IT Operations Engineer

About INIT

INIT Innovations in Transportation, Inc. is a leading provider of hardware, software, service, support, and operations management solutions for public transportation companies across North America. As a turnkey supplier, INIT develops, produces, installs, and maintains integrated hardware and software solutions for all key tasks required by transportation authorities, including fare collection systems, passenger counting, CAD/AVL systems, passenger information systems, and other Intelligent Transportation System solutions. Our Information Technology team designs, builds, operates, and maintains infrastructure in support of INIT software solutions deployed for transit agency customers in major metropolitan areas including Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Tampa, Honolulu, and more.

Position Summary

The IT Operations Engineer is a member of the IT Operations team responsible for the ownership and operation of complex infrastructure systems and services supporting INIT's customer-facing transit technology deployments. This position takes ownership of systems requiring ongoing judgment, architecture-level decisions, and active vendor management, operating with a high degree of independence and proactively identifying gaps and improvement opportunities across the infrastructure portfolio. The IT Operations Engineer provides informal technical guidance to junior team members and collaborates closely with the IT Systems Engineering team on platform-level decisions.

Key Responsibilities

 Azure Operations

• Monitor Azure resource health, performance, availability, and cost across subscriptions; respond to alerts and proactively identify optimization opportunities.

• Author and maintain PowerShell automation for provisioning, configuration management, reporting, and remediation workflows.

• Manage Azure networking components including virtual networks, subnets, NSGs, peering, Azure Virtual WAN, Azure DNS, and Azure Private DNS to ensure secure and reliable connectivity across customer environments.

• Support Azure identity and access management including role-based access control, Managed Identities, and Key Vault access policies.

• Administer the broader Azure platform footprint, including Azure File Sync, Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Log Analytics, Azure Storage, App Services, and (future) Azure Virtual Desktop.

Windows Server and Active Directory Operations

• Administer and maintain Windows Server environments including installation, configuration, patching, performance monitoring, and capacity management.

• Manage Active Directory infrastructure including user and group administration, Group Policy Objects, DNS, DHCP, and organizational unit structure.

Virtualization Operations

• Administer VMware vSphere environments including vCenter, ESXi hosts, virtual machine lifecycle management, storage, and networking.

• Monitor resource utilization and performance across VMware environments; identify and implement optimization opportunities.

Application Delivery

• Operate application and API delivery infrastructure, including F5 BIG-IP, Azure Application Gateway, and API Management, ensuring high availability, performance, and reliability for customer-facing transit systems.

• Administer Cloudflare, including DNS, WAF, and Cloudflare Zero Trust - Access policy management, Tunnel configuration, and device posture enforcement.

• Manage SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle and reverse proxy configuration across delivery infrastructure.

• Support identity federation and SAML-based authentication for published applications.

• Configure and manage health monitoring for application pools and endpoints; respond to availability alerts and coordinate remediation to maintain service continuity.

• Troubleshoot application delivery issues include traffic routing, virtual server configuration, and end-to-end connectivity problems.

Endpoint Management

• Manage endpoint devices using Microsoft Intune, including device enrollment, compliance policies, configuration profiles, and application deployment.

• Support user onboarding and offboarding processes including device provisioning, account lifecycle management, and access controls.

Monitoring and Observability

• Administer, standardize, and tune SolarWinds and PagerDuty across managed environments, including alert tuning and false-positive reduction.

• Develop KPIs and dashboards covering availability, performance, and capacity monitoring, including synthetic monitoring of customer-facing endpoints.

• Produce executive-level operational reporting, root cause analysis, and trend analysis to support recurring issue resolution and capacity planning.

Security Responsibilities

• Administer Microsoft Entra ID, including identity synchronization, Conditional Access policy implementation, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), and identity lifecycle management.

• Vulnerability remediation and patch management across Windows Server, VMware, Azure, and endpoint environments.

• Administer EDR and endpoint/server security platforms -Microsoft Defender, ESET, or equivalent -including antivirus, anti-malware, and file integrity monitoring.

• Monitor security dashboards and alerts; investigate detections, participate in incident response, and coordinate remediation with appropriate team members.

