(Senior) IT/OT System Engineer
Nearfield Instruments · Rotterdam, Netherlands
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Job description
NFI is looking for a hands-on Senior Systems Administrator & Infrastructure Engineer to support and improve the Operational Technology (OT) environment inside our products. This role focuses exclusively on the product control environment and does not cover corporate IT or site infrastructure.
You will help keep product systems stable, secure, and supportable throughout their lifecycle. The product control architecture includes Windows and Linux servers, virtual machines, data storage, control boxes, industrial switches, firewalls, sensors, and machine communication networks. These components run product software, connect subsystems, protect network boundaries, and store operational and diagnostic data.
We are looking for someone who understands how these components work together and can troubleshoot issues across software, operating systems, networking, virtualization, storage and machine communication layers.
What you will do
- Operate and improve product control systems and infrastructure with a strong focus on uptime, security, recovery, and supportability
- Troubleshoot complex connectivity, communication, and performance issues across network, operating system, virtualization and storage layers
- Diagnose and resolve communication issues between servers, control boxes, sensors, machine controllers, and product subsystems
- Analyze network traffic and communication protocols using tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump and packet captures
- Support product issues by identifying root causes, separating infrastructure and software problems, and escalating with clear evidence
- Manage networking components including subnets, routing, VLANs, DNS, gateways, NAT, VPNs, managed switches and firewall rules
- Build and maintain site-to-site VPNs and remote access solutions
- Administer Windows Server and Ubuntu/Linux systems used within the product environment
- Configure, maintain, and troubleshoot virtualization platforms such as Hyper-V, QEMU, VMware, or equivalent technologies
- Configure and troubleshoot RAID arrays, storage controllers, backup solutions, disaster recovery processes, and data recovery activities
- Implement and maintain Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Active Directory permissions, service accounts, and least-privilege access models
- Strengthen security through hardening, patching, access control, secure baselines, vulnerability remediation and structured change management
- Perform vulnerability assessments, security remediation, malware validation, antivirus validation and security compliance checks
- Keep documentation, monitoring, backup, and recovery processes up to date
- Work closely with Software, Production, Service, and IT teams when product issues require cross-functional troubleshooting
- Participate in incident response and on-call support when needed Job requirements
What we are looking for
Must-have
- 5+ years of infrastructure / systems administration experience in an OT, industrial, or product environment
- Experience with both Windows Server and Linux administration
- Strong networking knowledge (routing, DNS, firewalls, VPNs, packet-level troubleshooting)
- Experience troubleshooting across infrastructure, software, networks, servers, and hardware components
- Ability to independently design, implement, and own infrastructure solutions end-to-end
- Broad infrastructure knowledge across compute, networking, storage, and security
- Strong collaboration and clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders
Nice-to-have
- Semiconductor, manufacturing or other industrial environment experience
- Industrial communication protocols and OT environments
- Virtualization, HA, backup & disaster recovery
- Monitoring, logging, observability, and incident management
- Automation/scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ansible)
- OT cybersecurity, network segmentation, and industrial firewalls
- Preferably already based in the Netherlands
What success looks like
- Faster and more effective troubleshooting of product issues, including networking, infrastructure, and machine communication problems.
- Reduced downtime through improved root-cause analysis and proactive problem prevention
- Better visibility through monitoring and logging, resulting in fewer repeat incidents.
- Stronger security through timely patching, vulnerability remediation, access control, and secure system baselines.
- Reliable operation of virtualized environments, storage systems, and communication infrastructure
- Clear documentation, repeatable support processes, and improved operational readiness.
- Improved collaboration between Software, Production, Service and Infrastructure teams when resolving complex product issues On-site
- Rotterdam HQ Design and Engineering
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