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Role Overview: We are looking for a hands-on Systems Administrator specializing in Backup & Recovery to take full ownership of a complex, multi-tenant backup environment. You will be responsible for the health, performance, security, and capacity of backups across our private VMware cloud, AWS infrastructure, remote DR sites, and Microsoft 365 tenants. Role basics  Job title: System Administrator – Backup & Recovery  Minimum 3 years focused specifically on backup administration in a production environment  The go-to expert for all backup-related decisions — no senior backup specialist above this role  Experience in an MSP or multi-client enterprise environment is preferred Key Responsibilities  Ensuring the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule is maintained and enforced across all platforms and clients  Proactive monitoring and troubleshooting of backup jobs across a high-density environment including virtual machines and MS SQL servers  Performing and validating restore operations: full VM, instant recovery, item-level, SQL point-in-time, Kubernetes workloads  Conducting regular recovery drills and maintaining RPO/RTO compliance per client SLA  Repository capacity planning: sizing, growth forecasting, and expansion decisions across local, remote, and cloud tiers  Managing backup infrastructure lifecycle: version updates, scaling, storage provisioning, configuration changes  Managing remote repository sites: monitoring hardware health, coordinating maintenance, tracking disk capacity and lifecycle (servers and storage at remote sites used exclusively for backup are within this role ownership)  Planning and owning the rollout of Microsoft 365 backup across client tenants  Acting as the final point of authority for all backup-related technical decisions  Maintaining up-to-date runbooks, architecture documentation, and change logs Must-have technical skills Veeam Backup & Replication  3+ years hands-on in production environments with 200+ protected objects  Scale-Out Backup Repository (SOBR): configuration, performance/capacity/archive tiering, offload policies  Proxy server management: placement, transport mode selection (Direct SAN, Hot-Add, NBD), concurrent task tuning  Multi-site backup copy jobs and replication over WAN: seeding, bandwidth throttling, health checks  Windows repositories with ReFS (block cloning, fast synthetic fulls)  Linux hardened repositories with XFS (immutability, ransomware protection)  AWS S3 as SOBR capacity/archive tier; S3 Object Lock  Veeam Backup for AWS (EC2, RDS, and native AWS workloads)  Veeam Data Cloud: configuration and integration as an offsite/cloud backup target  PowerShell / Bash scripting for backup automation (basic to intermediate level acceptable) VMware / vSphere  Understanding of VADP and how Veeam integrates with vSphere transport modes (Hot-Add, Direct Storage Access, NBD)  vApps: backup and restore of multi-VM application containers  Changed Block Tracking (CBT): how it works, what breaks it, how to reset and rescan  VM snapshot behavior and performance implications during backup  Storage vMotion impact on backup jobs Windows Server  Disk and storage management, ReFS filesystem  Windows backup agents, services management Linux Server  CLI proficiency, XFS and LVM management  Veeam Linux agent, hardened repository configuration MS SQL Server backup  VSS-aware image-level backup and application-aware processing  Transaction log backup, log chain management, truncation options and risks  AlwaysOn Availability Groups: replica targeting, backup preference configuration, VSS behavior across replicas  Backup strategy for high write-load databases (snapshot growth, VSS timeout mitigation) Public Cloud — AWS  Hands-on experience protecting AWS resources: EC2 instances using Veeam Backup for AWS  Understanding of AWS RDS backup: Veeam for AWS where applicable, native AWS backup tools where not  Familiarity with AWS S3 storage classes (Standard, IA, Glacier) in the context of backup tiering Microsoft 365  Understanding of backup approaches for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams, and Power BI  Familiarity with at least one M365 backup solution (Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 or equivalent) Storage — general literacy  Understanding of storage hardware fundamentals: disk types (HDD, SSD, NVMe), RAID levels, capacity planning  Capable of selecting and sizing a new storage system for backup repositories and understanding integration with existing infrastructure (currently Dell-based)  Note: day-to-day storage administration is handled by a dedicated infrastructure team; this role requires decision-making literacy, not full storage administration Networking basics  Solid understanding of networking as it relates to backup traffic: ports, protocols, dedicated management/backup network segments  WAN replication, bandwidth scheduling, firewall rules for backup traffic flows Nice-to-have  Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE) certification  Veeam ONE (monitoring and reporting)  Veeam Service Provider Console (VSPC)  VMware vCloud Director  Dell/HPE Storage Systems — hands-on familiarity  Kubernetes backup experience — Kasten K10 or similar (we operate Kubernetes clusters and use Kasten)  Ransomware-resilient backup architecture: 3-2-1-1-0 rule, immutable storage design, air-gapped copies Personal attributes  Ownership mentality — comfortable being the final decision-maker in their domain  Methodical troubleshooter: resolves root causes, not just symptoms  Proactive operator: catches problems through monitoring before they breach SLAs  Strong drive to learn and expand expertise — more important than years of experience  Strong documentation discipline — runbooks, diagrams, and change logs kept current as part of the workflow  Calm and structured under pressure during production incidents  Clear communicator with clients and cross-functional team members  Comfortable managing backup for multiple clients simultaneously with different SLAs