Infrastructure & Systems Administrator

Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Employment type: Full-time, direct hire

Reports to: Head of IT

Salary: R28 000.00

About the role

We're looking for a hands-on Systems Administrator to help manage and secure a diverse, always-on infrastructure stack — spanning virtualisation, databases, web services, telephony, and identity systems. You'll be the person keeping the lights on: patching, monitoring, provisioning, and automating so things run smoothly and securely. You'll report to a senior lead, so this isn't a solo on-call role — you'll have support and escalation paths, but you'll own day-to-day operations.

This role suits someone who likes variety — one day you're tuning VLANs and firewall rules, the next you're scripting a backup validation job or rolling out a Windows update to end users. We're looking for a generalist who's comfortable moving across systems, not a specialist in just one — we'll train you on the specifics of our stack (including telephony/VoIP, if that's new to you).

What you'll do

• Monitor & maintain our Proxmox virtualisation cluster (multiple hosts, VM lifecycle, resource allocation) and two Dell SAN storage arrays, using Zabbix and Nagios for alerting and uptime tracking
• Patch & update OS, application, and security updates across Linux and Windows systems on a regular cadence, tracking and remediating vulnerabilities
• Manage networking : VLAN configuration, firewall rules, internal segmentation, and VPN access for remote/hybrid staff
• Administer core services : MariaDB, PostgreSQL/TimescaleDB, ClickHouse, MongoDB, Apache/PHP, Nginx/OpenResty, and Node.js/Python-based internal services
• Support telephony infrastructure : FreePBX, FusionPBX, Tragofone, and OpenSIPS installs — monitoring uptime, applying updates, troubleshooting call quality/routing issues
• Manage identity & access : FreeIPA and Keycloak — user provisioning/deprovisioning, group policies, SSO configuration
• Own backups : verify backup jobs are running, test restores periodically, maintain disaster recovery documentation
• Support end users : Windows desktop environment — account admin, basic troubleshooting, software rollouts and deployment
• Automate : write scripts (Bash, Python, PHP, or similar) and Ansible playbooks to reduce manual, repetitive admin work — patch checks, health monitoring, provisioning, config consistency, reporting
• Document infrastructure changes, runbooks, and standard operating procedures

What we're looking for

We care more about breadth across systems than deep mastery of any single tool — we're happy to train the right person on our specific stack, especially telephony/VoIP. What we need is evidence you've worked hands-on across multiple layers of infrastructure (not just one), and can pick up new tools quickly.

• 3+ years of commercial experience in a similar systems/infrastructure administration role, spanning at least 3-4 of the areas below rather than deep specialization in just one
• Solid Linux administration skills (Debian/Ubuntu or RHEL-family)
• Experience with virtualization platforms (Proxmox VE preferred; KVM/VMware/Hyper-V acceptable equivalent experience)
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals : VLANs, firewalls, routing, VPNs (WireGuard/OpenVPN/IPsec)
• Comfort administering at least one relational or NoSQL database (MySQL/MariaDB, Postgres, MongoDB, or similar)
• Scripting ability — Bash and at least one of Python, PHP, or Node.js — for automating operational tasks
• Exposure to any configuration management tool (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, or similar) — we use Ansible, happy to get you up to speed on our playbooks
• Exposure to any monitoring/alerting platform (Zabbix, Nagios, Prometheus, Datadog, or similar) — we use Zabbix and Nagios, but the concepts transfer
• Experience supporting Windows desktop environments in a business setting
• Understanding of security best practices : patch management, least-privilege access, credential hygiene
• Comfortable working hybrid , with reliable communication and documentation habits for handoffs with a distributed team

Nice to have

(None of these are required — we'll train on all of them, telephony especially. Listed so you know what you'll be learning.)

• Exposure to VoIP/telephony systems (FreePBX, FusionPBX, Asterisk, OpenSIPS, or Kamailio) — not expected; full training provided
• Experience with identity providers (FreeIPA, Keycloak, LDAP, or Active Directory)
• Familiarity with SAN storage (iSCSI, multipath, Dell/Compellent/PowerStore or similar)
• Experience with ClickHouse or TimescaleDB for analytics/time-series workloads
• Infrastructure-as-code beyond Ansible (Terraform, Packer)
• Experience with container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes/k3s) is a bonus, not a requirement

Why this role

• Broad, varied technical exposure — not a narrow, single-stack environment
• Direct mentorship from a senior infrastructure lead
• Hybrid flexibility
• Real ownership over the systems you maintain, with room to bring in automation and improve processes