Backup Infrastructure & Operations Engineer at Princeton University – Princeton, New Jersey

Department Enterprise Infrastr Services
Category Information Technology
Job Type Full-Time

Overview

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) empowers Princeton University’s mission of advancing learning through world-class scholarships, research, and teaching. Within OIT, Enterprise Infrastructure Services (EIS) designs, builds, and operates campus and cloud-based IT that supports the University’s academic and administrative goals.

The Enterprise Infrastructure Services team is expanding infrastructure capabilities with a focus on DR/BC orchestration and hybrid cloud resilience. Current efforts will focus on consolidation of backup platforms, adoption of hybrid cloud virtualization platforms, and improvements to DR/BC workflows of evolving RTO/RPO targets. Success in these areas will directly enhance EIS’ ability to meet business continuity goals and define and deliver best-in-class data protection strategy.

The Infrastructure Operations Engineer reports to the Senior Manager of Infrastructure Operations and plays a critical role in ensuring secure, reliable infrastructure for Princeton University’s academic and administrative operations. As part of the Infrastructure Operations team, this position provides first line of support for enterprise systems with key responsibilities focusing on:

• Backup Management: Oversee and maintain centralized backup solutions for Windows and Linux environments across on-premises and cloud platforms.
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Administration: Develop, continually refine and periodically test DR/BC plans with Infrastructure teams and Service Owners to ensure the Universities' diverse business needs are met.
• Infrastructure Engineering: Design, implement, test and sustain secure, high-performance server and virtualization infrastructure to ensure reliable service delivery.

Operational Support: Execute daily operational tasks and provide on-call coverage, including after-hours support, to maintain system availability and performance.

This is a hybrid position.

Responsibilities

Operations

• Manage and maintain enterprise backup platforms to protect the University’s data across virtual servers, physical servers, and NAS arrays.
• Monitor and manage daily backup operations, including scheduling, job success verification, onboarding new clients, performing restores, and troubleshooting failures.
• Support Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) operations, including restore testing and scenario-based recovery to meet RTO/RPO objectives.
• Maintain backup infrastructure components, ensuring software updates and security compliance.
• Perform daily management and monitoring of virtualization platforms, Windows servers, Linux systems, and hybrid environments.
• Ensure compliance with IT governance processes, including asset, change, incident, and problem management.
• When provided access to data classified as University "Restricted," "Confidential," "Internal to Princeton," or that is personal, proprietary, or otherwise considered sensitive/confidential, maintain such data in the strictest confidence, following standard procedures to ensure privacy, security, and proper use of data, in accordance with the Information Security Policy.
• Participate in on-call rotation to support the University’s server and storage infrastructure.

Engineering

• Collaborate with OIT groups and departmental staff to design and maintain resilient, secure backup infrastructure.
• Monitor and optimize scalability, performance, and data integrity of backup recovery solutions.
• Administer on-prem VMWare and Azure Infrastructure, including virtual servers VMware or Hyper-V based clusters.
• Oversee the monitoring and maintenance of compute infrastructure, including installation, configuration, and patching.
• Develop automation scripts to streamline system operations and improve efficiency.
• Create and execute testing and implementation plans for new or upgraded backup platforms.
• Establish and refine backup and restore policies for compliance and efficiency.
• Participate in special projects and assignments as required.

Professional Development

• Stay current with emerging technologies and evaluate new products for adoption.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer by developing and delivering training sessions on backup and recovery best practices.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in enterprise backup engineering and virtualization management
• Strong expertise in enterprise backup platforms (e.g., Veeam, Cohesity, Rubrik).
• Proven experience as a Backup Engineer, protecting virtual machines, physical servers, and large NAS clusters.
• Managing and supporting enterprise hypervisor environments (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V).
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in hybrid environments (AWS, Azure).

• Experience with automation and scripting for operational efficiency

• Ability to work independently and lead small project teams.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills for engaging diverse stakeholders.
• Commitment to high-quality customer service.
• Flexibility to work off-hours and weekends as part of an on-call rotation.
• Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional work experience

Preferred

• Broad operational knowledge (systems administration, application management, network infrastructure, and data center operations)
• Familiarity with DevOps principles and tools

Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's qualifications, work experience, education/training, key skills, market, collective bargaining agreements as applicable, and organizational considerations when extending an offer. The posted salary range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate for a full-time position; salaries for part-time positions are pro-rated accordingly.

If the salary range on the posted position shows an hourly rate, this is the baseline; the actual hourly rate may be higher, depending on the position and factors listed above.

The University also offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees. Please see this link for more information.

Standard Weekly Hours
36.25

Eligible for Overtime
No

Benefits Eligible
Yes

Probationary Period
180 days

Essential Services Personnel (see policy for detail)
No

Physical Capacity Exam Required
No

Valid Drivers License Required
No

Experience Level
Mid-Senior Level

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Salary Range
$111,000 to $126,000