Network Engineer

Company / Department culture (why do you enjoy working for the company – selling points for potential candidates):

The South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) is dedicated to helping people live healthy lives in healthy communities.  With more than 2,500 employees in 70 offices across the State, S.C. DPH employs a diverse team who share a passion for making a difference doing rewarding work that touches people’s lives every day.

Primary responsibilities will center on leading special projects under the direction of the OIT Operations Director, with a focus on infrastructure remediation following the agency split on July 1, 2024. This role will also support the implementation of IT best practices within a collaborative team environment. Additionally, the position will work closely with program area staff to provide technical support, troubleshoot issues, generate reports, implement system enhancements, and monitor operations in alignment with established IT security policies and standards.

Candidates should be self-motivated, team-oriented, work under limited supervision, and respond to priority tasks as needed.  Candidates must also be able to form productive working relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds and at all organizational levels.

Why is this position open (new role, increased workload, new dept, resignation, promotion)?

If backfill Position – What separated the candidate, you initially selected from all the other resumes presented?

This position will assist with remediation efforts related to our recent agency split  as well as work on agency initiatives to improve and optimize the agency infrastructure environment and tools.  Working in a team environment, the position will assist with supporting Office of Information Technology projects associated with Active directory Administration, scripting and automation, PowerShell, GPO, assisting with initiatives relative to the agency infrastructure/application separation, and with getting the agency’s current server environment.

What types of staffing challenges or headaches have you experienced in the past?

• Suppliers misleading contractors on remote work
• Resumes that don’t match work experience related to the posting.
• Stated years of experience related to a technology cannot be identified on the resume.
• Contractor trying to change schedule once hired
• Contractor trying to change to remote work once hired
• suppliers not ensuring visa is valid for duration of project

Scope of the project:

DPH has recently became a new agency formed July 1^st, 2024 and inherited the original infrastructure environment from the original agency formally DHEC.  Additional remediation efforts are required to get that environment into a segmented framework, splitting shared systems and environments with the other newly formed agency that was a part of DHEC, cleanup, and transition remaining pieces to be a part of DPH environment. Due to the volume of systems, interdependencies, servers, and various locations throughout the state, additional staff is needed to support the effort.  The team will ensure systems are set up following industry best practices to ensure strategic initiatives and compliance with federal and state regulatory laws and ensure business continuity.

These positions will be a part of the team responsible for the implementation of this project.  They will also be involved with supporting the day-to-day operations of the Agency’s Server Hosting environment.

Candidates should be self-motivated, team-oriented, work under limited supervision, and respond to priority tasks as needed.

Daily Duties / Responsibilities:

Participate in a team comprised of DPH and solution implementation staff for Server Hosting related planning, designing, installation, configuration and conversion of physical and virtual server environment for conversion into a segmented framework. Will coordinate with the IT Operations Director and IT Section Manager on special projects, daily assignments, tasks and coordinate and collaborate with contract staff as well as existing DPH Enterprise Computing Services staff and other IT professionals with the Office of Information Technology.  Ensure assignments are completed accurately and on-time, assist with problem resolution, mitigate issues, provide solutions, communicate and escalate as needed to management, and report progress to manager.  

Will advise Staff on hardware configurations and implementations, work with vendor and staff on deliverables, troubleshooting and conversion of current environment to segmented framework. 

The position will be utilized for 40 hours per week for the duration of this project. The selected candidate should be able to work flexible hours where it may be necessary for work to be completed outside traditional business hours.

The candidate will work closely with the Director of IT Operations and Section Manager to identify, prioritize, and schedule workload and implementation to IT standards and procedures.  The candidate will work closely with customer and subject matter experts for the system design, migration to the new framework, and testing. 

This will also include compliance to DPH security policy/procedures as well as integrating systems when possible, to streamline staff workflows, user security, and data correction.

