Virtualization Engineer Jobs in Kentucky (NOW HIRING)

Sr. Systems Administrator

Location: Pryor, OK or Ft. Wright, KY (Candidates must reside within or be willing to relocate to one of these areas)

What is IP Corporation:

IP Corporation is a privately held, family-owned company with over 60 years of experience manufacturing high-performance materials used across a wide range of industries, including marine, transportation, construction, and industrial applications. Through our operating companies — including Interplastic Corporation, North American Composites (NAC), HK Research, and Molding Products — we deliver innovative resin, gel coat, and composite solutions across North America.

At IP Corporation, we combine the stability of an established organization with the agility to modernize and evolve. Our teams are collaborative, hands-on, and driven by continuous improvement, operational excellence, and long-term investment in our people and technology.

What you’ll do as a Sr. Systems Administrator:

The Sr. Systems Administrator is a senior-level, hands-on infrastructure role responsible for supporting the reliability, security, and lifecycle management of IT and OT-adjacent systems across IP Corporation’s manufacturing environments. This role blends traditional Systems Administration responsibilities with manufacturing infrastructure ownership, network engineering, automation, virtualization, and onsite operational support.

This individual will serve as a key technical owner for manufacturing infrastructure outcomes, partnering closely with plant leadership, Controls & Automation teams, Desktop Operations, and centralized IT teams to ensure production-critical systems remain stable, secure, and supportable.

What you can expect to do as a Sr. Systems Administrator:

• Serve as the primary technical owner for manufacturing IT and OT-adjacent infrastructure at assigned plant locations.
• Maintain and support Windows Server environments supporting manufacturing and operational systems.
• Manage virtualization platforms including VMware environments and future-state Nutanix AHV infrastructure.
• Support infrastructure hosting SCADA, HMI, historian, and manufacturing applications.
• Design, maintain, and troubleshoot industrial and manufacturing IT networks including switches, VLANs, firewalls, routing, and DMZ environments.
• Maintain secure OT/IT connectivity and segmentation aligned with cybersecurity and operational best practices.
• Develop and maintain scripting or automation solutions for infrastructure, monitoring, configuration management, and network operations.
• Plan and execute infrastructure activities during scheduled plant shutdowns, maintenance windows, upgrades, and cutovers.
• Provide onsite support for production-impacting incidents, manufacturing connectivity issues, and operational infrastructure needs.
• Support basic onsite IT needs such as workstation connectivity, printer support, and plant-floor access issues while partnering closely with Desktop Operations.
• Participate in vulnerability remediation, incident response activities, risk reviews, and OT security initiatives.
• Maintain accurate documentation including network diagrams, inventories, SOPs, lifecycle tracking, and operational standards.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with manufacturing operations, engineering, automation, vendors, and enterprise IT teams.
• Drive continuous improvement efforts that reduce operational risk, improve resiliency, and reduce vendor dependency.

What we are looking for in a Sr. Systems Administrator:

• 5+ years of Systems Administration, Infrastructure Engineering, or related IT infrastructure experience.
• Proven experience supporting manufacturing, industrial, or OT-adjacent environments.
• Hands-on experience supporting onsite infrastructure operations in production environments.
• Experience supporting plant shutdowns, infrastructure cutovers, maintenance windows, or high-risk operational changes.
• Strong Windows Server administration experience.
• Experience supporting virtualization platforms such as VMware; Nutanix experience is preferred.
• Strong networking fundamentals including switching, VLANs, routing, firewalls, ACLs, and segmentation.
• Familiarity with manufacturing technologies such as SCADA, HMI, historians, FactoryTalk, ThinManager, or similar industrial platforms.
• Experience with scripting, automation, or infrastructure-as-code concepts for operational efficiency.
• Strong troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and organizational skills.
• Ability to work independently while maintaining strong accountability and ownership.
• Willingness to travel approximately 20–25% to manufacturing sites as needed.
• Ability to support occasional after-hours or weekend work during shutdowns or maintenance activities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting multi-site manufacturing environments.
• Exposure to OT security frameworks and industrial cybersecurity best practices.
• Experience transitioning environments from vendor-led to internally managed support models.
• Prior mentoring, technical leadership, or lead Systems Administration experience.
• Experience supporting enterprise manufacturing environments with high uptime and operational reliability expectations.

Why IP Corporation?

• Positive, challenging, and supportive work environment.
• Opportunity to play a key role in modernizing manufacturing infrastructure and operational technology environments.
• Exposure to enterprise infrastructure, manufacturing systems, and OT/IT integration initiatives.
• Competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, generous PTO, 401(k) with company match, and profit sharing.
• Freedom to innovate and make a meaningful impact within a collaborative, values-driven organization.
• Opportunity to work closely with manufacturing operations and directly influence production-critical technology initiatives.

IP Corporation is an equal opportunity employer and encourages diversity in the workplace. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants.

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