Position Title: System Engineer

Department: Information Technology

Join our Team! At IHDA we strive to create and maintain a work environment that promotes diversity, recognition and inclusion. IHDA is committed to hiring and investing in individuals of diverse talents and backgrounds to ensure a range of perspectives and experiences inform and guide our work of financing affordable housing in the state of Illinois.

Who we are: The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) is one of the Nation’s preeminent Housing Finance Agencies and one of the State’s ten largest financial institutions. Our mission is to finance the creation and preservation of affordable housing across the state. IHDA oversees more than 20 federal and state programs on behalf of the state of Illinois and serves as one of the state’s primary resources for housing policy and program administration. For over 50 years, IHDA has led the state in financing and supporting affordable housing.

Summary: Perform as Systems Engineer for Active Directory, Office 365, SharePoint, Endpoint Management, Microsoft Teams, Teams Voice, Exchange, Hyper-V and supporting the data center. Performs maintenance and administration of systems related to Windows Servers including support of hardware and software and user interaction. Requires knowledge of automation, scripting and system administration and management, maintaining smooth operation of multi-user computer systems, including coordination with software, and other system engineers, Service Desktop technicians, project managers, end users, and customer and IT management. The ability to work with minimal supervision and be part of a 24x7 IT Operations support team, and on-call rotation and an ability to work after hours and weekends as needed.

Essential Functions:

• Perform Windows Server Day to day administration and planning including monitoring, performance analysis, tuning, disaster recovery planning and capacity planning in a Hyper-V Virtual Server environment.
• Perform routine daily operations; perform routine equipment maintenance; apply security updates and patches; maintain system backups. Use Microsoft System Center Tools for monitoring and managing system infrastructure.
• Administer, support, configure and develop SharePoint environments, which include, site collections, sites, sub-sites, team sites, extranets, document centers, etc. Develop, configure, test, deploy and support SharePoint sites, libraries, enterprise lists and collections.
• Recommend and implement system enhancements that will improve the performance and reliability of the system including installing, upgrading, patching, monitoring, tuning, DR planning and problem resolution, and configuration management.
• Perform user account management services including creation / modification of user profiles and account management and configuration of Active Directory services.
• Administer, support, and configure Active Directory User and Group Management, Microsoft Office 365 support including licenses usage tracking, and Azure Cloud, Teams Voice, Teams Dial Plan and Endpoint devices. Request additional licensing as required using reservations and completing the true-up process at each annual Microsoft Enterprise Agreement renewal.
• Evaluates system software for usability and makes recommendations. Make recommendations for future upgrades. Installation and upgrade of software on Servers or Workstations as appropriate.
• Assist the Assistant Director in administrative functions relating to maintenance, capacity planning, monitoring performance and problem identification and correction for the network used by the Authority.
• Monitor networks to ensure security and availability to specific users. Evaluate and modify system's performance. Perform network address assignment including DNS and DHCP. Assist in administering routers, switches, firewalls, smartphones, and software deployment.
• Adhere to strict Information Systems security guidelines in all cases and maintain security audit and logging information on all classified networked and standalone computers as directed by the IT Security & Compliance.
• Assist DBA as needed and perform database maintenance tasks such as developing a maintenance plan, backing up and restoring databases, setting up Availability Groups, and similar activities.
• Create and maintain user and computer accounts and modify file permissions and security access lists.
• Install, configure, test and maintain operating systems, application software and system management tools.
• Proficiency in SANs (Storage Area Networks).
• Proactively ensure the highest levels of systems and infrastructure availability.
• Monitor and test application performance for potential bottlenecks, identify possible solutions, and work with developers to implement those fixes.
• Maintain security, backup, and redundancy strategies.
• Support multiple networks: ensure necessary administration tasks are completed; direct others as necessary.
• Write and maintain custom scripts to increase system efficiency and lower the human intervention time on any tasks, automate process where possible.
• Manage virus endpoint protection on a routine basis.
• Develop and document technical processes and procedures as needed.
• Participate in the design of information and operational support systems.
• Provide 2nd and 3rd level support.
• Attend and actively participate in all team meetings.
• Test new releases of products to ensure compatibility and minimize user impact.
• Keep systems up to date with recommended firmware level.
• Make recommendations to purchase hardware, software, system components.
• Interact, meet, discuss, and troubleshoot issues with vendors; evaluate vendor products, services, and suggestions.
• Participate in Operations team alert monitoring including an "on-call" rotation as assigned.
• Adheres to organizational processes and procedures including strict change management process.
• Other duties as assigned.
  
  
  

Education and Experience Requirements:

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent required.
• Three years experience of installing, configuring and troubleshooting Microsoft Windows based Operating systems.
• Experience in the administration and performance tuning of application stacks.
• Experience in Microsoft Azure with virtualization (e.g., Hyper-V, VMWare), monitoring systems, automation software (e.g., Ansible, Puppet), scripting skills (e.g., shell scripts, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Python) and networking knowledge (OSI network layers, TCP/IP).
  
  
  

Physical Requirements : Alternating between sitting, standing, and walking. Ascending and descending stairs. Crouching and stooping. Pushing and pulling. Reaching overhead or below. Repetitive tasks movements (filing, keyboarding, copying). Lifting, carrying, and moving objects of up to 10 -15 pounds.

What We Offer:

• Paid time off, plus paid holidays
• Currently in a hybrid work arrangement, but candidates must reside in Illinois at time of hire.
• Medical/dental/vision/life insurance plans
• Short/long term disability
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flex spending
• 401K plan – immediate vesting
• IHDA employees may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs.
  
  
  

Must be a resident of Illinois or willing to relocate. Flexible scheduling is available, upon completion of a six-month probationary period.

To apply, submit resume to:

EOE