Senior Systems Administrator - South San Francisco, California

At Slipstream Life Sciences we work to streamline IT Support and provide managed solutions with a strategic consulting and global leadership management approach. Our solutions are designed exclusively for emerging pharma and biotech organizations.

Slipstream’s industry-leading solutions free clients from the demands of internal IT and allow them to rapidly advance their mission. Led by a leadership team that has been together for over 10 years, you will join a proven team, culture, and strategy to drive innovation within the IT outsourcing industry while developing your skillset with the opportunities for internal growth.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Senior IT Systems Engineer to be the technical lead for our Windows server and directory services and for the IT side of laboratory computing. You will partner stakeholders in lab operations, automation and software engineering to keep the computers that support our research secure, patched, and integrated with the rest of our environment. You will be the escalation point for corporate IT architecture and Windows systems issues, support colleagues across functions, and help the IT team mature its processes and governance.

This role calls for strong technical judgment and excellent communication. We are looking for someone with experience applying practices and standards to raise the bar for how we operate. You will get results through effective communication, and the ability to anticipate needs that your colleagues may not have realized. You will balance textbook operational practice against what is practical for a fast-moving research organization.

The position is onsite in our South San Francisco office, and occasional evening and weekend work is required.

What You Will Do

Windows and Laboratory Computing

• Administer our Windows server and directory environment, including Active Directory, Group Policy, and system hardening.
• Support the storage, networking, and PC management that laboratory computing depends on.
• Partner with laboratory operations and automation teams to onboard, patch, secure, and integrate instruments and complex workcells computers.
• Maintain accurate records of hardware and software assets through their lifecycle, including licensing, maintenance, and replacement.
• Participate in the on-call rotation for critical IT issues.

Change vetting and incident response

• Review incoming projects with laboratory and research stakeholders, assess the operational impact of proposed changes (for example, authentication changes or new system rollouts), and define testing and mitigation plans before work begins.
• Investigate the root cause of critical incidents and recommend changes that prevent recurrence.

Security, governance, and operational maturity

• Contribute to security procedures and governance as the company scales and to meet compliance requirements.
• Triage and remediate vulnerability findings on the Windows, directory, and laboratory computing systems you support, working with security and partner teams on prioritization and timelines.
• Define, apply, and maintain secure configuration baselines for Windows servers, directory services, and laboratory computers, and verify that systems stay in compliance with them.
• Drive continual improvement of endpoint management, application deployment, and security configuration.
• Identify and implement process improvements and automation, using PowerShell or other scripting tools to streamline common tasks.
• Manage vendor relationships and evaluate vendor performance for IT equipment, software, and services.
• Support business continuity by aligning IT systems with our resilience strategy.

Working across functions

• Serve as the escalation point for corporate IT architecture and lab Windows issues, and help colleagues across IT and partner teams work complex technical problems through to resolution.
• Set clear goals for yourself and for project teams, and give regular updates on delivery.
• Build trust with stakeholders through active listening, and use influence and persuasion to align teams on the right approach.
• Anticipate needs that colleagues have not yet recognized and bring forward solutions early.
• Bring forward recommendations grounded in your experience, with the tradeoffs and risks laid out, so that decisions can be made on evidence.
• Create and maintain functional and operational documentation to a consistent quality standard, and design and deliver training that raises the skills of the IT team and the colleagues we support.
• Own complex projects and workstreams from requirements through delivery, and produce the plans, system diagrams, and technical specifications for your own projects and for others.
• Apply continual improvement practices for existing architectures including Windows and directory services and for the IT systems that support laboratory computing, with a long-term view of maintainability and technical debt.
• Understand the business and technical needs of the laboratory, research computing, and corporate functions you support, and design solutions to fit them.
• Plan and execute technology upgrades so they stay compatible with existing systems and cause minimal disruption.

About You

• You have a bachelor's degree and 8 or more years of relevant experience, and/or advanced education or certification, ideally as a senior systems engineer or technical lead in a biotechnology or medtech lab environment.
• You have deep, hands-on experience with Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, and system hardening, plus working knowledge of storage and networking.
• You have experience triaging vulnerability findings and maintaining secure configuration baselines, and you can explain the risk behind a finding to colleagues who are not security specialists.
• You have written technical specifications and architecture documents for complex projects, and you think ahead about maintainability and technical debt.
• You define your own work. You identify what needs doing, set goals for yourself and for project teams, build the plan, and get results without formal authority or waiting for direction.
• You make recommendations from experience and from current knowledge of the field, and you back them with reasoning that colleagues can evaluate.
• You are a strong communicator in writing and in person. You explain highly technical information clearly to technical and nontechnical colleagues, and you build trusted relationships across functions and levels, including with scientists and lab staff.
• You develop clear project plans and system diagrams, and you hold documentation to a quality standard so that it stays accurate, current, and usable by others.
• You listen actively and anticipate needs that others have not yet recognized.
• You make sound decisions under ambiguity and know when a practical solution is better than the textbook one.
• You handle confidential information with discretion.
• You are committed to continual improvement through your own learning and development, and you want to leave the IT program stronger than you found it.

Nice to Have

• Experience with cloud productivity suites, cloud endpoint management, single sign-on and identity providers, or Windows workloads in a public cloud, held to the same patching, monitoring, and security standards as on-premises systems.
• Experience supporting endpoints and mobile device management in a mixed Mac and Windows environment.
• Tooling and scripting: experience with enterprise system management and monitoring tools, and scripting or automation in PowerShell, Python, or Bash.
• Regulated environments: experience in regulated laboratory or biotech settings, with familiarity with relevant security frameworks and regulatory requirements.
• Certifications: relevant IT certifications.

Benefits

• 401k match
• Comprehensive group health, dental, vision benefits
• Life insurance/LTD
• Discretionary PTO
• Salary: $135,000-$145,000

Slipstream is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. Slipstream makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.

This job description may not be inclusive of all assigned duties, responsibilities, or aspects of the job described, and may be amended at any time at the sole discretion of the Employer.