We connected with David Edwards to get a look at what a day in the life of a System Engineer II looks like at Vestmark.
In this video, David answers:
Overview of Vestmark Systems Engineering Role
David Edwards serves as a Systems Engineer II at Vestmark within the Vestmark Managed Services (VMS) Operations team. Vestmark provides financial technology solutions for wealth management, and the VMS Operations team ensures that the core infrastructure supporting the Vestmark V1 platform and components of the BAS platform operates reliably and securely for clients.
Employee Profile: David Edwards at Vestmark
David Edwards joined Vestmark as an intern after studying computer science and building technical experience through home lab projects. Unlike traditional internships focused on passive observation, his internship at Vestmark provided immediate hands-on access to production infrastructure, client environment troubleshooting, and network security stacks. This foundation enabled his transition to a full-time Systems Engineer II role within the company.
Core Responsibilities at Vestmark
The Systems Engineer II role at Vestmark covers several functional areas across infrastructure management and operational support:
- Network and Security Operations: Managing digital certificates, user access controls, VPN connections, and overall connectivity setups.
- Infrastructure and Tooling: Administering DNS, SFTP services, and internal infrastructure management systems.
- