Systems Engineer – Virtualization & Storage

Job Details

Systems Engineer – Virtualization & Storage
Department: Technology Services
Location: Columbia, MO
Type: Fulltime
Pay: $54,121 – $75,000 - the anticipated hiring range is commensurate with experience.

Job Summary:
The Systems Engineer – Virtualization & Storage position contributes to the reliability, security, and performance of the College’s enterprise data center infrastructure. Working within a collaborative engineering team, this role supports the lifecycle of server and desktop virtualization, storage, and backup systems. The successful candidate will apply technical expertise to maintain high system availability while partnering with vendors and campus stakeholders to meet evolving institutional needs.

Essential Functions

• Systems Management: Support the full lifecycle—including administration, monitoring, and optimization—of enterprise virtualization and storage platforms like VMware vSphere, VDI, and SAN/NAS solutions.
• Infrastructure Health: Execute critical maintenance tasks such as system patching, upgrades, and performance tuning to ensure optimal capacity and system reliability.
• Data Protection: Facilitate backup and disaster recovery operations, ensuring institutional data integrity through routine testing and validated recovery procedures.
• Project Lifecycle: Contribute to infrastructure initiatives, including platform migrations, hardware refreshes, and technology upgrades, from planning through execution.
• Documentation & Standards: Develop and maintain high-quality technical documentation and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure consistent operational excellence.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with networking, cybersecurity, and application teams to deliver integrated and secure institutional services.
• Incident Response: Support organizational resilience by participating in on-call rotations and resolving critical system incidents.

Data Center Facilities Responsibilities

• Ensure the stability of production workloads by monitoring and supporting data center environmental systems, including power distribution and climate control.
• Serve as a technical point of contact for Facilities teams and external vendors during scheduled maintenance, capacity expansions, or emergency repairs.
• Respond to environmental alerts (thermal, power, or leak detection) and execute corrective actions to prevent downtime and protect physical hardware.
• Maintain comprehensive records of physical and logical architectures, including rack elevations, cable management, and system dependencies.