IT SRE / System Administrator

About Forterra

Forterra is a leading provider of autonomous systems for ground-based movement in the working world. Amongst some of the earliest innovators in the field of driverless technology, Forterra is focused on building systems that protect front-line soldiers and enable civilian workers in our industrial base. Forterra is the go-to provider of ground autonomy solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense, which harnesses the technology for asymmetric warfare in critical conditions.

About the role

We’re looking for an IT professional to operate in our newly launched Arlington office of business development and software engineering professionals. You’ll be the go-to expert for everything IT-related. This is a hybrid role combining Site Reliability Engineering, System Administration, and a small amount of Tier 1 support (primarily AV and misc. onsite user issues). This is not a help desk role - you’ll be working with a team of IT professionals, but you will be the first IT representative in the office.

You’ll play a key role with high impact, delivering reliability and connectivity in a high-performance environment.

What you'll do

Tier 1 (Minimal but Critical) 

• Be the trusted hands-on expert and friendly face when customer-facing AV or conferencing issues arise. 
• Handle local IT onboarding and resolve high-priority user issues with speed and professionalism. 
• Serve as a liaison between users and corporate IT teams — translating need into action. 

Systems & Infrastructure 

• Manage, and optimize local infrastructure, including physical and virtual servers (Proxmox experience a plus). 
• Deploy and manage internal services with a bias toward infrastructure as code, observability, and automation. 
• Ensure secure, scalable, and resilient systems - from authentication to backups. 

Networking & Connectivity 

• Design, implement, and maintain robust networking for office, lab, and meeting spaces. 
• Monitor and troubleshoot LAN/WAN performance, VPN access, and secure remote connectivity. 

SRE 

• Implement tooling, automation, and observability to support production and development environments. 
• Participate in uptime and performance improvement initiatives for internal and cloud-based systems. 
• Champion CI/CD, config management, and proactive alerting/monitoring where it makes sense. 

Qualifications

• Clear and concise communicator, not shy to show initiative. 
• Excellent working knowledge of computer systems, security, network and systems administration, databases and data storage systems. 
• Experience with our tech stack – Palo Alto, Juniper, Proxmox, Ansible, Terraform, Datadog, PowerShell, Git, Linux and Windows Server. 
• Firm grasp on IT infrastructure and operations best practices 
• Proactive, self-directed, and comfortable being the face of IT in the office. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills — approachable, reliable, and calm under pressure. 
• Demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others. 
• Demonstrated ability to create innovative solutions that create exceptional collaborative environments. 

Preferred Qualifications

• M365 GCC High experience 
• NIST800-171 / CMMC experience 
• Experience in a start-up or similar fast-paced environment 

Education & Experience

• 3+ years of experience in IT 
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field or equivalent experience. 
• CompTIA Network+ or similar networking certifications.

US Salary Range
 $120,000—$150,000 / annually