Sr. Sys Admin– Security & Compliance (CMMC / NIST)
Innovative Signal Analysis · Richardson, TX
$150,000–$175,000
Jul 20, 2026
Richardson, TX
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level systems administration role centered on hardening and maintaining Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows systems within government and defense environments. Day-to-day work spans implementing CMMC Level 2 controls, automating compliance enforcement via Ansible and CI/CD pipelines, managing cloud security posture across GCC High and AWS GovCloud, and producing audit-ready evidence. Suits experienced administrators with a strong background in NIST 800-171, CUI handling, and security compliance in hybrid infrastructure.
Senior level · 7+ years · National · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $150,000–$175,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
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 $101,310 (middle half $79,725–$129,425). This posting is about at that midpoint.
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 (9)
SOC classification is a close call: the role blends deep systems administration (RHEL/Windows hardening, patching, provisioning) with significant information-security work (CMMC compliance, vulnerability remediation, SIEM integration). 15-1244 was chosen because day-to-day work centers on administering and hardening OS images; 15-1212 (Information Security Analysts) is a strong runner-up given the compliance and audit focus.
Clearance: the JD states 'TS Preferred, must be able to obtain and maintain TS/SSBI (including polygraph).' The hard gate is the ability to obtain TS/SSBI (a Top Secret clearance with Special Background Investigation); the polygraph is mentioned as part of that package. Marked as TopSecret (the closest enum); note that TS/SSBI with polygraph is effectively TS/SCI-equivalent in practice.
Splunk appears in the required section as an example ('e.g., Splunk') for SIEM platforms, but also reappears under Preferred Qualifications. Given the 'e.g.' framing in the required section and explicit listing under Preferred, it is treated as preferred.
cloud-init appears only in the responsibilities narrative (not in the Required Skills section), so it is treated as preferred.
No work location or CBSA is specified in the posting. ISA (Innovative Signal Analysis) is headquartered in the Northern Virginia/DC area, but this cannot be confirmed from the posting text alone, so the CBSA fields are left blank.
The 7-year experience requirement is explicitly tied to system administration across RHEL and Windows; it is captured as the overall years minimum and also reflected on the RHEL skill entry as the stated minimum.
US citizenship is explicitly required for employment.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Office 365 GCC High.
Requires a Top 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
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