2026-07 Principal Systems Administrator
1st Edge, LLC · Huntsville, AL
—
Jul 13, 2026
Huntsville, AL
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior systems administrator role supporting a hybrid Windows and Linux infrastructure for government defense AI programs. Day-to-day work covers Active Directory, VMware vSphere, networking, GPU compute clusters, and CMMC-compliant security maintenance, alongside scripting for automation and close collaboration with engineering and AI/ML development teams. Suited to an experienced generalist administrator comfortable in both enterprise IT and lab/test environments under DoD clearance requirements.
Senior level · 10+ years · Huntsville, AL · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $102,322 (middle half $79,797–$130,897).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (10)
The title says 'Principal Systems Administrator' but the actual scope — owning a single hybrid Windows/Linux environment for one organization — is consistent with a Senior-level role. 'Principal' here appears to be a seniority label used by this employer rather than an indication of org-wide technical authority across multiple teams.
Clearance is stated as 'Active DoD security clearance (or clearance-eligible).' The specific level is not named; given the SMDC/MDA/DEVCOM customer base and CMMC context, Secret is the most likely minimum. Candidates without an active clearance may still be considered if clearance-eligible.
Ubuntu is listed as the primary Linux distribution example; RHEL and Rocky Linux are named as alternatives in the same requirement. All three appear under Required Qualifications.
Bash, Python, and PowerShell are presented as interchangeable scripting options ('Bash, Python, or PowerShell') — one skill emitted with alternatives.
GitLab, Artifactory, and MLflow appear together under Preferred Qualifications as examples of 'developer application platforms' — treated as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Ansible is listed under Bonus Qualifications (a clearly secondary heading) and is marked preferred accordingly.
Jenkins and GitLab CI appear under Bonus Qualifications as CI/CD pipeline design tools — emitted as a separate preferred skill from the CI/CD infrastructure experience listed under Preferred Qualifications.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
Location is inferred as Huntsville, AL based on the company's known customer base (SMDC, MDA, DEVCOM), all of which are headquartered at or near Redstone Arsenal. The posting does not explicitly state a city.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.