IT Azure/Cloud Administrator (IT Systems Administration Senior Specialist)

Company: State of Washington
Location: Olympia
Posted on: June 12, 2021

Job Description:

The Department of Ecology's priority during the Covid-19 health crisis is to keep our staff, candidates, and the public safe. We are still hiring and encourage you to apply to open positions. The majority of our staff are currently working from home; we have transitioned to a virtual recruitment process, to include web-based interviews.

Keeping Washington Clean and Evergreen

Protecting Washington State's environment for current and future generations is what we do every day at Ecology. We are a culture that is invested in making a difference. We invest in our employees to create and sustain a working environment that encourages innovation, creative leadership, effective resource management, teamwork, professionalism and accountability. The culture at Ecology is committed to making a difference. If this resonates with you, you are someone we'd like to talk to.

The Department of Ecology's Information Technology Services Office (ITSO) is currently looking for an IT professional to join our team as an IT Azure/Cloud Administrator (IT Systems Administrator Senior Specialist). This position will be located in our Headquarters Building in Lacey, WA.

The IT Azure/Cloud Administrator role provides advanced technical and administrative services for Ecology's investment in Cloud Services, including Microsoft Azure. This position is the primary technical lead overseeing the agency's Azure environment. This role is responsible for monitoring, managing and advising ITSO and ITSO customers on the migration to, utilization, health and performance of the platform, establishing and documenting governance, policies and procedures, and providing support and training to delegated admins who will work with systems hosted within.

We are looking for someone who possesses excellent technical skills and expertise in the operation and administration of cloud-based infrastructures and services along with proven technical troubleshooting skills. They must be a team player with good communication and people skills, and work well with a diverse customer-base.

As an agency, our mission is to protect, preserve and enhance Washington's environment for current and future generations. We invest in our employees to create and sustain a working environment that encourages creative leadership, effective resource management, teamwork, professionalism and accountability.

To learn more about The Department of Ecology, please visit our website at www.ecology.wa.gov and follow, like or visit us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or our blog.

Local efforts... Diverse people... Statewide impacts

Agency Mission: Ecology's mission is to protect, preserve and enhance Washington's environment and to promote the wise management of our air, land and water for the benefit of current and future generations.

Program Mission: The Information Technology Services Office (ITSO) is the central provider of strategic and tactical support for the use of Information Technology (IT) within Ecology. The mission of ITSO is to leverage technology solutions that support a modern, mobile workforce to allow us to be more adaptive and responsive to communities, customers, and employees.

Section Mission: Infrastructure and Operations (INO) section delivers and operates the technologies and services that enable Ecology staff to perform and improve their work and deliver innovative services to the residents of the State of Washington. INO extends the ITSO mission in the following ways:

Be responsible and accountable for the delivery and operation of reliable technologies and services that make the everyday work of Ecology staff easier. Our goal is to deliver an Exceptional Customer Experience.
Improve our processes, increase our efficiency, and raise the quality of our service.

Some of the key activities of the IT Azure/Cloud Administrator are:

Serves as the Agency's expert on the application and use of Azure Cloud services.
Provides consultation and expertise to business customers, architects and technical staff and managers in the selection of features and integration of services with Ecology applications and platforms.
Advises and participates with IT Leadership in the identification and development of Cloud platform strategies.
Collaborates with other state agencies, including WaTech, as well as with PaaS and SaaS vendors and providers in establishing and implementing administrative processes and procedures, troubleshooting and diagnosing system and platform issues, and setting, monitoring and analyzing performance baselines.
Installs, configures, administers, manages, supports and documents Azure compute instances and services including, Azure Backup, Azure Storage Monitor, snapshot, Azure Storage, VNet, Load Balancers and RBAC.
Designs, documents, implements and troubleshoots cloud services such as Azure Site Recovery, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Express Route, automation of deployment using PowerShell and/or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
Configures and troubleshoots Terminal Servers (RDS), Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing, Distributed File Systems, Internal Public Key Infrastructure, PowerShell cmdlet design and scripting.
Coaches and supports other technicians in the conduct of Maintenance & Operations duties with in the environment thru mentoring, training, delegation of duties, and ensuring the application of sound governance principles.
Responsible for documenting and configuring network and system segmentation, security features, and permissions within the environment.
Leads efforts to develop, implement and document administrative and technical standards that support and guide the use and operation of technologies and services within the cloud, including the current and future Microsoft Azure system platform.
Manages and maintains all roles and user accounts assigned to these roles.
Applies IT governance principles, including policy creation, enforcement and auditing for all cloud infrastructure investments.
Performs administrative tasks to manage capacity and usage, works with business and technical users to advise and recommend approaches to requests for new Azure services.
Monitors and manages Azure administrative accounts including billing and capacity utilization to ensure service usage remains within budget, and provides regular reports to IT Leadership on usage and spending trends within the cloud services environments (Including Azure).
Provides second and third level technical support for mission critical agency Windows server environments including server deployment, migrations, upgrades, patch management, application support, virus remediation, E-discovery events, business continuity, operational and disaster recovery.
Researches industry-wide trends and makes recommendations for improvements increasing efficiencies in system performance on the Ecology Enterprise Storage and Compute platforms.
Analyzes, troubleshoots and resolves very complex enterprise server related issues such as major outages and mission-critical system equipment failures.
Configures server virtual machines for optimum cost, performance, and security.
Backs up server virtual machines and potentially providing failover and recovery.

