Job Description

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Overview Lead Systems Administrator Location:

Rockville, MD Onsite:

Yes (on an as needed basis) Synopsis of the job: This is a sysadmin / network admin role with growth pathway to Principal IT Architect. On-prem 3 days a week - Tues to Thurs (some flexibility here). Not a helpdesk role but qualified to help if there's a critical issue and no one else available. T3 support when normal helpdesk staff can't solve a problem.

Sys Admin for:

• Active Directory
• Azure
• Backup & DR
• Hybrid on-prem/cloud environments
• M365
• Network admin & engineering
• SQL Server DB
• VDI / Broadcom" Be Part of One Team, One Purpose.

At Emmes Group, we're shaping the future of clinical research—where human intelligence meets cutting-edge technology to drive meaningful advancements in healthcare. With over 47 years of scientific excellence, we've led groundbreaking research in cell and gene therapy, vaccines, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, rare diseases, and neuroscience. Through our two business units—Emmes, a full-service CRO, and Veridix AI, our technology, data, and analytical solutions —we are modernizing clinical trials and accelerating the development of life-changing therapies. We believe that every clinical breakthrough starts with people—people who are passionate, purpose-driven, and ready to make an impact. At Emmes Group, we bring People, Science, and Technology together to collaborate with our customers and deliver global health impact. Our culture is built on integrity, collaboration, and innovation, ensuring that every challenge is met with perseverance and accountability. The Lead Systems Administrator is responsible for providing technical and operational leadership for the organization's IT infrastructure, ensuring reliability, performance, scalability, and security across on-premises and cloud environments. This role serves as a technical lead for IT Operations, overseeing day-to-day infrastructure activities, guiding operational strategy, leading complex initiatives, and driving continuous improvement efforts. The Lead Systems Administrator partners closely with the Director, IT Operations, IT leadership, business stakeholders, vendors, and project teams to ensure operational excellence, maintain service availability, support organizational growth, and align infrastructure services with business objectives. This position provides mentorship, direction, and technical guidance to system administrators and support personnel while serving as the escalation point for critical infrastructure issues and strategic technology decisions. Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for IT Operations, providing guidance and direction across infrastructure, systems, networking, cloud, and operational support functions.
• Oversee the administration, monitoring, maintenance, and optimization of enterprise servers, networks, storage systems, cloud platforms, and associated services.
• Act as the highest level operational escalation point for complex infrastructure incidents, outages, and problem management activities.
• Lead root cause analysis efforts and implement corrective and preventive actions to improve service reliability.
• Develop and infrastructure roadmaps, operational standards, and best practices aligned with organizational goals.
• Plan, coordinate, and lead system upgrades, migrations, patch management initiatives, and infrastructure modernization efforts.
• Manage system performance, capacity planning, availability, and scalability to support current and future business requirements.
• Lead disaster recovery, backup validation, business continuity planning, and recovery testing activities.
• Establish and monitor operational KPIs, SLAs, and service performance metrics, providing recommendations and action plans for continuous improvement.
• Drive automation, operational efficiency, and Infrastructure-as-Code initiatives to improve service delivery and reduce manual effort.
• Ensure compliance with security standards, regulatory requirements, audit controls, and organizational policies.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to strengthen infrastructure security posture and mitigate operational risks.
• Lead infrastructure-related projects, coordinating internal resources, vendors, and third-party service providers.
• Review and approve infrastructure changes through established change management processes.
• Mentor, coach, and develop IT Operations team members while promoting knowledge sharing and technical growth.
• Participate in workforce planning, task prioritization, resource allocation, and operational workload management.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and provide recommendations regarding infrastructure investments and operational improvements.
• Develop and maintain operational documentation, architecture diagrams, standard operating procedures, and technical knowledge repositories.
• Build strong partnerships with business stakeholders to ensure IT services effectively support organizational objectives.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Comply with all organizational policies and standards.