Senior Systems Engineer
Role Overview
Senior hands-on infrastructure role on the Infrastructure & Operations team, supporting reliable, secure, scalable infrastructure for global operations.
Works across systems, compute, storage, networking, virtualization, and container platforms as a senior technical escalation point.
Full-time hybrid position in the Toronto office three days per week; international travel to the US and Europe without restrictions is required.
Key Skills for This Role
Full Job Posting
Role overview
Senior hands-on infrastructure role on the Infrastructure & Operations team, supporting reliable, secure, scalable infrastructure for global operations.
Works across systems, compute, storage, networking, virtualization, and container platforms as a senior technical escalation point.
Full-time hybrid position in the Toronto office three days per week; international travel to the US and Europe without restrictions is required.
Systems and infrastructure
- Manage and optimize VMware vSphere/ESXi and other virtualization platforms, including compute, networking, storage, host lifecycle, and vCenter integration.
- Operate on-premise, co-location, and hybrid infrastructure; maintain enterprise server hardware and manage capacity, lifecycle, performance, and reliability.
- Deploy, operate, upgrade, and troubleshoot production Kubernetes clusters and their networking, storage, certificates, observability, and node lifecycle.
- Use networking fundamentals and collaborate with Network Engineering to resolve connectivity and cross-layer production issues.
- Build infrastructure automation using Python, Ansible, Bash, APIs, and related tools; improve configuration management and CI/CD operations.
- Improve monitoring, logging, alerting, capacity management, and observability; support enterprise storage and infrastructure for MySQL and other stateful platforms.
- Lead or participate in incident response, root-cause analysis, change management, problem management, and disaster recovery.
- Produce documentation and runbooks, mentor junior engineers, and work with DevOps, Network, DBA, Security, and application teams.
Required qualifications
- 8–10+ years in systems engineering, infrastructure engineering, systems administration, or a closely related role, with substantial production support experience.
- Required certifications: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and ITIL Foundation v3 or v4.
- Deep hands-on Linux administration and troubleshooting, with solid working knowledge of Windows Server.
- Strong VMware vSphere/ESXi and production Kubernetes administration and troubleshooting experience.
- Strong networking knowledge covering TCP/IP, routing, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, load balancing, and general BGP concepts.
- Strong automation skills using Python, Ansible, Bash, APIs, or comparable tools.
- Experience with on-premise/co-location infrastructure, enterprise server hardware, storage, and physical, virtual, and containerized environments.
- Working knowledge of MySQL architecture, replication/high availability, backup considerations, and operational troubleshooting.
- Able to independently troubleshoot cross-functional production issues and collaborate with specialist teams.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with Ceph, MinIO, ZFS, NFS, SAN/NAS, or other distributed and enterprise storage platforms is preferred.
- Experience with Cisco, Juniper, A10, HAProxy, or similar networking and load-balancing platforms is preferred.
- Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, Netdata, ELK, or comparable observability tools is preferred.
- Low-latency, high-throughput distributed systems; Go or other infrastructure development languages; and ServiceNow or comparable ITSM experience are preferred.
- Exposure to GPU, AI/ML, or high-performance computing infrastructure is an asset.
Compensation
- Annual salary range is $100,000–$150,000 plus bonus.
Benefits and work environment
- Benefits include insurance and health coverage, a healthcare spending account, wellness resources, meal credit on in-office days, and an in-house massage every eight weeks.
- The employer describes a flexible work environment and professional growth opportunities.
Apply for this job in 1 click
Skip the repetitive application forms
Install the Base Career Chrome Extension and autofill job applications across major job boards with your profile.
Trusted by over 500,000 job seekers on Base Career
More from this employer
More jobs at Illumin
Senior Manager Information Security & IT
Toronto, CAN
illumin is seeking a Senior Manager to lead its information security program and corporate IT function. The role requires progressive experience in both areas, including security program, risk, compliance, incident respo
Procurement Lead
Toronto, CAN
illumin is hiring a Procurement Lead to own the full procurement lifecycle across SaaS, software, technology services, hardware, and corporate vendors. The role focuses on strategic sourcing, negotiation, cost optimizati
Director, People and Culture
Toronto, CAN
Illumin is seeking a Director, People and Culture to shape people strategy during a period of growth and transformation. The role partners with senior leaders on organizational effectiveness, talent, leadership, engageme
Senior Marketing Insights and Reporting Analyst
Toronto, CAN
illumin is seeking a Senior Marketing Insights and Reporting Analyst to turn digital advertising campaign data into insights, recommendations, and reporting solutions that improve marketing decisions and campaign perform
Manager, Revenue Operations
Toronto, CAN
illumin is seeking a Manager, Revenue Operations to improve sales performance through scalable processes, systems, reporting, forecasting, and planning. The role partners with Sales, Finance, Marketing, Customer Success,
Senior Manager Information Security & IT
Toronto, CAN
Procurement Lead
Toronto, CAN
Director, People and Culture
Toronto, CAN
Senior Marketing Insights and Reporting Analyst
Toronto, CAN
Manager, Revenue Operations
Toronto, CAN