Staff Systems Administrator (San Mateo)
Shield AI
IT
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 118k-175k / year + Equity
Posted on Feb 11, 2026
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
The Sr. Systems Administrator leads day-to-day enterprise IT at the site level, providing end-user system support, system administration, infrastructure maintenance, and asset lifecycle management. Acting as the primary technical escalation point, this role is focused on ensuring a secure, reliable and high-performing IT environment. The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise, strong operational judgement and a proactive collaborative leadership mindset, with a proven ability to support C-suite and executive stakeholders in a modern, scalable, and secure IT environment.
What you’ll do:
- Own hands-on administration and operational reliability of endpoint and server support across Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
- Install, configure, and troubleshoot hardware and software issues across end-user devices and server systems.
- Administer and enforce identity, access control, and group policies using Active Directory and Azure AD to meet security and compliance requirements.
- Own IT local asset lifecycle management, including procurement, deployment, maintenance and secure decommissioning of hardware and software.
- Ensure accurate inventory control, software licensing compliance, and asset tracking through disciplined use of IT asset management tools and processes.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior administrators and support staff; setting standards for documentation, automation initiatives, team training and operational best practices.
- Serve in on-call rotation and lead planned maintenance activities including after-hours work to ensure system stability and minimize business disruption.
- Partner closely with infrastructure, network, and security teams to support enterprise IT operations, incident response and coordinated issue resolution.
Required qualifications:
- 8+ years of experience in systems administration or enterprise desktop support roles.
- 5+ years of experience supporting multiple Executive leaders (including visiting leaders), their Executive Administrators, and Board Members.
- Strong proficiency in MacOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems.
- Extensive experience with Active Directory, Azure AD, and identity/access management tools and administration.
- Technical depth in networking (Switching, routing, DNS, DHCP) and endpoint security practices.
- Deep proficiency with IT asset management platforms (e.g., SNIPE, JSM, JIRA).
- Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and off-hours maintenance windows.
- Strong documentation, troubleshooting, and customer service skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration across technical and non-technical teams with demonstrated success providing Executive support.
Preferred qualifications:
- 8+ years of IT experience, with at least 4 years in a senior or mentoring capacity.
- 3+ years of experience directly providing Executive Technical Support.
- Experience with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Intune), JAMF, and scripting in PowerShell.
- Experience leveraging Agentic AI for process automation.
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Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
118000 - 175000 USD a year