Field Systems Engineer
Unlocked Labs
Careers
Field Systems Engineer
St. Louis, MO / Remote
Overview:
You'll be the technical backbone ensuring thousands of incarcerated individuals can access transformative education. When a network goes down in Alaska, someone's GED prep stops. When you fix it, their future restarts. This isn't IT support, it's IT with purpose. The Real Job We've built educational technology networks in correctional facilities from Alaska to Maine, with others coming soon. We need someone who can remotely manage these networks, troubleshoot issues that pop up 2,000 miles away, and occasionally jump on a plane to solve problems that can't be fixed from a terminal. You'll be managing real infrastructure in challenging environments. Think DMZ-level security requirements, limited physical access, and users who desperately need things to work because this might be their only shot at education. This role requires mental flexibility, you might troubleshoot tablets in the morning and plan network architecture in the afternoon. Some travel will be on short notice when critical systems need hands-on attention. You'll be employee #2 in IT, meaning you'll shape how we do things.Responsibilities:
- Remote Network Operations: Monitor and manage correctional facility networks from our St. Louis hub, ensuring educational services stay online across multiple states
- Field Deployments: Travel to facilities for hands-on troubleshooting, upgrades, and new deployments
- Stakeholder Communication: Translate technical issues into plain English for DOC administrators while also going deep on technical details with third-party contractors
- Infrastructure Management: Maintain our current Foreman/Wazuh/Boundary stack while helping plan our technical evolution
- Creative Problem-Solving: Diagnose issues in environments where you can't just "pop over to check the server room"
- Security Operations: Monitor and respond to security events in highly sensitive environments
- Relationship Building: Develop trust with correctional staff who need to believe you'll fix their problems, even from 2,000 miles away
Qualifications:
- Experience managing remote infrastructure (MSP, field service, distributed sites)
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex issues to non-technical stakeholders AND dive deep with technical vendors
- Comfort with network fundamentals and Linux systems
- History of solving problems with limited physical access
- Patience and professionalism when working with stressed, non-technical clients
- Ability to obtain security clearance for correctional facilities
- Willingness to travel to unique locations (expenses covered)
- Passion for using technology to drive social change
- Bonus Points For:
- Experience with Foreman, Wazuh, HashiCorp Boundary
- Background in secure or challenging environments (military, oil/gas, rural ISP)
- Correctional or education technology experience
- Customer-facing technical role experience (solutions engineer, technical account manager)
- Network certifications (CCNA, Network+, Meraki)
- Stories about fixing things everyone else said couldn't be fixed remotely
- Experience being the "translator" between technical and non-technical teams
About Us:
Unlocked Labs is a non-profit organization that partners with correctional educators and state corrections departments to design technology infrastructure to better deploy programs and track outcomes, in order to understand efficacy and inform best practices in the justice system.
Our team, which includes justice-impacted software developers, technology industry experts, and education and corrections professionals, works to:
- Build the open-source, public infrastructure is needed to support correctional program outcomes.
- Train, employ, and empower justice-impacted individuals to obtain upwardly-mobile careers upon release.
- Serve as thought-leaders in the correctional education and workforce development space to promote human-centered outcomes and enable smart decarceration.
What we offer:
Unlocked Labs' theory of change is that, by empowering individuals to take charge of their own futures, we can both unlock their upward mobility and create a fairer justice system. This applies to our employees, too: it's important to us that our team members can pursue the skills and projects they want to build their long-term future. Not only are we a mission-aligned organization, but individual growth and satisfaction is paramount to our organization's success. Have an idea that you want to roll out? Want to change up one of our processes or implement new software? Looking to learn a new skill and apply it? Come up with a plan and pitch it; we'll give feedback around implementing it.
We also provide a wide range of benefits:
- Competitive salary
- Group Health Insurance
- Group Dental and Vision Insurance
- Team outings to local businesses of St. Louis
- Free drinks and snacks at our coworking space
- ~25 paid days off, not including holidays: 15 days of PTO, to be used at your discretion; a team-wide “Wellness Week,” where the entire team is off; and the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.