System Administrator Engineer Location: Doylestown, PA (100% Onsite) Job Type: Contract (2 3 Months) Schedule: Monday Friday | Day Shift Requirements ~3+ years of System Administration experience in enterprise Windows en…
Engineering & IT · Washington, DC
Systems Administrator jobs in Washington, DC
Systems administrators keep an organization's servers, networks, and core services running — handling installs, patching, backups, permissions, and the problems that surface in between.
1,746
Open roles today
$30–$78/hr
Typical pay range
$106k
Median, full-time
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Open systems administrator roles
4 shown of 1,746 · sorted by freshness
$90k - $105k
Job Description Job Description Salary: $90,000 - 105,000 DOE Systems Administrator (Engineer) Overview Slow down, we do things a little differently here at Seitel Systems and this job posting is no exception! Lets get t…
$80k - $100k
shape your career path. Fortify a Collaborative Culture: Work closely with engineering, ERP administration, and other departments to ensure seamless connectivity and system reliability. Receive Recognition & Make an Impa…
responsible for maintaining compliance, securing operating systems, and executing patch management across Windows and Linux environments... ...scripts using PowerShell, Perl, VBScript , or similar administrative language…
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What systems administrators earn in Washington
Hourly first — that's how the offer arrives
| Experience | Hourly | Annual, full-time |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | $30–$43 | $62k–$90k |
| Mid level | $43–$59 | $90k–$122k |
| Senior | $57–$78 | $119k–$162k |
Adjusted for the Washington market from national ranges.
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What employers ask for
The skills these listings keep naming
Windows Server and Active DirectoryLinux administrationNetworking (DNS, DHCP, VPN)Virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V)Backup and disaster recoveryScripting (PowerShell, Bash)Microsoft 365 / Azure ADPatch and endpoint managementDocumentation
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Interview questions worth rehearsing
With the thing the interviewer is actually listening for
Users report they cannot access a shared drive. How do you troubleshoot?
Work in layers: scope (one user or many), network, permissions, and the server itself. Narrating a clear elimination process is the whole answer.
Walk me through your backup and restore strategy.
Cover the 3-2-1 principle, retention, and — most importantly — actually testing restores. 'Backups exist' means nothing until a restore succeeds.
How do you roll out patches without breaking things?
Talk about test groups, maintenance windows, rollback plans, and prioritizing by severity. Balance security urgency against stability.
Tell me about a major outage you handled.
Structure it: detection, communication, fix, and what you changed afterward. Mentioning how you kept users informed matters as much as the fix.
How do you manage user onboarding and offboarding securely?
Describe standardized checklists or automation, least-privilege access, and prompt deprovisioning. Orphaned accounts are the risk they are probing.
What do you automate in your day-to-day work?
Give real script examples — account creation, monitoring checks, cleanup jobs. Automation instinct is what separates admins who scale.
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Resume tips that move the needle
For systems administrators specifically — generic advice costs you here
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State the environment size you supported: users, servers, sites — it frames everything else on the page.
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List the platforms precisely (Windows Server versions, Linux distros, VMware, M365) since job postings screen on exact matches.
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Quantify reliability: uptime maintained, ticket backlog reduced, restore times improved.
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Show scripting and automation work explicitly; it is the main lever for moving up from this role.
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Include certifications that are current (Microsoft, CompTIA, Linux) and drop expired ones.
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Where this role goes
Typical progression
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IT Support Specialist
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Systems Administrator
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Senior Systems Administrator
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IT Infrastructure Manager
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