Senior IT Systems Engineer-ORCA

Salary range is $91K to $197K with a midpoint of $144K. New hires typically receive between minimum and midpoint however we may go slightly higher based on experience internal equity and market.

Sound Transit also offers a competitivebenefits packagewith a wide range of offerings including:

• Health Benefits: We offer two choices of medical plans a dental plan and a vision plan all at no cost for employee coverage; comprehensive benefits for employees and eligible dependents including a spouse or domestic partner.
• Long-Term Disability and Life Insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Retirement Plans: 401a 10% of employee contribution with a 12% match by Sound Transit; 457b up to IRS maximum (employee only contribution).
• Paid Time Off: Employees accrue 25 days of paid time off annually with increases at four eight and twelve years of service. Employees at the director level and up accrue additional days. We also observe 12 paid holidays and provide up to 2 paid floating holidays and up to 2 paid volunteer days per year.
• Parental Leave: 12 weeks of parental leave for new parents.
• Pet Insurance.
• ORCA Card: All full-time employees will receive an ORCA card at no cost.
• Tuition Reimbursement: Sound Transit will pay up to $5000 annually for approved tuition expenses.
• Inclusive Reproductive Health Support Services.
• Compensation Practices: We offer competitive salaries based on market rates and internal addition to compensation and benefits youll find that we provide work-life balance opportunities for professional development and recognition from your colleagues.

GENERAL PURPOSE:

Serve as a primary technical subject matter expert for the ROOT (Regional ORCA Operations Team) System Operations IT Engineering branch supporting the regional ORCA Fare System and its seven Agencies. The Senior IT Systems Engineer under general supervision performs at a senior professional level providing leadership and mentoring of peers infrastructure management security engineering incident management system monitoring and development to ensure reliable secure and efficient fare system operations. This role collaborates with Agencies vendors Enterprise Architects Information Security and other ROOT staff to develop implement and improve solutions. Responsibilities include designing developing automating implementing and maintaining internal support tools API integrations scripts databases and external deployments; monitoring and supporting networks applications servers cloud resources field devices and back-end systems; troubleshooting incidents identifying root cause resolving issues and implementing corrective actions; and serving as a technical resource for application implementation system infrastructure information security system maintenance and continuous improvement.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

The following duties are a representative summary of the primary duties and responsibilities. Incumbent(s) may not be required to perform all duties listed and may be required to perform additional position-specific duties.

• Provide technical team leadership; mentor and coach team members deliver technical expertise and guidance on key infrastructure security and systems engineering functions.
• Champion strategic infrastructure initiatives identify opportunities develop implementation plans and drive execution in alignment with ROOT and ORCA Agency business objectives.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture to design implement and evolve systems across production and non-production environments; plan for infrastructure growth capacity and lifecycle management; contribute to budget forecasting; develop and maintain infrastructure strategies for efficient and effective use of ROOT infrastructure.
• Evaluate technology needs and design robust technical solutions in coordination with vendors IT management IT staff and Agency partners; review develop and implement architecture plans for complex multi-agency environments.
• Engineer and maintain cloud infrastructure enterprise websites application services databases network devices and field components; stay current with emerging practices in infrastructure security monitoring automation integration and application development; recommend and implement improvements as appropriate.
• Design implement and continuously improve network application server database and service monitoring to ensure reliability performance capacity and timely detection of incidents across all environments.
• Research evaluate and deploy emerging technologies industry trends and products to ensure systems are effectively and efficiently designed and utilized; make recommendations that weigh security improvements cost savings adoption feasibility standardization flexibility and reuse against business requirements.
• Lead incident management activities including triage troubleshooting escalation coordination service restoration root cause analysis and corrective action implementation; communicate clearly with internal teams ORCA Agencies vendors and stakeholders throughout the incident lifecycle. Detect isolate resolve and document complex system application database network and integration issues using structured repeatable troubleshooting methods.
• Design develop test and maintain API integrations custom scripts automations databases data conversions reporting tools and operational utilities that improve reliability security efficiency and supportability across the ORCA fare system.
• Build and maintain automation for deployment configuration management monitoring reporting maintenance and operations using appropriate scripting and development tools; drive adoption of infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD practices where applicable.
• Lead security engineering activities including implementation administration and continuous improvement of information security controls access management vulnerability remediation secure configuration practices logging policies and standards (such as NIST SOC or CIS) compliance.
• Perform ongoing security posture assessments for ROOT infrastructure and ORCA fare system environments identify risks control gaps configuration weaknesses and opportunities to strengthen confidentiality integrity availability and resilience; recommend and implement corrective actions.
• Implement administer and optimize IT service management tools that support operations incident management change management and collaboration; guide ROOT and ORCA Agencies on release management change evaluation deployment readiness and adoption of operational best practices.
• Assess technical operational security and customer impacts of proposed code configuration infrastructure and vendor releases from partners vendors and internal development teams; provide clear risk assessments and go/no-go recommendations.
• Own and continuously improve IT Engineering team processes; ensure policies practices and procedures are interpreted and applied consistently; maintain accountability and compliance with applicable state and federal laws ROOT/Agency policies and regulatory requirements.
• Serve as IT Engineering subject matter expert on boards commissions committees and cross-functional working groups as assigned; prepare and deliver technical presentations and briefings.
• Develop execute and improve regression testing scripts and scenarios to validate fare system software hardware infrastructure and integration changes prior to production implementation.
• Create and maintain technical documentation operational runbooks incident records root cause analyses monitoring procedures security procedures and continual service improvement recommendations; ensure documentation remains current and actionable.
• Collaborate with Sound Transit IT teams internal customer teams ORCA Agencies vendors and other stakeholders to resolve issues improve services and support reliable fare system operations.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Education and Experience: Minimum of a 4 Year bachelors degree in computer science Information Technology Business Management Information Systems or closely related field. Minimum 5 years of IT Systems Engineer experience in a distributed enterprise production environment including experience implementing configuring and maintaining advanced/complex infrastructure technology. Or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

