
Required Skills:
- In-depth systems administration experience with UNIX, Linux, Windows/Wintel, VxWorks, and VMware.
- Experience administering desktop, server, storage, network, and virtualized infrastructure.
- Experience with system monitoring, account administration, cybersecurity controls, patching, operating system installation, and incident resolution.
- Experience providing Tier I and Tier II technical support.
- Experience troubleshooting integrated hardware, software, operating system, application, and network problems.
- Strong knowledge of network routing, service distribution, shared file systems, and NFS.
- Experience with multisite and multivendor network environments.
- Experience with relational and non-relational database technologies, including SQL and MongoDB.
- Experience administering configuration management, issue-tracking, requirements-management, and development tools such as Jira, Jama, GitLab, Crucible/Fisheye, and Klocwork.
- Experience managing software licenses, renewals, and third-party technical products.
- Experience supporting software-development environments using C, C++, Python, Bash, Java, or assembly languages.
- Ability to document technical requirements, system configurations, operating procedures, incidents, and corrective actions.
Preferred Skills:
- Experience supporting spacecraft, satellite, payload, embedded, or flight-software development programs.
- Experience with embedded processor architectures such as PowerPC, R3000, 8051, I960, and MIPS 3081.
- Experience with embedded software development, device control, and system operations.
- Experience designing and administering databases used to define spacecraft communication protocols, command and telemetry packets, software interfaces, and message structures.
- Experience supporting automated source-code and technical-document generation from structured database content.
- Experience maintaining common software baselines used across multiple programs and mission-unique implementations.
- Experience with MS Access, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, VMware, GitLab, Jira, Jama, SQL, and MongoDB.
- Familiarity with Navy, NRL, or other DoD research and development environments.
- Experience supporting highly available mission-critical systems while maintaining compliance with Government security requirements.
Location:
On-site at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20375.