Senior System Administrator (Toronto)

Senior Systems Administrator– Full Time – Toronto, ON or Vancouver, BC. Zonda seeks an experienced Senior Systems Administrator to join the IT team. The successful candidate will own the day-to-day operation, security, and continuous improvement of the hybrid infrastructure, spanning on‑premises servers, virtualization platforms, enterprise networks, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) footprint.Responsibilities

System Administration– Oversee the installation, configuration, and lifecycle maintenance of physical and virtual servers, storage arrays (SAN/NAS) and supporting infrastructure across data center, branch, and cloud environments. Administer enterprise Linux distributions (Amazon Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky/AlmaLinux, Ubuntu Server, SUSE) including kernel tuning, package management, systemd services, file system management (ext4, XFS, ZFS), and performance optimization.Administer Windows Server environments (2016/2019/2022) including Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, file/print services, Group Policy, IIS, certificate services, and PowerShell‑based automation. Maintain virtualization platforms (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper‑V) including cluster operations, vMotion/Live Migration, snapshot policies, host upgrades, and capacity allocation.Manage legacy IIS services, app pools and related configuration. Manage the Windows failover cluster environment. Plan, schedule, and execute server hardware refreshes, OS upgrades, and major migrations with minimal business disruption. Develop and enforce server build standards, hardening baselines (CIS Benchmarks), and configuration drift detection.AWS Cloud Administration– Support the design, deployment, operation, and continuous improvement of production AWS environments across multiple accounts and regions. Assist in the administration of core compute services, AWS networking foundations, storage services, managed database services, IAM, security services, Systems Manager (SSM), observability, cost management, AMI governance, and disaster recovery architecture.Security Management– Implement, manage, and improve security controls including intrusion detection/prevention systems, endpoint detection and response (CrowdStrike Falcon), DLP, MFA, privileged access management, vulnerability management, and public key infrastructure (PKI) lifecycle. Virtualization Management –Maintain and optimize on‑premises virtualization platforms (VMware vSphere, Hyper‑V), including hypervisor patching, cluster capacity, vSAN/storage policies, and DR replication.Backup&Disaster Recovery– Develop, document, and test backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity plans for on‑premises and cloud workloads; operate backup platforms (Veeam, DPM, AWS Backup) and conduct DR exercises. User Support&Incident Response– Provide Tier 3 technical support, act as escalation point for complex incidents, lead major incident response, drive triage, communication, post‑incident reviews; participate in a 24x7 on‑call rotation. Automation&Scripting– Develop and maintain automation in PowerShell, Python, and Bash to eliminate manual toil and standardize operations. Software, Patch&Configuration Management– Operate enterprise patching programs across Windows, Linux, and AWS workloads; maintain software inventory, license compliance, and golden image pipelines. Compliance&Documentation– Maintain comprehensive system and architecture documentation, runbooks, recovery procedures; support audits for ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST 800‑53/CSF, HIPAA, PCI‑DSS, GDPR and other frameworks; implement controls aligned to AWS Well‑Architected Framework and CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark.Project Management&Leadership– Lead end‑to‑end infrastructure projects, coordinate with vendors and AWS Technical Account Managers, contribute to technology roadmap and budgeting, mentor junior administrators, conduct peer reviews. Performance Monitoring&Reporting– Implement and maintain monitoring stacks (Nagios, Site24x7, SCOM, Grafana, Prometheus, CloudWatch) with service level indicators; produce availability, capacity, security, and SLO attainment reports; drive capacity planning over 3, 6, and 12 month horizons. Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent practical experience). 7+ years of progressive systems administration experience, with at least 3+ years in production AWS environments. Expert‑level administration of Windows Server and enterprise Linux distributions, including hardening, performance tuning, and large‑scale automation.Demonstrated production experience with core AWS services (EC2, VPC, S3, IAM, RDS, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Systems Manager, Route53, KMS, ECS or EKS). Experience designing and maintaining multi‑account AWS Organizations environments, including SCPs and cross‑account access. Strong networking foundation (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, BGP, routing, switching, VPN, TLS, load balancing, packet‑level troubleshooting).Proficiency in scripting and automation with PowerShell, Python, and Bash. Experience administering relational and NoSQL databases (SQL Server, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, DynamoDB, MongoDB). In‑depth knowledge of Active Directory, Group Policy, EntraID/AzureAD, and modern identity solutions (Okta, Ping, AWS IAM Identity Center, SAML, OIDC).Strong analytical, troubleshooting, root‑cause skills, and discipline to document findings. Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain complex issues to executives, peers, and end users. Experience leading projects, mentoring engineers, and operating in a cross‑functional environment.Relevant certifications strongly preferred: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator– Associate, AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate or Professional), AWS Certified Advanced Networking or Security – Specialty, Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator, CompTIA Security+, CCNA/CCNP, CISSP. Preferred Qualifications

Production experience with Kubernetes (EKS) including cluster lifecycle, Helm, ingress controllers, service meshes, and autoscaling. Experience with DevOps tooling and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, AWS CodePipeline, ArgoCD). Experience with configuration management and IaC ecosystems beyond Terraform (Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Salt, Pulumi).Familiarity with ITIL service management practices (incident, problem, change, configuration, release). Experience with containerization (Docker, containerd, Kubernetes) and image security scanning (Trivy, Snyk, ECR scanning). Experience with enterprise backup platforms (Veeam, DPM) and AWS Backup at scale.Experience with FinOps practices, AWS cost optimization. Exposure to regulated environments (HIPAA, PCI‑DSS, SOC2 TypeII, FedRAMP, ITAR). Benefits

Competitive salary. Comprehensive benefit package– Medical, Dental, Vision. 100% company‑paid life insurance; long‑term and short‑term disability coverage. 401(k) with company match. Paid vacation and general holidays. Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Live meditation sessions. Employee recognition platform.Virtual wellness program. 100% hybrid working environment. Equal Opportunity Employer

Zonda is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity, inclusion and belonging. We consider all qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States or Canada.

#J-18808-Ljbffr