Specific duties and responsibilities will include but not limited to the following:

• Administer and support on-premises Active Directory and Azure Active Directory, including integration and synchronization of hybrid environments.
• Assist with review, cleanup, and redesign of Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to enforce security settings and standardized configurations enterprise-wide.
• Troubleshoot GPO-related issues to ensure proper policy application and performance.
• Develop and maintain PowerShell scripts and other automation tools to streamline and standardize administrative tasks.
• Perform user, group, and permissions management, including access control and role-based security enforcement.
• Monitor Active Directory health and replication, proactively identifying and resolving directory service issues.
• Assist with cleanup of stale or inactive user and computer objects to maintain directory integrity.
• Ensure systems align with organizational IT security policies and adhere to industry standards such as CIS and NIST.
• Implement and monitor access controls, security baselines, and audit logs for compliance and risk management.
• Collaborate closely with Cybersecurity teams to address vulnerabilities, respond to incidents, and improve overall security posture.
• Work with network, server, and help desk teams to support cross-functional infrastructure needs and initiatives.
• Provide Tier 3 escalation support for complex technical issues affecting identity, access, or authentication.
• Participate in and support infrastructure projects, migrations, and upgrades, including cloud integration and modernization initiatives.
• Demonstrate the ability to work independently with limited supervision, providing clear technical documentation and forward-looking roadmaps for system enhancements and lifecycle planning.

Module support of the project.

• DPH will require that selected personnel sign the DPH confidentially agreement and/or Business Associate (BA) agreement if applicable. All web services must be secure.
• DPH will not accept any offers including an “up-lift” charge.  The rate paid per consultant must not exceed the maximum rate established for this position described in the State contract terms.
• Contractors must be onsite during each week throughout the term of the contract.
• Follow agency IT Standards, policies, and procedures to include documentation.
• All source code (compiled and un-compiled) will become the sole property of the South Carolina Department of Public Health. Any source code, data, product, or functionality resulting from this SOW or previously owned/developed by DPH will remain the sole property of DPH and is not to be incorporated into the core product of any vendor's application.  Any modifications and interfaces developed under said contract will not be used by the contractor for any independent project of the contractor or published or publicized by the contractor without written permission of DPH.
• DPH has the final say on all programming choices.

Payment Schedule:

All timesheets shall be entered and approved in a timely manner per State contract terms. The State will not pay any extra costs (i.e. Travel, employee benefits, insurance, room and board, etc.) for temporary employees under this contract.

DPH Support:

DPH will provide:

• All required information including formulas, data, and mechanisms to check output.

• Staff to assist with any application or data questions.
• Conference rooms and scheduling for any application demos.
• Workstation and required software.

Required Skills (rank in order of Importance):

1. Experience with Windows Server administration and support with 3-5 years exp.
2. Strong proficiency in Group Policy (GPO) and PowerShell scripting with 3-5 years exp.
3. Hands-on experience with Microsoft Active Directory (on-prem and Azure AD) with 3-5 years exp.
4. Experience with Citrix Presentation Server or XenApp environments.
5. Experience with enterprise backup and disaster recovery (DR) processes.
6. Advanced knowledge of computer and network hardware, software, and operating systems.
7. Experience with security and data classification standards (CDC, HIPAA, CJIS).
8. Experience designing and implementing enterprise-level system architectures.
9. Advanced knowledge of IT system analysis, design, testing, and maintenance techniques.

Preferred Skills (rank in order of Importance):

1. Experience with hosted virtual environments and foundational knowledge of Azure virtualization and resource management within a cloud tenant.
2. Experience with Microsoft Intune and Quest KACE for endpoint management, software deployment, and compliance reporting.
3. Experience with Linux Server
4. Strong critical thinking and problem-resolution skills.
5. General understanding of Hitachi Storage (HNAS/HDI) or similar enterprise SAN/NAS environments.
6. Experience with security and data classification standards related to CDC, HIPAA, and CJIS compliance.
7. Ability to establish and maintain positive working relationships with technical teams, customers, and stakeholders.
8. Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.
9. Ability to align technical solutions with agency goals and objectives and support project delivery.
10. Familiarity with AI-driven automation and predictive analytics for infrastructure optimization and future cloud initiatives.
11. CCNA