System Administrator

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a top-ranked creative and performing arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was founded in 1963 as America’s first public arts conservatory. UNCSA provides gifted emerging artists with the experience, knowledge, and skills needed to excel in their disciplines and in their lives, and it serves and enriches the cultural and economic prosperity of the people of North Carolina and the nation. UNCSA is the state’s unique professional school for the performing, visual, and moving image arts, training students at the high school, undergraduate, and master’s levels for professional careers in the arts.

UNCSA Information Technologies (IT) department’s mission is to lead, serve, and support the school as it embraces and encourages integration of information technology in all aspects of campus life where it is appropriate and in alignment with UNCSA’s mission. UNCSA’s IT department is responsible for centralized IT management.

The Enterprise Systems and Applications group exists within the UNCSA IT department and consists of two teams: Enterprise Systems and Enterprise Applications. The Enterprise Systems team is responsible for administering servers, storage, cloud infrastructure, enterprise-level software systems and services, and mobile device management (MDM) for the University. The Enterprise Applications team is responsible for enterprise-level applications, enterprise-level system integrations, and custom software development.

This position reports to the Director of Enterprise Systems and Applications. This position receives day-to-day technical guidance, instruction, and work assignments from the Senior System Administrator. The System Administrator will be expected to work outside normal business hours on occasion. The Enterprise Systems and Applications group regularly works on complex, cross-departmental projects involving multiple platforms. This group consists of staff members who are responsible for the planning, development, implementation, maintenance, and documentation of various systems and applications. Primary Description of Work The System Administrator is part of the Enterprise Systems team within the UNCSA Information Technology department. This position reports to the Director of Enterprise Systems and Applications. This position receives day-to-day technical guidance, instruction, and work assignments from the Senior System Administrator. The System Administrator will be expected to work outside normal business hours on occasion. The System Administrator works closely with the Senior System Administrator to maintain enterprise systems and collaborates with the Client Services team to develop processes and improve service delivery across the campus. Work Schedule and hours Monday-Friday 8am - 5pm and other hours as necessary Description of Responsibilities and Duties Remote Device Management The System Administrator administers and maintains the mobile device management (MDM) systems as well as using the MDMs for the deployment of configurations, software, and updates to client devices. The MDM used by UNCSA for the PC platform is currently Microsoft Intune with PatchMyPC. The MDM used by UNCSA for the Apple platform is currently Jamf Pro. The System Administrator should demonstrate technical understanding of the hardware, software, and processes involved in endpoint administration and maintenance, as well as training in those systems.

The System Administrator is responsible for:

• Planning for the release of new operating system versions, new MDM versions, and other new technologies on the platforms; collaborating with the team to anticipate upcoming technology changes in the supported platforms; researching new technology; and communicating such with members of the IT department.
• Liaising with vendors, UNCSA IT team, other UNCSA employees, University of North Carolina Systems Office (UNCSO), and other external mobile device management (MDM) systems administrators to assist in resolving problems with the MDMs.
• Thoroughly testing MDM processes; notifying IT team of maintenance, downtime, bugs, new features, and application failures; reporting potential issues and/or concerns, investigating those issues and/or concerns, explaining their impacts, and taking corrective action on issues and/or concerns when necessary; and reporting any failures with the processes, investigating the causes of those failures, and explaining the causes of those failures.
• Assisting in device enrollment as necessary and verifying that devices are enrolled correctly.
• Deploying software and configuration changes to endpoints via MDMs for the purpose of installing software, upgrading software, applying patches, applying configuration changes, remediating security vulnerabilities, and other purposes; all within the defined schedule of deployments as applicable. This position will implement requests regarding configuration deployment and/or software deployment from the Security Analyst(s) and will take directions on these responsibilities from the Senior System Administrator and the Director of Enterprise Systems and Applications.
• Thoroughly testing the deployment of configurations and software to devices using the MDMs; notifying the Director of Enterprise Systems and Applications and the Security Analyst(s) of software deployment progress and software deployment failures; reporting potential issues and/or concerns, investigating those issues and/or concerns, explaining their impacts, and taking corrective action on issues and/or concerns when necessary; and reporting any failures with deployment, investigating the causes of those failures, and explaining the causes of those failures.
• Generating reports from the MDMs and the endpoint protection application (CrowdStrike); developing metrics from the MDMs and CrowdStrike to track the success of the MDMs; and using that data to analyze issues with devices and their remote management through the MDMs.
• Documenting processes, systems, and technical issues.
• Developing scripts to enhance the processes of the MDMs.