Required Knowledge and Skills:

• Managing and maintaining enterprise infrastructure including cloud-hosted services Azure resources web and application servers virtualization platforms databases integrations and supporting network components.
• Installing configuring upgrading testing securing troubleshooting and optimizing systems applications databases networks and enterprise services in high-availability production environments.
• Applying security engineering principles including identity and access management secure configuration vulnerability management logging monitoring policy compliance and risk-based remediation.
• Administering and improving monitoring and observability platforms dashboards alerts logs metrics and usage data to detect issues assess system health and guide operational decisions.
• Managing incidents through triage prioritization escalation communication service restoration root cause analysis mitigation documentation and continual service improvement.
• Diagnosing and resolving complex infrastructure application database network integration and performance issues using structured troubleshooting methods and operational data.
• Developing automation scripts integrations and tooling using source control and languages or platforms such as Git REST APIs PowerShell Bash JavaScript Python and similar technologies.
• Designing and supporting secure application and data integrations including RESTful services API integration patterns data exchange database queries transformation and operational application support.
• Using IT service management platforms such as Atlassian Jira or similar tools to support incident request change release knowledge and service management processes.
• Supporting development system integration testing user acceptance testing regression testing deployment readiness release management and change evaluation activities.
• Analyzing procedures monitoring data incident trends service performance and operational metrics to identify risks recommend improvements and solve complex operational problems.
• Preparing clear technical documentation runbooks reports incident records root cause analyses mitigation plans and continual service improvement recommendations.
• Researching and evaluating infrastructure technologies monitoring techniques security practices automation approaches and service delivery improvements.
• Providing advanced technical support and service desk escalation for complex externally facing systems while coordinating solutions with users vendors agencies and IT teams.
• Communicating complex technical issues clearly to technical and non-technical audiences while maintaining collaborative customer-focused relationships with stakeholders.
• Interpreting and applying technical standards policies procedures publications laws codes and regulations relevant to infrastructure operations and security.
• Working effectively under pressure balancing priorities meeting deadlines making sound operational decisions and leading process improvements in a high-availability environment.

Preferred Knowledge and Skills:

• Advanced database structures SQL query development performance tuning maintenance and administration experience with platforms such as Oracle SQL Server PostgreSQL or similar technologies.
• Experience in fare collection systems.
• Experience designing and maintaining data transformation ETL reporting analytics and data conversion processes.
• Advanced methods and techniques for system design application development API integration automation and systems programming.
• Experience with Java or another high-level programming language used to develop operational tools integrations or enterprise applications.
• Experience deploying highly-available infrastructure cloud services containerized workloads or enterprise application platforms.
• Advanced methods and techniques for complex system analysis data and systems conversions integrations testing and operational readiness.

Physical Demands / Work Environment:

• Work is performed in a standard office environment.
• Subject to standing walking bending reaching stooping and lifting of objects up to 25 pounds.
• The Agency promotes a safe and healthy work environment and provides appropriate safety and equipment training for all personnel as required.

Sound Transit is an equal employment opportunity employer. No person is unlawfully excluded from employment action based on race color religion national origin sex (including gender identity sexual orientation and pregnancy) age genetic information disability veteran status or other protected class.

Required Experience:

Senior IC