Systems Engineer

About the Role

AIS is looking for a Systems Engineer to be the senior technical resource behind our clients’ environments and the final escalation point when an issue cannot be resolved at the help desk. You will own the complex and escalated work across client servers, virtualization, identity, networking, endpoints, backup and cloud, and you will own the ongoing health of the client infrastructure that generates that work. When a client is down, this is the person who takes command of it.

Four further areas of accountability sit with the role, and each exists because it determines what clients actually experience: managing the service board so client requests are routed, prioritized and resolved against the commitments in their agreement; overseeing the outsourced help desk so the work reaching AIS clients meets the AIS standard; administering the platforms that monitor, protect and back up client environments; and delivering the projects clients have contracted for, within the hours and dates committed.

This is a client-facing position. You will speak directly with client contacts on escalated work, explain technical situations in plain language without waiting to be asked, and hold the vendors and carriers behind client services to account on the client’s behalf.

The position provides day-to-day direction to the service desk technicians and sets the standard the team works to, so that what a client receives does not depend on who picked up the ticket. Work is performed from our Indianapolis headquarters and regularly at client sites, with scheduled after-hours maintenance, weekend project work and participation in the on-call rotation.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as the final internal escalation point for client technical issues, diagnosing root cause rather than restoring service repeatedly on the same problem.
• Take incident command on Priority 1 events: assess impact, sequence remediation safely, hold risky actions until data integrity is verified, and keep the client informed throughout.
• Troubleshoot across Windows Server and desktop, Active Directory and Group Policy, Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, Hyper-V, remote desktop services, backup and disaster recovery, networking and line-of-business applications.
• Administer client virtualization and own day-to-day backup and disaster recovery operations in Veeam, proving recoverability through documented restore and failover testing rather than assuming it.
• Build and support client Azure infrastructure: virtual machines and networking, Entra ID and hybrid identity, backup and site recovery, conditional access and MFA policy, and cost and licensing review.
• Administer the platforms that monitor, patch, protect and document client estates, and keep the records in them accurate enough to be trusted.
• Manage the ConnectWise service board so client requests are routed, prioritized and resolved against the commitments in their agreement.
• Oversee the outsourced help desk so the work reaching AIS clients meets the AIS standard, escalating service failures with evidence.
• Deliver contracted projects — server and workstation deployments, Microsoft 365 and tenant migrations, firewall and switch replacements, security remediation and new client onboarding — within estimated hours and scheduled dates.
• Hold platform, security and carrier vendors to account on the client’s behalf, driving support cases to closure rather than leaving them open.
• Own the runbooks, standard operating procedures and client documentation that let the desk resolve work without escalation, and convert every repeated escalation into documentation or automation.
• Provide day-to-day direction to the service desk technicians, review their work for quality, and coach to the standard.

Working With AI

AIS expects this position to use AI tooling as a normal part of the job:

• Accelerate troubleshooting, log analysis and research.
• Draft and maintain documentation and client communication.
• Summarize and analyze ticket and reporting data.
• Build automation that removes repetitive work from the team, so more of our time reaches client outcomes rather than administration.
• Evaluate and pilot AI capabilities across our toolset and recommend where they should be adopted or avoided, within our policy on client confidentiality and the handling of client data.

Comfort with and curiosity about AI-assisted workflows is a requirement of the role, not an optional extra.

What We’re Looking For

• Five or more years of hands-on IT support, systems administration or service delivery experience, with at least three in a managed service provider or multi-client environment.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Windows Server (Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, file and print services, remote desktop services) and Windows 10/11 endpoint administration.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 administration: Exchange Online, Entra ID, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, licensing, MFA and conditional access.
• Hands-on administration of Hyper-V in production, including host maintenance, migrations and performance troubleshooting.
• Working experience with Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Service Provider Console, including job remediation, policy and agent management and restore testing.
• Practical Azure experience: virtual machines, virtual networking, Entra ID and hybrid identity, backup and site recovery, and cost and licensing awareness.
• Practical networking skills: TCP/IP, VLANs, DNS, DHCP, routing basics, firewall rules and NAT, site-to-site and client VPN, and wireless troubleshooting.
• Administration of an RMM platform (ConnectWise ASIO or Automate, or equivalent), including agent deployment, policy configuration and PSA synchronization.
• Experience owning a ticket queue in a PSA — triage, assignment, prioritization and SLA management, not only working the tickets assigned to you.
• Demonstrated attention to data integrity across integrated systems, and the discipline to reconcile records rather than assume they are correct.
• Demonstrated use of AI tooling in a professional setting, with sound judgment about where it helps, where it does not, and how client data must be handled.
• Experience directing the work of other technicians, including reviewing their output and coaching to a standard.
• A proven track record of writing documentation others actually use: runbooks, standard operating procedures and client records.
• Clear written and verbal communication with non-technical users and client contacts.
• Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation for regular travel to client sites, and availability for scheduled after-hours, weekend and on-call work.

Nice to Have

• Certifications such as CompTIA Network+ or Security+, Microsoft 365 or Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104), Veeam VMCE, or a firewall vendor certification (Meraki, Fortinet, SonicWall).
• Hands-on experience with Proofpoint, Liongard, CrowdStrike, Okta, Duo and IT Glue, and with a managed detection and response platform.
• Experience overseeing an outsourced, offshore or co-managed help desk, including holding it to SLA and quality standards.
• Exposure to security frameworks and compliance obligations such as HIPAA, HITRUST, CIS Controls and cyber-insurance requirements.
• Scripting and automation with PowerShell, Azure CLI or Microsoft Graph.
• Prior experience as a team lead, service delivery coordinator or dispatcher in an MSP.
• Experience supporting union locals, apprenticeship training centers, nonprofits or healthcare practices.

Benefits

• Medical coverage.
• Dental coverage.
• Vision coverage.
• Employee life insurance.
• Short-term disability.
• Long-term disability.
• Critical illness coverage.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Paid time off and company holidays.
• Vendor training through our partner programs, at no cost to you.