Why AIS?

When you join AIS, you’re joining a mission-driven team that’s passionate about making a difference. You’ll work on projects that matter, alongside industry-leading experts, in an environment that fosters innovation, driving client success, and empowering our team to make a lasting impact. As an employee-owned company, we value collaboration, inclusivity, continuous growth, and shared success.

• Employee Ownership: Your contributions directly impact the company’s success, and you share in its achievements.

• Continuous Learning: Access to resources, training, and mentorship to support your professional growth.

• Inclusive Culture: A workplace where diversity is celebrated, and everyone’s voice is valued.

• Mission-Driven Work: Engage in projects that make a meaningful difference for our clients and communities.

What are we looking for?

At AIS, we're looking for more than just skills - we're looking for driven individuals who are passionate about making a difference, eager to grow, and aligned with our core principles.

What you will be doing?

This position is contingent upon contract award. We are currently pursuing a proposal and are seeking qualified candidates to include in our submission and identify candidates for future hiring needs on the program once awarded.

• Core Knowledge & Skills: Aligns infrastructure strategy to business goals, leads large projects, applies compliance frameworks, designs high availability/disaster recovery and performance optimization patterns, and shapes deployment pipeline design.

• Work & Complexity: Directs cross-team programs, performs advanced tuning, implements high availability/failover architectures, leads audits, plans growth, and manages budgets.

• Quality & Independence: Delivers high-quality outcomes, sets team standards, introduces innovative solutions, and makes high-impact decisions.

• Teamwork & Communication: Leads the engineering team, develops talent, resolves conflicts, and communicates effectively with senior leadership and stakeholders.

• Consulting & Engagement: Provides high-level consulting to leadership, builds roadmaps, negotiates vendor contracts, and sponsors innovation initiatives.

Project Summary

AIS is currently bidding on a federal contract aimed at consolidating a hybrid environment to the cloud. This is a proposal effort, with the work expected to start in mid-to-late September. This position requires an Active Public Trust clearance (or higher), adjudicated within the last 5 years.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Exchange and Exchange Online architecture and administration — Design, implement, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot Microsoft Exchange Server and Exchange Online environments, ensuring reliable, secure, and highly available messaging services.

• Lead the migration from on-premises/hybrid Exchange to Exchange Online — Develop and execute migration strategies, including assessment, planning, coexistence, mailbox migration, cutover activities, validation, and post-migration optimization.

• Serve as the technical SME for email security — Design, implement, test, document, and maintain security controls for Exchange and Exchange Online, including hardening, access controls, mail flow security, and protection against email-based threats.

• Manage Exchange high availability, backup, and disaster recovery — Develop and maintain solutions for Exchange availability, backup, recovery, business continuity, and disaster recovery; participate in recovery testing and ensure messaging services meet organizational resiliency requirements.

• Optimize and troubleshoot messaging infrastructure — Monitor Exchange and Exchange Online performance, identify and resolve complex messaging, mail flow, connectivity, authentication, and configuration issues, and implement tuning and optimization strategies.

• Administer supporting Windows and Active Directory infrastructure — Manage and troubleshoot Windows Server and Active Directory components supporting Exchange, including Exchange-related AD attributes, DNS, TCP/IP, VLANs, subnetting, and other network dependencies.

• Develop PowerShell automation and operational tooling — Create and maintain PowerShell scripts to automate Exchange administration, mailbox management, reporting, configuration, security controls, monitoring, and migration activities.

• Document and standardize email infrastructure operations — Develop and maintain architecture documentation, configuration standards, security procedures, migration plans, operational procedures, and technical documentation to support ongoing administration and the transition to a cloud-based messaging environment.

Required For This Opportunity

• 6–8+ years recent experience as a senior Microsoft Exchange architect (min: Exchange Server SE, Exchange Online).

• Active Public Trust Clearance (or higher).

• Hands-on lead architect experience migrating hybrid/on-prem Exchange to Exchange Online; designing, implementing, and administering Exchange in hybrid and cloud environments.

• Demonstrated experience as primary technical SME for Exchange/Exchange Online security design, implementation, testing, and documentation.

• 5+ years recent experience as a senior Exchange administrator (min: Exchange 2013, Exchange Online).

• Expert-level administration, configuration, tuning, and troubleshooting of Exchange / Exchange Online.

• Experience securing/hardening Exchange; backup and recovery; disaster recovery and high availability.

• Proficiency with Windows Server administration (2016+) and PowerShell scripting.

• Knowledge of Exchange AD attributes, Active Directory, and networking (IP addressing, subnetting, TCP/IP, VLANs, DNS).

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience working in regulated government environments.

Applied Information Sciences does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis. Employment decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs.