Summer Distributed Systems Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

Who We Are
At Benesch we pride ourselves on exceeding expectations and building trust not only with our clients but with our employees - Benesch's #1 asset. Committed to providing not only the highest level of legal service to our clients, Benesch also aspires to create a positive work environment for our employees. Our Firm continues to earn placement on Chicago and Cleveland's Top Workplaces list, along with Cleveland's NorthCoast 99 Top Workplaces rankings. We also continue to advance on the AmLaw 125 list, placing us among the top 125 law firms in the country.
Benesch is proud to be recognized for being a Firm that attracts and retains top talent - making Benesch a great place to work. We offer a hybrid schedule, career development and growth, transparent and visible leadership teams, and a place where diversity, equity and inclusion is celebrated. In addition, the Firm offers a full array of benefits which can be viewed at .
Working with Us - Come and "Be Benesch!"
We are one of the fastest growing firms in the nation, and have offices in Cleveland, Chicago, Columbus, San Francisco, New York City, and Wilmington. We continue to expand our geographic footprint and value the talent that comprises each of our locations. If you are someone who champions a First in Service approach and are ready to be part of an exciting and growing Firm, we would invite you to apply to join our team.
Want to know more? To hear from some of our team, click here:
Benesch is proud to announce the opening for an IT Sr Systems Engineer in our Chicago office! This position is hybrid and has work from home flexibility.
Position Summary:
Do you thrive on designing, building, configuring and maintaining secure IT infrastructure? Does being responsible for an organization's IT system and serving as the primary Tier III troubleshooting point person sound like a challenge? Then you may be interested in our IT Sr. Systems Engineer position. This role is perfect for the individual who has a passion for hybrid cloud solutions and is looking to play a crucial role on Benesch's infrastructure team.
The IT Sr. Systems Engineer is responsible for the engineering, administration, maintenance, and availability of the firm's IT systems, serving as the primary escalation point for Tier III troubleshooting. This role requires the ability to travel to all Benesch offices and datacenters as needed. Key duties include developing, planning, implementing, procuring, configuring, troubleshooting, and maintaining the firm's IT infrastructure-both on-premise and in the cloud. The IT Systems Engineer analyzes and recommends technology resources to support the firm's needs, and collaborates closely with the Sr. Core Infrastructure Services Manager to plan and deploy hybrid cloud solutions for hosting servers, services, and applications. Working as part of the IT infrastructure group, the IT Systems Engineer helps implement best practices for security and system reliability across the organization.
Essential Functions:

1. Oversees the physical datacenter experience with virtualization/private cloud infrastructure.
2. Manages racking design and organization, cable management, redundancy, and growth planning.
3. Manages the relationships with external vendors and cloud providers.
4. Supports the premise to cloud migration, disaster recovery, and hybrid cloud management.
5. Monitors, manages and forecasts changing requirements in prem and cloud infrastructure, generating and tracking KPIs for system performance and availability.
6. Designs, configures, and maintains IT infrastructure hardware, cloud, and software, including but not limited to Active Directory/GPOs, network infrastructure, VMware and HyperV clusters, Microsoft 365, Azure, and other infrastructure applications such as Config management, Monitoring, VPN, RDP, etc.
7. Partner with the security team on projects/requests for hardening, remediation, complying with client requirements, ISO requirements, and security controls assessments.
8. Assists in system monitoring, reviewing infrastructure and application logs, and verifying configured technical controls.
9. Server/system configuration management and IP address management - Build, manage, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot configuration management systems including all related components and systems firm-wide.
10. Participates in the coordination, installation, testing, and technical support of local and wide area wired and wireless networks.
11. Assists with deployment of new desktop and server operating systems and applications.
12. Assists with distribution of updates and patches across systems.
13. Assists with enterprise line of business application support. Provides Tier III support/troubleshooting.
14. Evaluates, tests, recommends, and implements specific software and network solutions.
15. Technical Documentation - Develop and maintain complete and accurate documentation of network layout, server hardware and software configurations, firewall and router configurations.
16. Research, install, analyze, test and evaluate applications, systems, policies, methodologies, processes, and procedures to ensure that the Firm's Server infrastructure and facilities meet the Firm's expectations and Service Level Agreements for availability, performance, growth, and functionality. Maintains documentation for network processes and procedures.
17. Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:
The IT Sr. Systems Engineer should have over seven years of experience in systems engineering or cloud administration, along with strong interpersonal and analytical skills. The role requires excellent customer service, effective communication, and the flexibility to occasionally work evenings, weekends, and travel as needed. Candidates must be highly skilled in datacenter virtualization, hybrid cloud infrastructure, network switching, storage management, and virtualization clusters, with expertise in VMware vSphere, Hyper-V/SCVMM, and SAN configuration. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Azure, Windows administration (including Active Directory, DNS, Group Policy, Kerberos, Certificate Authority, and IIS), Microsoft 365, Azure technologies, and identity and access management is essential. Certifications in relevant technologies are preferred, and the position may involve up to 10% travel to other office locations.
The salary range for this position is $113K to $140K.
Please note that quoted salary ranges are based on Benesch's good faith belief at the time of the job posting and are not a guarantee of what final salary offers may be. Base pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Base pay is only one part of the Total Rewards that Benesch provides to compensate and recognize our staff professionals for their work. Full-time positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and a comprehensive benefits package.
Benesch is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability (where applicant is qualified to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodations), medical condition, protected veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Applicants who are interested in applying for a position and require special assistance or an accommodation during the process due to a disability should contact the Benesch Human Resources Department by phone at 216-363-4578 or email Christine Watson at
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities