Systems Engineer

Why we're hiring:

"WPP is at the forefront of the marketing and advertising industry's largest transformation. Our Global CIO is leading a significant evolution of our Enterprise Technology capabilities, bringing together over 2,500 technology professionals into an integrated global team. This team will play a crucial role in enabling the ongoing transformation of our agencies and functions."

The Systems Engineer is responsible for supporting and maintaining enterprise infrastructure across global and regional environments. The role provides hands-on technical support and assists in the delivery of regional and global IT infrastructure projects. Responsibilities include documenting IT processes and procedures, participating in technical meetings, and liaising with third-party vendors and suppliers as required. The engineer will maintain, optimise, and upgrade the global virtual estate and perform routine system and software audits. The role involves managing and resolving infrastructure and systems issues impacting business and media production operations. The engineer ensures reliable backups and archives across on-premises and cloud platforms and develops and maintains installation, configuration, and disaster recovery procedures.

The position focuses on continuous improvement by maintaining monitoring and performance systems, supporting capacity planning, performing performance tuning, and handling L2/L3 escalations. The engineer will ensure security best practices, deploy new hardware and software services, maintain system documentation, and ensure 24/7 availability of critical infrastructure systems.

What you'll be doing:

• Administer, support, and optimize hypervisors and enterprise virtual infrastructure environments
• Manage, maintain, and troubleshoot Windows Server and Linux operating systems
• Deploy, operate, and support cloud workloads on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Design, manage, and optimize on-premises and cloud storage solutions
• Implement and maintain backup, recovery, and disaster recovery (DR) solutions
• Implement infrastructure automation using Ansible and scripting to improve reliability and efficiency
• Manage source control and collaboration workflows using GitHub
• Support and enhance CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure and system deployments
• Deploy and manage security tools such as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) and Qualys
• Perform vulnerability assessments, remediation, and system security hardening
• Monitor systems using performance, alerting, and observability tools to ensure availability
• Conduct system audits, patching, upgrades, and capacity planning
• Collaborate with global engineering, operations, and security teams
• Produce clear technical documentation, standards, and operational procedures
• Computer Science degree or equivalent technical training
• Willingness to travel as required
• Availability for occasional evening and weekend work, sometimes at short notice

What you'll need:

Essential Experience & Skills:

• 3+ years of Microsoft Windows system administration
• 3+ years of Linux systems administration
• 3+ years delivering enterprise-level project work in large environments
• 3+ years experience with server virtualization technologies
• Experience with Windows Server clustering and load balancing
• Experience administering MS SQL Server, including clustering
• Experience managing and automating Active Directory and Windows domain environments
• Enterprise-level macOS (OS X) server and client administration
• Proficiency in at least one scripting language (Bash, Python, or PowerShell)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to manage multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and customer service skills
• Ability to prioritize, organize work, and meet service level agreements (SLAs)
• Proven ability to mentor team members and share technical knowledge
• Team-oriented mindset with a strong sense of ownership and accountability
• Ability to learn quickly and adapt to changing environments

Desirable Experience & Qualifications: 

• VMware certifications: VCP, VCAP-DCD, VCAP-DCA
• Red Hat certifications: RHCSA / RHCE
• Microsoft certifications: MCSE (2016 or later)
• Azure certifications: 
1. Azure Solutions Architect Expert
2. Azure Administrator Associate
3. Azure Data Engineer Associate
• GCP – Associate Cloud Engineer
• Okta Certified Administrator
• Experience with Ansible or other configuration management tools
• Familiarity with firewalls and network switches
• Cloud backup architecture, administration, and design experience
• Microsoft 365 (O365) administration
• Microsoft Intune administration
• On-premises and cloud storage administration
• Media agency or media production environment experience

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

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