Senior Systems Engineer

About us

Rural King is America’s Farm and Home Store, providing essentials to the communities we serve. With a wide array of necessities ranging from food and feed to farm and home products, Rural King serves over 150 locations across 17 states and is constantly expanding. Our annual sales exceed $2.5 Billion, and our heart beats in Mattoon, IL, home to our corporate office, distribution center, and flagship store.

One thing our customers appreciate is our unique shopping experience, complete with complimentary popcorn and coffee. It's just one way we show our appreciation for their support.

At Rural King, we value our associates and strive to create a positive, rewarding workplace. We offer growth opportunities, competitive benefits, and a people-first environment where dedicated individuals come together to serve rural communities passionately. Join us, and you'll find not just a job but a chance to grow professionally, contribute meaningfully, and make a difference in the lives of those we serve.

How we reward you

401(k) plan that provides a 100% match on the first 3% of your contributions and 50% of the next 2%

Healthcare plans to support your needs

Virtual doctor visits

Access to Centers of Excellence with Barnes Jewish Hospital and Mayo Clinic’s Complex Care Program

15% Associate Discount

Dave Ramsey’s SmartDollar Program

Associate Assistance Program

RK Cares Associate Hardship Program

24/7 Chaplaincy Services

Company paid YMCA Family Membership

What You’ll Do

Provide technical leadership and hands-on expertise across Rural King’s core compute, storage, virtualization, backup, and Microsoft/Windows platforms. You will supervise a small team, drive the vision and direction of enterprise systems, and ensure completion of initiatives that improve reliability, performance, security, and supportability. You’ll translate business needs into pragmatic architectures and roadmaps, partner closely with neighboring teams, and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Supervise a small team of sys admins, coaching, workload/priorities, goal-setting, on-call, and career development.
• Engineer and operate Windows Server (2016/2019/2022), Active Directory (AD/DS), Group Policy, DNS/DHCP, ADCS/PKI, and Entra ID/Azure AD (including sync/Cloud Sync/SSO)
• Administer Exchange Online, SharePoint Online/OneDrive, and Teams; manage licensing/permissions, policies, transport/connectors, retention, and service health.
• Drive Intune for imaging, packaging, policy, and updates; maintain secure baselines and compliance reporting.
• Own VMware vSphere/vCenter on Cisco UCS-X—host builds, clusters, HA/DRS, templates, lifecycle/firmware baselines, and performance tuning.
• Operate Pure Storage and Isilon/PowerScale—provisioning, performance, snapshots/replication, quotas/ACLs, SMB/NFS services.
• Administer Cohesity (policies, immutability, replication); define and test RPO/RTO, perform restore drills, and keep runbooks current.
• Use PowerShell (and, where helpful, Python) for repeatable tasks, health checks, and golden-config enforcement; maintain diagrams, CMDB, and runbooks.
• Align with Cyber on CIS/NIST hardening, vulnerability remediation, privileged access hygiene, patch cadence, and incident response for systems.
• Maintain actionable monitoring and alerting; publish dashboards for capacity, performance, backup success, patch compliance, and SLA/SLOs.
• Serve as technical owner with OEMs/partners, drive upgrades and refreshes with minimal downtime, and support budgeting/forecasting.
• Use discretion and independent judgment in daily decisions while maintaining a high level of confidentiality and professionalism.
• Actively participate in learning initiatives offered such as training programs, workshops, and webinars. Leverage these opportunities to acquire new knowledge, refine existing skills, and stay current on the latest developments.
• Provide friendly, proactive, and professional internal and external support to others, assisting with inquiries, concerns, and issues promptly and effectively.
• Demonstrate behaviors that exemplify Rural King’s Values: People First, Integrity, Attitude, Initiative, Teamwork, Accountability, and Continuous Improvement.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Yes

Essential Qualities for Success

• 10+ years in enterprise systems engineering/administration with 2+ years supervising or leading system administrators/engineers.
• Bachelor’s in IT/CS or equivalent experience; relevant certifications (e.g., Windows Server Hybrid Administrator, Azure Administrator/Identity, VCP-DCV, Pure/EMC/Isilon, Cohesity, ITIL) are a plus.
• Pure Storage, Isilon/PowerScale, and Cohesity in production environments.
• Expertise in Windows Server/AD DS, Group Policy, DNS/DHCP, ADCS/PKI, Entra ID/Azure AD (sync/SSO/conditional access basics), M365 administration (Exchange Online, SharePoint/OneDrive, Teams).
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite or related software.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite.
• Comfortable navigating computer systems and software to assist customers or manage activities.
• Excellent verbal and written interpersonal and communication skills.

Physical Requirements 

• Ability to maintain a seated or standing position for extended durations.
• Capability to lift 15 pounds periodically.
• Ability to navigate and access all facilities.
• Skill to effectively communicate verbally with others, both in-person and via electronic devices.
• Close vision for computer-related activities.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

The pay range for this position is $100,000 - $110,000 annualized and is bonus eligible. Exact compensation is determined by factors such as relevant geographic location, education, certifications, experience, job level, shift, and organizational needs. To learn more about our benefits, review here https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:14539c15-191a-4b77-9c13-f6ccfce10094.