• Drive Azure Secure Score improvements and CIS benchmark implementation across managed environments.

• Support operational implementation of Zero Trust principles across identity, network, and application access.

• Assist in maintaining infrastructure compliance with applicable security standards and internal IT policies.

Customer Ownership

• Own assigned customer environments as the primary technical point of contact, building and maintaining strong customer relationships.

• Lead maintenance windows and infrastructure upgrades, coordinating vendors and driving technical decisions.

• Produce executive-level documentation and status reporting for customers and internal stakeholders.

• Participate in agile team workflows using tools such as Jira and ServiceDesk+ to track work, document procedures, and coordinate across team members.

• Travel to customer sites as needed to support on-site infrastructure deployments, maintenance activities, and project milestones.

Emerging Technologies

• Apply AI-assisted operations to improve efficiency in monitoring, troubleshooting, and routine operational tasks.

• Advance infrastructure automation and configuration management practices, including documentation-as-code approaches, building on the PowerShell and automation skills applied across Azure operations.

Required Qualifications

• 5 or more years of experience in IT operations, systems administration, or infrastructure engineering roles.

• CompTIA Security+ certification required; higher-level certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) expected.

• Demonstrated ownership of complex infrastructure systems including configuration, licensing, vendor management, and recovery procedures.

• Proficiency administering Windows Server, Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, and hybrid identity environments.

• Strong hands-on experience with VMware vSphere including performance tuning, capacity planning, and storage management.

• Demonstrated experience administering Microsoft Azure services including App Services, Application Gateway, NSGs, Storage Accounts, and Key Vault.

• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates for Azure resource provisioning.

• Experience administering Cloudflare services including DNS, WAF, bot management, and Zero Trust.

• Experience designing, maintaining, and testing disaster recovery plans and runbooks.

• Advanced PowerShell scripting skills for automation, configuration management, and operational workflows.

• Experience managing endpoint devices using Microsoft Intune.

• Ability to make independent technical decisions and communicate recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Willingness and ability to travel to customer sites, INIT Hampton Roads offices, and INIT's Germany headquarters as project needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with application delivery platforms including F5 BIG-IP or Kemp load balancers.

• Familiarity with container platforms such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Red Hat OpenShift.

• Experience with ITSM practices, ITIL framework, and change management processes.

• Experience with enterprise monitoring platforms such as PRTG, SolarWinds, or equivalent.

• Familiarity with endpoint and server security software such as ESET, SentinelOne, or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Work Environment and Travel

• Hybrid position. Work from Hampton Roads, VA is preferred; remote candidates will be considered.

• Regular travel to INIT's Hampton Roads, VA offices expected for team collaboration, project activities, and customer engagement.

• Travel to customer sites across North America is required as project needs dictate.

• International travel to INIT's Germany headquarters may be required for team alignment and project milestones.

• Must be available to adjust work hours to accommodate customer requirements and coordination across time zones.

What INIT Offers

• Ownership of complex infrastructure systems with broad impact on INIT's customer-facing transit technology deployments.

• A collaborative team environment with influence over architecture decisions, vendor relationships, and platform direction.

• A clear development path toward the IT Systems Engineer track for those who want to move into design and build responsibilities.

• Direct engagement with transit agency customers with meaningful impact on operational outcomes.

• A hybrid work model with flexibility for remote work combined with meaningful in-person collaboration.

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and work-life balance, including:

• Competitive paid time off, starting with 15 days of vacation, increasing with tenure, plus 11 paid holidays, a personal day, and a community service day
• 6 paid sick days annually
• Paid parental leave
• 100% employer-paid health and dental insurance for employees, with generous dependent coverage contributions
• 401(k) with company match (currently dollar-for-dollar up to 5% of salary)
• Company-paid life insurance, plus short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (medical, dependent care, and limited FSA options) with employer contributions for eligible medical plans
• Annual benefit allowance for optional employee benefits
• Continuing education assistance and support for professional development
• Optional benefits including accident insurance, legal services, identity theft protection, adoption assistance, education assistance, and student loan repayment assistance

Compensation

The annual salary range for this position is $95,000 -$115,000, depending on experience.

INIT Innovations in Transportation, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.