IT Infrastructure Administrator

Job Summary

Summary/Objective

• This is a full-time, hybrid position based in Ann Arbor, MI. During your 6-month probationary period, you will be required to work on-site for at least 3 days per week. Following, working on-site will be required for a minimum of 2 days per week.

Come join Merit Network, Inc. - The nation's premier Research and Education Network, providing technology services to Michigan's public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare and other Michigan non-profit organizations!

This senior-level position is an excellent opportunity for an experienced server administrator to work in a flexible, growth-focused organization. You will be empowered to make decisions and guide projects in implementing, maintaining, managing, and automating application and infrastructure servers and services while working directly with passionate professionals. As an IT Infrastructure Administrator, you'll work on building, tuning, and upgrading servers, evaluating new technologies, performing security evaluations and improvements, and supporting team, department, and organizational goals. Join our experienced, inclusive team and be a part of the future of technology in Michigan and beyond!

Reporting to the IT Manager, you will be instrumental within the Information Technology Team with providing large-scale, high-volume infrastructure and end-user services in support of Network, Security, and Community services for the higher education and public sector community. Some of those services include Broadband Internet Service, GIS & Data Analysis, the Routing Assets Database (RADb), and Network Research.

To learn more about Merit Network, please visit our website: https://www.merit.edu/

Have questions about the role or want to learn more before applying?

Join our informal, open-forum Zoom sessions to connect with the hiring team! Drop in at any time during the hour and stay as long as you'd like - whether you have specific questions or just want to listen in.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026 | 12pm-1pm EST | Click Here to Join The Zoom Meeting

Responsibilities*

Responsibilities

Essential functions for this position are followed by an (E).

As the IT Infrastructure Administrator, this position's key responsibilities include:

Operational Support Activity (60%):

• Support, maintain, and secure our core server infrastructure and applications, including Puppet configuration automation, Nagios, Active Directory, MSSQL, and other application servers. This will include performing OS upgrades and deployments, patching, automation, monitoring, configuring, performance and security tuning, documentation, and backups. (E)
• Maintain and enhance the stability, security, and performance of our VMware environment to include maintaining software and hardware, evaluating performance, and enhancing the operational security and reliability. (E)
• Develop, test, implement, and document scripts and tools for system management and automation. (E)
• Evaluate, install, configure, test, debug, and document commercial and open source server and cloud applications. (E)
• Participate in the rotating IT on-call for production systems/applications, including problem investigation, escalation, resolution, and communication both internally and with external stakeholders. (E)

IT Engineering and Service Development (30%):

• Lead the technical planning and implementation of critical infrastructure projects. This includes developing comprehensive project plans, defining migration strategies, deployment and testing, and establishing rollback procedures. (E)
• Design and implement configuration management and automation solutions to achieve consistency and scalability. (E)
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate, test, and roll out new network, security, and application services into the production environment. (E)

Miscellaneous (10%):

• Establish group subject matter expertise in infrastructure platforms and participate in knowledge transfers with members of the IT Team and Merit as a whole. (E)
• Remain current on new infrastructure and enterprise technologies.
• Independent effort discovering and evaluating new tools, applications, and services to help improve team, department, and organization operations and to inform future technology use.
• Participate in professional development activities to continually improve skills and knowledge in the areas of IT services and member support.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not intended to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of you for this job. Responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Supervisory Responsibility

You have no supervisory responsibilities, however at times will direct the work of others within the scope of project management activities.

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional office environment. You will routinely use standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, cloud-based systems, and AV/teleconferencing software & equipment.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee (with or without accommodations) to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

Employees must frequently work at computer stations, answer telephone calls, emails, and/or other forms of customer/client communication. Employees may on occasion be required to move items up to 50lbs, or more with additional assistance.

Required Qualifications*

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent combination of education, certification, and experience
• 5+ years systems/software support in a business environment with a comprehensive knowledge of software applications
• 5+ years prior experience administering and troubleshooting production servers using configuration automation tools (e.g., Puppet, Ansible or Microsoft Configuration Manager, PowerShell, bash scripting, cron, or other system binaries)
• Experience working with and troubleshooting end-user issues
• Experience with administration, tuning, and maintenance of Windows Server and Debian Linux
• Experience with administration, tuning, and maintenance of VMware or similar hypervisor platforms
• Experience administering, maintaining, and optimizing databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Oracle)
• Experience configuring and managing infrastructure monitoring/analysis systems (e.g., Nagios, Zenoss) and reporting and collection tools (e.g., Grafana, Graylog)
• Experience maintaining and managing enterprise and public DNS services
• Working knowledge of TCP/IP networking concepts and troubleshooting, to include analyzing packet dumps, configuring and troubleshooting firewalls (host and edge), and managing L2 & L3 networks
• Ability to participate in a rotating on-call schedule and perform incident response duties

Desired Qualifications*

• Experience AMQP/STOMP messaging platforms (e.g., RabbitMQ)
• Experience with programming/scripting languages (e.g., Ruby, Python, and PHP)
• Experience using source code control systems (e.g., Git, SVN, Bitbucket, etc.)
• Experience administering DNS, LDAP, RADIUS, and other server technologies
• Knowledge of the Atlassian suite of products (e.g., Jira, BitBucket, Confluence)
• Experience with public cloud or research cloud computing and storage platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experience working with higher education, K-12 educational institutions, libraries, research institutions, governmental organizations, and other public sector non-profit organizations

Modes of Work

This is a full-time, hybrid position. Though the typical work schedule is 8am - 5pm, Monday through Friday for most staff, your work schedule will be determined with your supervisor and may change if necessary.

During your 6-month probationary period, you will be required to work on-site for at least 3 days per week at Merit's office location:

880 Technology Dr., Suite B
Ann Arbor, MI 48108

Following, working on-site will be required for a minimum of 2 days per week determined in partnership with your supervisor. In addition, ad-hoc on-site meetings and events may be needed with adequate notice provided.

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or remote work modes are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes.

There may be some occasional work required outside of the established schedule, which may include evenings, weekends and holidays.

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes.

Travel

Some travel within and outside of Michigan will be required.

Additional Information

Starting salary range is $90,000 - $95,000, depending on experience and credentials.

Enjoy comprehensive benefits that support your health, well-being, and future, including:

• Full access to medical and dental insurance for you and your eligible dependents
• Generous 2:1 retirement matching to help you plan for your long-term goals
• Paid vacation, sick time, holidays, and additional paid time off to support work-life balance
• Access to a variety of well-being programs, resources, and campus perks
• Professional development opportunities and educational assistance to further your career
• And more-discover the complete benefits package at careers.umich.edu/benefits

If you have any other questions regarding this role, please contact [email protected].

U-M EEO Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal employment opportunity employer.

276212

IT Infrastructure Administrator

OS Programmer Senior

Ann Arbor Campus

Hybrid

Full-Time

Regular

Exempt

Affiliated It Orgs

Merit Network

4/13/2026 - 4/26/2026

$90,000.00 - $95,000.00

Information Technology