Network Manager Jobs in Iowa (NOW HIRING)

Description

https://www.auxiant.com/

Auxiant's Mission Statement and Core Values

Mission: An Independent TPA investing in People and Innovation to deliver expert-driven experiences with REAL Results.

Core Values: Independent Solutions. REAL Results Respect Empowerment Agility Leadership

Be part of a growing and prospering company as a Network Systems Engineer. Auxiant is a third party administrator of self-funded employee benefit plans with offices in Cedar Rapids, IA, Madison and Milwaukee, WI. Auxiant is a fast-growing, progressive company offering an excellent wage and benefit package.

Role Overview/Summary:

The Network & Systems Supervisor is responsible for the day-to-day supervision, technical contribution, and operational delivery of the Network and Systems team - carrying direct personnel responsibilities including performance management, professional development, compensation planning, and hiring. In addition to direct team oversight, this role maintains active hands-on technical contributions across enterprise network, systems, and infrastructure automation including modern DevOps practices and platform engineering, serving as a primary escalation point for complex incidents and providing technical coverage across all team disciplines. The Supervisor contributes to departmental strategic planning and is accountable for operational excellence, enterprise standards, and organizational alignment.

Essential Responsibilities - Tasks and duties may be included:

Tasks and duties assigned will be related to and potentially extend beyond these essential responsibilities

Team supervision & personnel management - Provide direct day-to-day supervision for a team of network, systems, and security operations specialists; manage performance reviews, compensation planning, disciplinary actions, professional development, and onboarding for all direct reports.

Workload planning & delivery accountability - Assign and manage team workload across operational and project responsibilities; set clear goals, deadlines, and deliverables; balance team capacity across competing priorities.

Technical escalation & coverage - Serve as a primary escalation point for complex infrastructure incidents and architectural decisions; provide hands-on technical coverage across all team disciplines to mitigate single-point-of-knowledge risk.

Operational excellence & standards enforcement - Oversee daily operations; develop, maintain, and enforce standard operating procedures for routine tasks, incident response, and change management; identify process improvement opportunities utilizing data-driven decision making; promote disciplined engineering practices including change control adherence, documentation standards, and proactive technical debt reduction.

Business continuity & incident response - Maintain, test, and document business continuity plans, incident response procedures, and disaster recovery documentation; coordinate tabletop exercises to validate response readiness and ensure clear escalation pathways.

Strategic planning contribution - Contribute to departmental strategic planning; execute action plans aligned with departmental objectives; track individual and team KPIs, identify areas of opportunity, and coach team members on improvements and process changes.

Cross-functional collaboration & communication - Coordinate with internal technical teams, peer supervisors, and IT leadership to align on upcoming changes, address recurring issues, and maintain operational consistency.

Security operations & compliance oversight - Oversee day-to-day security operations including SIEM platform monitoring, alert response, email security review, and compliance-related ticket handling; contribute to HIPAA and SOC2 compliance initiatives and audit reviews in alignment with NIST standards; support remediation activities as assigned.

Hiring & talent development - Lead recruiting and hiring activities in coordination with HR to fill open positions in a timely manner with high quality candidates; cultivate professional development and growth within the team; track individual progress and coach team members to improve performance against established goals.

Infrastructure as code & automation architecture - Design and maintain infrastructure automation using Ansible, Python, and related tooling; establish and enforce automation standards across system provisioning, configuration management, and operational workflows.

CI/CD pipeline development & management - Build, maintain, and optimize infrastructure automation pipelines using GitLab CI/CD; oversee and contribute to pipeline-driven automation workflows supporting infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and systems deployment processes.

Container platform management - Deploy, manage, and contribute to the oversight of infrastructure and platform container environments; maintain configurations, resource efficiency, and platform stability for systems-level workloads; container management responsibilities do not extend to application containers owned by development teams.

Identity & access management - Administer enterprise IAM platforms; manage authentication, authorization, and directory services; enforce least-privilege access principles and support compliance requirements.

Secrets management & certificate automation - Design and operate automated certificate enrollment, renewal, and PKI lifecycle management processes; manage enterprise secrets management platforms across infrastructure and application environments.

Database infrastructure & high availability - Support, maintain, and oversee MySQL and MSSQL database platform infrastructure including installation, patching, connection pooling, high availability proxy configuration, and replication health; contribute to performance analysis and maintenance planning at the infrastructure level; database administration responsibilities including query development, schema management, and application-level database work are outside the scope of this role.

Monitoring & observability - Architect, configure, maintain, and extend infrastructure and systems monitoring including servers, network devices, and platform components; define thresholds, dashboards, and escalation workflows; monitoring scope includes systems-level visibility into web stack infrastructure but does not extend to application performance or application-layer monitoring owned by development teams.

Scripting & automation development - Design, maintain, and oversee production-grade automation solutions using PowerShell, Python, and Ansible in support of infrastructure provisioning, systems administration, and network operations; ensure all scripts are documented, version-controlled, and maintained.

