Systems Administrator (Monday to Friday, 11 AM to 8 PM EST Shift) in Fairfax, Virginia at Thrive

SHIFT: Monday to Friday 11 AM to 8 PM ET

About Us:

Thrive is a rapidly growing technology solutions provider focusing upon Cloud, Cyber Security, Networking, Disaster Recovery and Managed Services. Our corporate culture, engineering talent, customer-centric approach, and focus upon “next generation” services help us stand out amongst our peers. Thrive is on the look-out for individuals who don’t view their weekdays spent at “a job” but rather look to develop valuable skills that ignite their passion and lead to a CAREER. If you’re attracted to a “work hard, play hard” environment, seeking the guidance, training and experience necessary to build a lucrative career, then welcome to THRIVE!!

Position Overview

System Administrators provide remote support across diverse, multi-tenant environments, handling escalated incidents and complex service requests. The role involves advanced troubleshooting, implementing changes, coordinating with other teams, and serving as an escalation point for engineers within the team, while maintaining clear client communication. Thrive seeks technically proficient professionals with strong verbal and written skills, a desire to learn across all aspects of IT, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment with broad technical exposure and opportunities for growth.

Responsibilities

• Communicate with customers via phone, email, and chat in a timely, courteous, empathetic, and professional manner, providing clear updates and case status throughout the resolution process.

• Perform secondary response and advanced troubleshooting of escalated customer issues, addressing single-user and system-impacting incidents while accurately documenting all actions in Thrive’s tools.

• Analyze and document unfamiliar client server, workstation, and network environments to determine the fastest and most effective path to incident resolution.

• Support and troubleshoot diverse computing environments across a wide range of business clients.

• Perform rapid root-cause analysis of workstation-, server-, and network-level incidents, including complex and escalated issues.

• Troubleshoot and resolve high-level workstation, server, and network incidents independently, following Thrive’s standard operating procedures and best practices.

• Utilize appropriate software utilities and vendor- or application-specific tools to achieve timely resolution of customer incidents.
• Set and manage client expectations throughout the troubleshooting process, providing appropriate updates, next steps, and demonstrating the correct level of urgency.

• Communicate troubleshooting actions and resolutions clearly, using technical or non-technical language appropriate to the audience.

• Provide guidance to clients on applications, Thrive best practices, and general infrastructure standards.

• Develop, document, and help implement client standards based on Thrive best practices; evaluate client environments and identify opportunities for improvement.

• Identify recurring issues and contribute to permanent resolutions through problem management and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Review client environments for security best practices, proactively identifying risks and participating in change management activities.

• Monitor and manage escalated service tasks, ensuring proper prioritization, documentation, and escalation.

• Provide escalated support, mentoring, and technical leadership to other engineers, collaborating with team leadership to improve service delivery.

Required Qualifications

• 3–5 years in IT support/operations, including MSP or multi-tenant experience.

• Deep experience with Windows Server, Active Directory, Azure AD/Entra, Exchange/M365 admin, Intune, and SharePoint.

• Competent in networking (Layer 2/3, VLANs, DHCP/DNS, NAT, site-to-site VPNs).

• Experience with endpoint security (EDR/AV), backup/DR, patch management.

• Proficient with PowerShell scripting and automation.

• Strong incident management, change control, and documentation.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, documentation, and time-management skills.

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment.

• Availability to work after hours or participate in on-call rotations as required.

• Excellent customer service skills 

Optional Qualifications:

• Willingness to visit nearby client sites when necessary, with the understanding that on-site visits may not always be required.

Preferred Certifications

• CompTIA Network+ / A+

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator (AZ-104) or Microsoft 365 Administrator (MS-102)

• ITIL v4 Foundation (modules).