System Engineer, Sr.

Aaron's has a long legacy as an industry leader, with continued growth regardless of the economy. In business since 1955, we have grown to over 2,000 stores across North America built on a foundation of excellence, customer focus, quality products and services. Personally and professionally, we hold ourselves to high standards and an unwavering commitment to do what's right; treating every individual with respect, compassion and integrity. We are highly invested in the communities we serve through our community outreach programs, donating time, products and services locally and nationally. As a potential Aaron's Associate, you'll share our purpose and passion for making a real difference in the lives of others and the rewards that come from creating strong personal connections for life. You'll be a contributing team member in an environment that embraces challenge and has a strong drive to achieve. We like to set the bar high, roll up our sleeves and work together to out-perform the competition. You'll have an opportunity to work in an environment which prides itself on recognizing and rewarding top performers. As a key member of the Information Technology Infrastructure team, the Sr. Systems Engineer is responsible for designing hardware solutions for both the Home Office and stores. This role also has responsibility for advanced support of applications and infrastructure, and is key in making and providing solutions to technical problems. This fast paced position requires direct contact with internal business customers along with external IT vendors. The ideal candidate should have experience adapting to rapidly changing environments and developing/documenting IT operational procedures, documentation, and related operations framework. Candidates will be considered based their ability to demonstrate broad knowledge of storage, networking, server virtualization, monitoring and automation, application delivery, capacity management, troubleshooting and advanced root cause identification/repair skills. Ideal candidates could be a software engineer with a strong Windows background with large enterprise experience. Duties Primary responsibilities of this position are related to the analysis of transition planning, information requirements and develop architecture baselines in the IT infrastructure space. This includes all store and Home Office infrastructure including all network, compute and storage hardware. The activities that this individual will be involved in will include: - Leads development of integration, migration plans/schedules for hardware infrastructure solutions. - Provides research and assistance with implementation of business policies. - Leads business process improvements or systems analysis for systems and fiscal requirements. - Exercises judgment within broadly defined practices and policies in selecting methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining results. - Frequently interacts with internal customers and functional peer groups. - Responsible for defining Aaron's IT infrastructure architecture for Home Office and stores and ensuring that these architecture standards are adhered to - Provides interface for strategy and direction with technology providers - Evaluates emerging technologies and standards for impact on Aaron's IT infrastructure - Plans and executes hardware platform changes with minimal disruption in service - Performs technology benchmarking - Defines corporate level Infrastructure roadmap documentation and provides input on their upkeep - Scripting using Powershell, VBScript, and Batch. - Maintain server lease schedule and/or maintenance contracts. - Provide input into the development of and maintenance of virtual infrastructure. - Provide input into the development of and maintenance of compute, network, backup and storage infrastructure. Position Requirements - Excellent verbal and written communication skills - Demonstrable previous Engineering background (multi discipline) at a Sr. decision making level - A team player - Strong problem solving and analytical skills - Multi-vendor hardware and software experience - Strong vendor relationship, procurement, asset management skills - Project management skills - Primary expertise related to Microsoft technologies; however experience across the infrastructure stack to include server, software, networking, tools are also expected - Previous engineering experiences completing logical and physical designs to meet the technical needs to solve a business requirements. - Experience working in large VMware environments - Extensive knowledge of Microsoft operating systems including Windows Server 2008, 2008R2 and Windows 2012 - Knowledge of Microsoft Active Directory server roles, authentication integration. - Familiar with milestones, measuring risks, completing cost estimates and operational design documents. - Experienced completing Visio logical and physical design documents. - Experience with small/medium enterprise and their consumption of IT applications - Working knowledge of automation, monitoring, build/provisioning processes, workload automation and virtualization capacity management concepts. - Knowledge of general project management practices, SDLC, release management processes, change control, CMDB - ITIL Foundations experience a plus - System security best practices - Ability to diagnose and resolve complex communication problems - 10+ years' experience with hardware and software installation and maintenance, in a PC/LAN-WAN environment - Technical certifications a plus At Aaron's, you will have access to a comprehensive benefits package that includes: - Paid time off including vacation days, sick days and holidays - Ongoing training and development - Medical, dental & vision insurance - 401(k) plan - Life insurance - Disability benefits - Employee Purchase Discounts A drug screen and criminal background investigation are required before beginning employment at Aaron's. A job performance reference check is also required. Aaron's is an Equal Opportunity Employer