IT SRE / System Administrator

About the role

We’re looking for an IT professional to operate in our newly launched Arlington office of business development and software engineering professionals. You’ll be the go-to expert for everything IT-related. This is a hybrid role combining Site Reliability Engineering, System Administration, and a small amount of Tier 1 support (primarily AV and misc. onsite user issues). This is not a help desk role - you’ll be working with a team of IT professionals, but you will be the first IT representative in the office.

You’ll play a key role with high impact, delivering reliability and connectivity in a high-performance environment.

What you'll do

Tier 1 (Minimal but Critical) 

• Be the trusted hands-on expert and friendly face when customer-facing AV or conferencing issues arise. 
• Handle local IT onboarding and resolve high-priority user issues with speed and professionalism. 
• Serve as a liaison between users and corporate IT teams — translating need into action. 

Systems & Infrastructure 

• Manage, and optimize local infrastructure, including physical and virtual servers (Proxmox experience a plus). 
• Deploy and manage internal services with a bias toward infrastructure as code, observability, and automation. 
• Ensure secure, scalable, and resilient systems - from authentication to backups. 

Networking & Connectivity 

• Design, implement, and maintain robust networking for office, lab, and meeting spaces. 
• Monitor and troubleshoot LAN/WAN performance, VPN access, and secure remote connectivity. 

SRE 

• Implement tooling, automation, and observability to support production and development environments. 
• Participate in uptime and performance improvement initiatives for internal and cloud-based systems. 
• Champion CI/CD, config management, and proactive alerting/monitoring where it makes sense. 

Qualifications

• Clear and concise communicator, not shy to show initiative. 
• Excellent working knowledge of computer systems, security, network and systems administration, databases and data storage systems. 
• Experience with our tech stack – Palo Alto, Juniper, Proxmox, Ansible, Terraform, Datadog, PowerShell, Git, Linux and Windows Server. 
• Firm grasp on IT infrastructure and operations best practices 
• Proactive, self-directed, and comfortable being the face of IT in the office. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills — approachable, reliable, and calm under pressure. 
• Demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others. 
• Demonstrated ability to create innovative solutions that create exceptional collaborative environments. 

Preferred Qualifications

• M365 GCC High experience 
• NIST800-171 / CMMC experience 
• Experience in a start-up or similar fast-paced environment 

Education & Experience

• 3+ years of experience in IT 
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field or equivalent experience. 
• CompTIA Network+ or similar networking certifications.

US Salary Range
 $120,000—$150,000 / annually
 

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.  
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption. 
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires. 
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.  

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in accordance with local, state, and federal laws. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain. All qualified applications will receive equal consideration for employment.