Systems Administrator at Bowhead
Norfolk, VA
$85,000–$95,000
Aug 10, 2026
Norfolk, VA
Sep 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
An on-site systems administrator role supporting the IT team at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story. Day-to-day work covers managing Linux/RHEL and Windows environments, Active Directory and Group Policy administration, user account management, system troubleshooting, and supporting backups and recovery. The role suits a mid-level IT professional with a DoD security clearance and a DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification.
Mid level · 4+ years · Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $85,000–$95,000
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“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
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How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $100,809 (middle half $80,298–$128,086). 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 Aug 12, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role is on-site at a DoD installation (JEB Little Creek-Fort Story); remote work is not indicated.
DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification (e.g., Security+ CE) is listed as a hard requirement in the qualifications block, not merely preferred.
OS deployment tooling and system monitoring are required but name no specific product; they are omitted from the skills list per guidelines on generic concepts.
Linux administration (1-2 years), Python scripting, Linux+ CE certification, NMCI/NAUTILUS Purebred Agent, SharePoint Administration, and SQL Database Administration all appear under the 'Nice to Have' section and are marked preferred accordingly.
RHEL is listed as an alternative to Linux since the posting uses both terms interchangeably to describe the same requirement.
An alt SOC of 15-1212 (Information Security Analysts) is noted because the role includes security administration and DoD 8140 compliance duties, though the primary day-to-day work is systems administration.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): DoD 8140 IAT Level II.
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
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