This recruitment will remain open until filled. The initial screening will be May 7, 2021. In order to be considered for the initial screening, please submit an application and all required materials on or before May 6, 2021. The agency reserves the right to make an appointment any time after the initial screening date.

Required Qualifications:

A Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or highly related field

AND

Three (3) years recent journey level professional experience in one or more of the following IT disciplines: Azure administration, Network administration, Server management

OR

An Associate's degree or higher in Computer Science; Information Technology OR completion of a two year accredited vocational training program in information technology or related program;

AND

Five (5) years recent journey level professional experience in one or more of the following IT disciplines: Azure administration, Network administration, Server management.

OR

Seven (7) years recent journey level professional experience in one or more of the following IT disciplines: Azure administration, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) management, network administration, server management.

Desired Qualifications:

We highly encourage you to apply even if you do not have some (or all) of the desired experience below.

Senior to expert level professional experience in one or more of the following IT disciplines: Azure administration, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) management, network administration, server management.
Senior or expert level experience consulting, designing, programming, maintenance and/or supporting work for moderate or large size organizations.
Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Administrator AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect AZ-301

Note: Having some (or all) of this desired experience may make your application more competitive in a highly competitive applicant pool.

Why work for Ecology?

Joining Ecology means becoming a part of a team committed to protecting and restoring Washington State's environment.

A career in public service allows you to help solve some of the most challenging problems facing our state, while keeping the health and financial security of you and your family a priority. We combine one of the most competitive benefits packages in the nation with a strong commitment to work/life balance.

Ecology employees may be eligible for the following:

Medical/Dental/Vision for employee & dependent(s), Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), Vacation, Sick, and other Leave, 11 Paid Holidays per year, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Tuition Waiver, Long Term Disability & Life Insurance, Deferred Compensation Programs, Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP), Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA), Employee Assistance Program, Commute Trip Reduction Incentives, Combined Fund Drive, SmartHealth

Student debt and how working for Ecology can help

Employees may be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, which forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer. See https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service for more details.

See the Benefits tab in this announcement for more information

Application Instructions:

Please complete the short on-line application, supplemental questions and upload:

Your current chronological resume; A cover letter explaining how you fit the requirements of the position; Three professional references with current contact information.
A professional writing sample that you created. I.E. Process, Proposal or Recommendation, or an original published paper or article.

Important Note:

When attaching documents to your application (Resume, Cover Letter, Transcripts, DD-214, etc.):

Please be sure to remove private information such as your social security number, date of birth, etc.
Do not attach documents that are password protected as these documents may not be reviewed and may cause errors within your application when downloaded.

Please to do NOT include your salary history. Wage/salary depends on qualifications or rules of promotion, if applicable.

It is in the candidate's best interest to submit all of the documents requested above. Applications without these documents may be declined.

Department of Ecology employees, please make sure to answer the agency-wide questions regarding permanent status as a classified employee within the Washington General Service or Washington Management Service. Do not forget to select Department of Ecology as a response to question 2, and type your personnel ID number for question 3. If you are not sure of your status or do not know your personnel ID number, please contact Human Resources.

If you are reading this announcement in print format, please visit www.careers.wa.gov to access the online recruitment system. Click on "Look for Jobs" and select Dept. of Ecology under the "Department" search list. Click "Apply Search."

Other Information

If you need assistance applying for this job, please e-mail careers@ecy.wa.gov. Please do not send an email to this address to follow-up the status of your application. You can view the latest status of your application on your profile's main page.

If you have specific questions about the position, please email Gordon Ice at: Gordon.ice@ecy.wa.gov. Please do not contact Gordon to inquire about the status of your application.

The act of submitting application materials electronically is considered affirmation that the information is complete and truthful. The state may verify this information and any untruthful or misleading answers are cause for rejection of your application or dismissal if employed.

This position is included in the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) union bargaining unit for the Department of Ecology.

This recruitment may be used to fill other positions of the same job classification across the agency. Once all the position(s) from the recruitment announcement are filled, the recruitment may only be used to fill additional open positions for the next sixty (60) days.

The Washington State Department of Ecology is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a working environment that includes and respects cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity diversity. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of disability, persons over 40 years of age, veterans, military spouses or people with military status, and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are encouraged to apply. Persons needing accommodation in the application/testing process or this job announcement in an alternative format may call (360) 407-6186. Applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing may call the Washington Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or 1-800-833-6388.

Keywords: State of Washington, Olympia , IT Azure/Cloud Administrator (IT Systems Administration Senior Specialist), Other , Olympia, Washington