Systems Engineer

Posting date: January 07, 2026

002095SR

Job Details

1. Job Type
   Full-time
2. Location
   Boston
3. School/Unit
   Harvard Medical School
4. Salary Grade
   057
5. Job Function
   Information Technology
6. FLSA Status
   Exempt
7. Term Appointment
   No
8. Union
   00 - Non Union, Exempt or Temporary

Company Description

By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds skills and expertise. We are dedicated to creating a diverse and welcoming environment where everyone can thrive.

Why join Harvard Medical School?

Harvard Medical School's mission is to nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through excellence in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and leadership.

You’ll be at the heart of biomedical discovery, education, and innovation, working alongside world-renowned faculty and a community dedicated to improving human health. This is more than a job - it’s an opportunity to shape the future of medicine.

Job Description

The Systems Engineer is tasked with building modern, reusable, platform agnostic systems and configurations, using up-to-date best practices and technologies such as policy-driven provisioning of virtualized, containerized services, fully automated/CI driven system configuration, portable environment designs, reporting, monitoring and trend analysis. This position has a strong focus on portable configuration and design to enable functionality across on-prem, cloud and virtualized environments. Additional job responsibilities include but are not limited to large-scale system automation reusable across University departments, investigating, evaluating, and leveraging the latest DevOps technologies as needed to meet shifting research priorities, to support the school and University mission.

This position has a focus on introducing technologies that serve as a stable backbone of future services of benefit to the Harvard Medical School community and their collaborators. This role will act as a subject matter expert for HMS researchers and faculty, and is expected to stay current with the latest industry standards and technology. The Systems Engineer plays a major role in modernizing and maintaining existing systems.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Implement and support technical solutions to deliver business requirements.
• Identify and evaluate opportunities to improve services.
• Contribute ideas to coding best practices and new technologies.
• Evaluate third party hosted and public cloud-based service offerings (compute, storage, application, orchestration, etc) that may support or enhance research and business goals.
• Work with the Platform Engineering team to analyze existing systems and related data to support initiatives and ongoing system implementations, utilizing a feedback loop to drive Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).
• Work closely with other team members and departments to evaluate new system needs and data sources for adherence to the School’s security and privacy policies.
• In conjunction with principal users and data owners, participate in decision-making about system design and implementation.
• Work to ensure existing and new systems provide interoperability with internal and university wide systems and groups.
• Draw on relationship and technical skills to act as technical liaison to internal and external clients.
• Abide by and follow the Harvard University IT technical standards, policies and Code of Conduct.
• Other duties as assigned.

Working Conditions:

Work is performed in an office setting.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of two years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience.

Additional Qualifications and Skills:

• Two years of experience in the fields of system administration, DevOps and/or cybersecurity is desirable.
• Experience in Bash and at least one additional language (java, C, Python, Perl, Ruby, Go, etc.).
• Experience with *NIX/Linux system administration (Red Hat/Debian variants).
• Automation and configuration management (puppet/ansible).
• Basic understanding of cloud architectures, tooling, and implementations; Source management (git/mercurial/svn).
• Experience with public cloud (Azure, AWS) management and automation.
• Experience evaluating and deploying open-source tools, hardware and conceptual knowledge of storage, network, and servers.
• System monitoring and configuration (zabbix/nagios/ganglia/sensu).
• Experience with centralized storage solutions (EMC / Isilon).
• General Networking skills (Layer 2 & 3 switching and routing, TCP/IP, etc).
• Protected data, HIPAA, Health Information Privacy experience or equivalent preferred.
• Demonstrated team performance skills, service mindset approach, and the ability to act as a trusted advisor.

Certificates and Licenses:

• Completion of Harvard IT Academy specified foundational courses (or external equivalent) preferred.

Additional Information

• Standard Hours/Schedule: 35 hrs. per week | Monday - Friday | 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
• Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position.
• Pre-Employment Screening: Identity, Criminal
• Other Information: Please note that we are currently conducting a majority of interviews and onboarding remotely and virtually. We appreciate your understanding.
• Staying Informed About Your Application: Due to the high volume of applications, we may not always be able to reach out right away, but you can track your status anytime through the Careers@Harvard portal.

Work Format Details

This position has been determined by school or unit leaders that some of the duties and responsibilities can be effectively performed at a non-Harvard location. The work schedule and location will be set by the department at its discretion and based upon operational needs. When not working at a Harvard or Harvard-designated location, employees in hybrid positions must work in a Harvard registered state in compliance with the University’s Policy on Employment Outside of Massachusetts. Additional details will be discussed during the interview process. Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment.

Salary Grade and Ranges

This position is salary grade level 057. Please visit Harvard's Salary Ranges to view the corresponding salary range and related information.

Benefits

Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Because here, you are what matters. Our benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Generous paid time off including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Support for families and caregivers
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks

Learn more about these and additional benefits on our Benefits & Wellbeing Page.