Systems Engineer IV

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is an independent, nonprofit organization providing adult cancer treatment and groundbreaking research focused on cancer and infectious diseases. Based in Seattle, Fred Hutch is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Washington.

With a track record of global leadership in bone marrow transplantation, HIV/AIDS prevention, immunotherapy and COVID-19 vaccines, Fred Hutch has earned a reputation as one of the world's leading cancer, infectious disease and biomedical research centers. Fred Hutch operates eight clinical care sites that provide medical oncology, infusion, radiation, proton therapy and related services, and network affiliations with hospitals in five states. Together, our fully integrated research and clinical care teams seek to discover new cures to the world's deadliest diseases and make life beyond cancer a reality.

At Fred Hutch we value collaboration, compassion, determination, excellence, innovation, integrity and respect. Our mission is directly tied to the humanity, dignity and inherent value of each employee, patient, community member and supporter. Our commitment to learning across our differences and similarities make us stronger. We seek employees who bring different and innovative ways of seeing the world and solving problems.

The Systems Engineer IV (SE IV) is a technical leader within the Systems Engineering team, resolving complex issues, mentoring less experienced team members, providing technical guidance and organizational support for the team. The SE IV is expected to ensure the stability, integrity, and efficient operation of infrastructure systems that support core organizational functions. The SE IV is responsible for evaluating systems and their interdependency and determining future requirements, as well as optimizing current systems. This includes monitoring, tuning, and performing gap analyses of infrastructure systems. As the technical lead, this role will apply proven communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help identify, communicate, and resolve complex problems to maximize the benefit of IT systems investments and minimize service interruptions.

The Systems Engineer IV evaluates, designs, plans, and leads the implementation of large-scale systems. Additionally, the SE IV provides technical leadership and training to lower-level systems engineers; and is responsible for improvements to infrastructure systems-related processes and standards.

The Senior Systems Engineer will play a critical role in enabling secure digital workspaces, hybrid cloud adoption, AI-driven operations, and automated systems management. This role will directly support research, clinical operations, and enterprise operational excellence.

A key focus will be the architecture and design of advanced virtualization platforms to support critical business, research, and clinical workloads. The position will lead the adoption of secure managed digital workspaces, hybrid cloud compute, and high-availability virtualization platforms. This role will be 50% Domain Architecture working closely with Enterprise Architecture.

This role will have the opportunity to work partially at our campus and remotely. Evening and/or weekend work may occasionally be required.

May perform some or all the following responsibilities:

Operational

Fulfill day-to-day operational tasks associated with maintaining infrastructure systems.
• Serve as technical lead or team member for large, complex projects to provide new or improved infrastructure services.
• Install/build, configure, administer, and decommission infrastructure systems, including upgrades, patching, and migrations.
• Build and document processes for maintenance that can be carried out by other teams
• Provide 24/7 on-call support for mission critical infrastructure systems on a rotating basis.
• Create, modify, and delete user accounts using the Account Management System.
• Provide Tier 3 Support of infrastructure systems. Act as an escalation point for technical issues as required.
• Monitor and report on infrastructure systems' usage, capacity and availability. Set appropriate monitoring and alerting levels for infrastructure systems.
• Respond to incidents and service outages to restore service interruptions in a timely manner. Fulfill service requests in the most supportable and expedient way.
• Monitor and tune infrastructure systems for optimal performance.
• Control and limit infrastructure systems' access in compliance with security policies and best practices to maintain system integrity.
• Create new and maintain current and accurate technical documentation and diagrams.
• Develop and nurture relationships and collaborate with other members of IT staff and end users to resolve technical challenges.
• Lead hardware / software evaluation for infrastructure systems.
• Participate in and present at Design Reviews to ensure reasonable and supportable solutions.
• Lead and promote the use of and offer improvements for departmental processes such as change management, incident management and problem management.
• Perform assigned tasks to improve processes, meet departmental goals.
• Analyze, troubleshoot, and resolve infrastructure systems' issues.
• Identify opportunities and improve operational efficiencies.
• Eliminate manual tasks via configuration management and automation tools or scripts.
• Design, plan, build and lead system and disaster recovery tests.
• Train and excel in expertise of specialized technical area(s). Act as a subject matter expert in specialized technical area(s).
• Mentor entry and intermediate level staff.
• Perform complex planned maintenance after-hours / weekends as required.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Deliver formal and informal presentations on technical topics.
• Inform leadership of systems status, currently tracked issues or problems.
• Perform analysis, capacity planning, and performance planning on infrastructure systems.
• Work effectively with vendors, contractors, and other staff to coordinate system installations and provide quality assurance oversight.

Acquisition and Deployment

• Work with executive team members, decision makers, and stakeholders to define organizational requirements and systems goals, and to identify and resolve business systems issues.
• Design and deploy new infrastructure systems and enhancements to existing systems, software, and operating systems. This includes creating and maintaining current diagrams and documentation.
• Perform cost-benefit and return on investment analyses for proposed systems to aid management in making implementation decisions.
• Conduct research on software and systems products to justify recommendations and to support purchasing efforts.
• Manage projects and tasks of projects to successful completion.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• BA or BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field desired; or equivalent work experience.
• 7 years of system engineering experience in an enterprise with increasing responsibilities.
• Five plus years of experience supporting two or more server operating systems in a large complex heterogeneous environment.
• Five plus years of experience building and supporting virtualization technologies.
• Three plus years of experience using Python or PowerShell programming for system administration and automation.
• Two plus years of experience managing Ansible or Terraform.
• Advanced skills with server operating systems, such as Microsoft Server, CentOS, Open SUSE, RHEL and SLES.
• Expert skills administering Microsoft Active Directory, DFS; experience of multiple OSes authenticating to AD; experience with AD architecture and integration with Linux systems, LDAP, and Kerberos.
• Expert skills administering Linux distribution(s); experience authenticating to AD/LDAP and managing permissions.
• Significant experience with developing scripts and using other tools for automation (scripting language, such as PowerShell or Python)
• Working technical knowledge of current software protocols, and Internet standards, including DHCP, DNS, LDAP, NTP, SMTP, SNMP, and SSH

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Expert Problem Analysis and Solving Skills: expert ability to troubleshoot a complex issue.
• Comfortable using Jira and Confluence.
• Strong presentation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Expertise in one or more of the following:
  • Seven plus years of experience evaluating, designing, building, and supporting complex systems
  • Seven plus years of experience evaluating, designing, building, and supporting enterprise virtualization platforms.
  • Must be an Expert with VMware infrastructure. Design and build experience is necessary
  • Must be considered an expert in AWS and Azure. Able to automate and migrate workloads.
  • Experience in the design and build of Azure Virtual Desktop and Amazon Workspace
  • Five plus years of experience evaluating, designing, building, and supporting virtualization technologies.

The annual base salary range for this position is from $133.328 to $210,725, and pay offered will be based on experience and qualifications. This position may be eligible for a sign-on bonus. This position may be eligible for relocation assistance.

This role will have the opportunity to work partially at our campus and remotely. Evening and/or weekend work may occasionally be required.

This position is not eligible for H1-B sponsorship at this time.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center offers employees a comprehensive benefits package designed to enhance health, well-being, and financial security. Benefits include medical/vision, dental, flexible spending accounts, life, disability, retirement, family life support, employee assistance program, onsite health clinic, tuition reimbursement, paid vacation (12-22 days per year), paid sick leave (12-25 days per year), paid holidays (13 days per year), and paid parental leave (up to 4 weeks).