Linux systems administration - Configure, manage, and troubleshoot Linux systems in Ubuntu-based environments; manage user permissions, file systems, logging, and network configuration.

Network infrastructure - Configure and troubleshoot layer 2/3 switches, VLANs, firewalls, SD-WAN, and VPN solutions across corporate offices, remote data center, and cloud environments.

Microsoft Active Directory & server infrastructure - Contribute to and oversee the design, architecture, and policy development of the Active Directory environment including domain structure, group policy frameworks, and service account governance; contribute to higher-level administration activities including group policy peer review; administer Windows Server environments in support of infrastructure and platform operations.

Patch management & lifecycle automation - Lead patch automation efforts for Linux, Microsoft, and applicable network and infrastructure systems; contribute to broader patch lifecycle coordination and deployment activities.

Backup, recovery & documentation - Support configuration and troubleshooting of backup systems; assist with issue remediation and restore activities; create and maintain comprehensive documentation for infrastructure, automation workflows, and operational procedures.

Telephone systems - Provide occasional support for telephone systems, voice gateway equipment, and call routing configurations as team needs require.

On-call & after-hours duties - Participate in the after-hours on-call rotation as an escalation point for complex infrastructure problems; participate in scheduled after-hours maintenance as required.

Other duties as assigned - Additional duties will be assigned based on team and organizational needs and the individual's ability to take on expanded responsibilities.

Education/Qualifications/Special requirements:

A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field is preferred. An Associate's degree combined with substantial hands-on experience, or equivalent self-directed learning and demonstrated technical proficiency, will be considered in lieu of a Bachelor's degree.

5 to 7 years of progressive experience in infrastructure, systems administration, or a related technical discipline with demonstrated advancement into automation and platform engineering responsibilities.

1 to 2 years of demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, or supervising a technical team with direct accountability for team performance, workload delivery, and personnel development.

Required skills and experience:

Demonstrated experience supervising or leading a technical team including performance management, coaching, workload planning, and personnel development.

Proven ability to manage team delivery accountability, balance competing priorities, and maintain consistent operational coverage across a technical team.

Experience participating in or leading recruiting and hiring activities including candidate evaluation and coordination with HR.

Demonstrated ability to utilize data-driven decision making to identify process improvement opportunities and drive measurable outcomes.

Effective written and oral communication skills with the ability to convey technical concepts clearly to non-technical colleagues and leadership.

Demonstrated experience with incident response, business continuity planning, and change management practices in an enterprise environment.

Familiarity with HIPAA and SOC2 compliance requirements and experience contributing to compliance audits, risk assessments, or related remediation activities in alignment with NIST standards.

Demonstrated proficiency in Linux systems administration; Ubuntu environment experience strongly preferred. CompTIA Linux+ or equivalent knowledge validated through hands-on experience is acceptable.

Demonstrated experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and deploying and managing container environments in a team or production setting.

Proven experience writing and maintaining Ansible playbooks and automation scripts for infrastructure configuration and management at a production scale.

Proficiency in scripting using Python and/or PowerShell for automation and operational tasks.

Working knowledge of networking fundamentals including switching, routing, VLANs, and firewall concepts; CompTIA Network+ or equivalent demonstrated experience.

Preferred skills and experience:

Experience with enterprise IAM platform administration, secrets management, and certificate lifecycle automation.

Exposure to cloud environments, particularly AWS; AWS Cloud Practitioner or equivalent familiarity preferred.

Understanding of database administration fundamentals including MySQL, MSSQL, and high availability concepts.

Security operations experience including SIEM platform interaction, alert triage, and security incident handling.

CompTIA Security+ or equivalent security knowledge is a plus.

Relevant industry certifications are recognized and valued; formal credentials may be substituted with demonstrated equivalent experience and a verifiable portfolio of work.

Expectations:

Strong sense of urgency with a results-driven approach to both operational and project-based responsibilities.

Highly self-motivated with keen attention to detail and a commitment to quality and accuracy in all work products.

Demonstrated ability to supervise, motivate, and develop a technical team while maintaining active hands-on technical contributions across all team disciplines; serves as a role model and fosters a collaborative, high-performance culture aligned with organizational values.

Effective written and oral communication skills with the ability to clearly convey technical concepts to technical peers, non-technical colleagues, and leadership.

Proven ability to make sound decisions under pressure, balance competing priorities, and escalate appropriately when situations require leadership visibility.

Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities with a methodical approach to troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and independent research into complex technical issues.

Ability to effectively prioritize team and individual workloads and remain flexible when adapting to shifting operational priorities.

Demonstrated experience fostering a team-oriented, collaborative environment while delivering strong independent technical contributions.

Models professional and respectful interaction with direct reports, technical teammates, leadership, and internal colleagues across the organization.

Working Conditions:

Primary work environment is a professional office setting with stable indoor temperatures and standard office conditions.

Must be able to remain in a stationary position for extended periods, up to 8 hours per day; regularly moves about the office to access equipment and workspace areas.

Must be capable of occasionally moving or transporting equi...