System Administration The System Administrator is responsible for:

• Administering campus enterprise applications assigned, including but not limited to Azure/Entra, Microsoft 365, and Exchange Online.
• Planning, installing, configuring, maintaining, monitoring, and testing server hardware (both physical and virtual) and software from specifications for new and modified systems.
• Maintaining Windows Server infrastructure and Active Directory for the university and departmental subdomains including account setup and maintenance.
• Maintaining Linux Server infrastructure for the university and departmental subdomains including account setup and maintenance.
• Creating backups and safeguarding enterprise system data.
• Working with IT management and our IT Security team to implement, maintain and monitor systems according to established Information Technology security standards.
• Coordinating with the Networking team to provide DHCP and DNS services to the campus users and applications.
• Analyzing usage, analyzing systems load issues, and optimizing performance.
• Interacting with customers, technicians, analysts, and specialists to troubleshoot problems related to the use of single and/or multiple information systems.
• Working on projects with 3rd party vendors and UNCSA departments.
• Providing technical consultation on minor or moderately complex system problems. This position requires a significant ability to manage multiple competing objectives and to communicate complex technical information in understandable terms to university management and end user personnel.
• Writing detailed, professional, clear, concise, and complete communications and systems documentation.
• Conducting research into administrative system issues and products as required.

Other Duties as Assigned This position will work closely with internal customers and team members daily. The System Administrator may be expected to attend vendor conferences and meetings with representatives of UNCSA departments, other universities, and UNCSO. This position may be expected to assist the computer technicians with their direct support of university-approved endpoints on occasion.

Entry-level with Masters; Bachelors and 0-2 yrs experience; or equivalent education/experience., * MSCE or other related certification preferred.

• Experience with CrowdStrike, Microsoft Intune, and Jamf Pro.
• Familiarity with Linux, HP Servers/Storage, and virtualized server management such as VMWare.
• Programming concepts and scripting experience. Experience and knowledge of automation tools and basic scripting techniques applicable to the administered systems such as PowerShell.
• Web Server; IIS, Apache, NginX, Java Tomcat, etc…
• Experience managing file servers.

• SSL certificate management and renewal. Terms of Employment P1 PrsnlLv EHRA 17.33 12 Month Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• MDM management.
• Experience installing and maintaining computer hardware (server or desktop).
• Demonstrates functional understanding and administrative experience of system platforms including but not limited to Windows Server 2016 to 2025; as well as Active Directory, Microsoft 365, Exchange, cloud infrastructure (Microsoft Entra preferred), and Remote Desktop/SSH.
• Knowledge of networking concepts including DNS, DHCP, and firewalls.
• Knowledge of standards and procedures for system operations, security, storage management, system recovery, and user permissions.
• Ability to collect usage and runtime data from performance tools and history reports. Ability to analyze, report on, and make recommendations for system performance.
• Ability to resolve problems through systems analysis and troubleshooting procedures independently. Willing to research and troubleshoot issues independently and synthesize information independently from a variety of resources to produce a working resolution.
• Ability to interact professionally and effectively with clients, technicians, analysts, specialists, and vendors. Troubleshoots with team members on problems related to the use of single and/or multiple information systems. Participate in formal or informal group problem-solving for immediate issues. Consults staff and management on moderately complex server-based applications and services in assessments and fulfillment of client needs.
• Ability to reorganize work assignments and adapt workload to unanticipated changes.
• Ability to determine operational schedule and provide input into plans for updates and enhancements that will not interrupt system usage.
• Must be capable of executing project plans of limited complexity, scheduling work, and requesting assistance as needed to complete the project.
• Ability to develop projects such as systems or software upgrades and incorporate appropriate IT and user staff. Ability to solicit input from non-technical clients and from technical staff to translate those inputs into a realistic action plan including tasks, required resources, milestones, and reporting mechanisms. This includes the effective planning and time management of tasks, contribution to a team effort, and/or may involve occasional project management for projects of moderate scope, or for components of a larger scale/multifaceted project led by others.
• Ability to assess risk and apply risk mitigation strategies as appropriate.
• Ability to assess the impact of new technologies on current systems.
• Ability to formulate verbal or written reports describing the reported problems or issues, their resolution and the impact, if any, of the resolution to the reporting agencies. Ability to develop policies and documentation to comply with auditor requirements.

Posting Number Open Date 09/03/2026 Close Date Open Until Filled No Salary Range Commensurate with education and experience Recruitment Range, if applicable Special Instructions to Applicants This is an Exempt Professional Staff (EPS) position. The application must be completed in full detail (including work history) for your qualifications to be considered. Failure to complete the application process as required by state regulations will result in your application being rejected for the vacancy, and you will not be considered for the position. The UNCSA participates in E-Verify. Federal law requires all employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States. Final candidates are subject to criminal background checks.