Title: Infrastructure Specialist Location: Houston, TX Who we are: Voted one of the Nation's Best and Brightest Companies to Work for, Kuraray America, Inc. (KAI) is a global leader in specialty chemical, fiber, and resin production. With top-of-the-line research and production facilities and a vast network of supplies from around the world, Kuraray leads the industry in specialty dental, fiber, resin, and elastomer products. Kuraray America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuraray Company, Ltd. Based in Tokyo, Japan. Kuraray has operations in 32 countries and employs more than 12,000 employees, including over 800 in the United States. Why Kuraray: Kuraray is building a better tomorrow, today. Our team members are dedicated to expanding our business with committed professionals who share essential values such as integrity, excellence, teamwork, and accountability. As a part of Kuraray America, Inc., our team shares the advantages of working for the leader in specialty chemicals, resins, and fibers. Our international presence and resources allow us to be a world-leading innovator in the industries we service. Yet, despite our size, our people are more than just a number. As a new team member, you can expect to earn responsibility quickly. Our commitment to our people is visible in our comprehensive benefits package. As a Kuraray team member, you will have the opportunity to enjoy competitive salaries and benefits, incentive opportunities, and an excellent work environment. Position Summary: The Network Administrator supports the day-to-day operation, maintenance, security, and performance of the organization's network environment across corporate, manufacturing, and remote locations. Working under the direction of senior infrastructure team members, this role monitors network services, performs standard configurations, troubleshoots connectivity issues, maintains documentation, and assists with network upgrades and projects. More complex design decisions and high-impact issues are escalated to senior team members or leadership. Responsibilities: The Infrastructure Specialist supports the day-to-day operation, maintenance, security, and performance of the organization's IT infrastructure across corporate, manufacturing, and remote locations. This role supports network, server, virtualization, storage, backup, and core infrastructure services; monitors system performance; troubleshoots technical issues; maintains documentation; and assists with infrastructure upgrades and improvement initiatives. Working collaboratively with IT, cybersecurity, OT, business teams, and service providers, the Infrastructure Specialist helps maintain reliable and secure technology services. More complex design decisions and high-impact issues are escalated to senior infrastructure resources or leadership. Network and Infrastructure Administration - Configure, administer, and maintain network and infrastructure technologies, including switches, routers, firewalls, wireless, servers, virtualization, storage, backup, and related systems across multiple locations. - Support LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, Internet and VPN connectivity, including VLANs, IP addressing, routing, DNS, DHCP, wireless connectivity, and network authentication. - Administer and support core infrastructure services, including Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, virtual environments, storage, and backup platforms. Infrastructure Security, Maintenance and Recovery - Support network and infrastructure security through segmentation, access controls, firewall policies, secure remote connectivity, patching, firmware updates, and vulnerability remediation in coordination with cybersecurity. - Perform routine infrastructure maintenance and upgrades using established change-management procedures and assist with hardware and technology lifecycle activities. - Support infrastructure redundancy, backups, recovery, fai over testing, and disaster recovery activities to maintain business continuity. Monitoring, Troubleshooting and Performance - Monitor network, server, virtualization, storage, and backup environments for availability, performance, utilization, and capacity. - Troubleshoot network, server, wireless, authentication, storage, backup, and connectivity issues using appropriate diagnostic tools, resolving issues within the scope of the role and escalating more complex problems as needed. - Analyze recurring issues and performance trends to identify opportunities to improve infrastructure reliability and capacity. Infrastructure Planning and Continuous Improvement - Support infrastructure improvements related to site expansions, equipment refreshes, connectivity, server resources, storage, backup capacity, and changing business requirements. - Stay current on network and infrastructure technologies, product lifecycles, and vendor recommendations and assist in evaluating solutions that improve reliability, security, and operational effectiveness. - Use scripting or automation tools, where appropriate, to improve routine administration, reporting, and configuration activities. Documentation, Compliance and Collaboration []{style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans- "}
