System Administrator CV — ATS-Optimised Template

Lead with measurable operational impact to demonstrate you can keep services stable. Reference practical KPIs such as 99.9%+ monthly uptime, mean time to repair (MTTR), and change success rate using ticket outcomes from Jira Service Management or ServiceNow. Include tools you use to maintain service health, for example VMware vSphere performance graphs, Windows Event Logs, and Linux journalctl monitoring signals. If you used alerting platforms such as Grafana and Prometheus (or equivalent), mention how you reduced alert noise and improved triage speed through severity-based routing and runbooks.

Show credibility in identity and access administration by naming Active Directory components you manage, including AD DS, Group Policy Objects (GPO), DNS zones, and DHCP integration. Describe how you enforce least privilege using security groups, managed service accounts, and MFA integration where applicable. Mention how you perform administration and troubleshooting with tools such as RSAT, PowerShell ActiveDirectory module cmdlets, and AD diagnostic workflows (e.g., dcdiag and repadmin). If you implemented hardening, link it to real steps such as CIS benchmarking for Windows or Linux, disabling legacy authentication, and applying secure LDAP practices while validating outcomes with authentication logs and access review evidence.

A strong Sysadmin CV must prove you can deliver changes safely across physical, virtual, and sometimes cloud environments. Reference VMware vSphere/ESXi tasks such as vMotion planning, snapshot strategy, datastore management, and host cluster remediation, plus Hyper-V if relevant. Then connect that operations experience to automation by stating how you use Ansible playbooks and PowerShell runbooks to standardise builds, patch workflows, and configuration drift controls. Include a metric such as “reduced manual provisioning time by 40%” or “completed monthly patch cycles within SLA” and name how you validated changes, for example using Ansible idempotency checks, configuration tests, and post-change monitoring in Splunk or ELK.

Even when you are primarily on-prem, recruiters expect networking and cloud operations literacy. Explain your involvement with AWS (such as EC2 security groups, S3 backups, and VPC routing) or Azure equivalents, and how you align security controls to operational needs. Name the networking services you manage daily—DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP fundamentals, and VPN access—and describe troubleshooting techniques such as checking resolver logs, validating DHCP scopes, and verifying routing paths. If you manage firewall rules (pfSense, UFW, Windows Defender Firewall, or enterprise firewalls), describe how you document change approvals and confirm connectivity after deployments using test procedures and monitoring dashboards.

Detail your patch management approach so it reads like an operations process rather than a generic responsibility. Mention how you use maintenance windows, staged patch rings, and compliance targets (for example 95%+ critical updates within SLA) across Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or Linux package management with apt/yum and repos. Add security-specific activities such as vulnerability remediation, service hardening, and password policy enforcement, and connect them to evidence you review (e.g., CIS-aligned baselines and compliance reports). Include logging and auditing practices using Splunk or an ELK stack approach, demonstrating how you preserve logs for incident investigation and support forensic readiness.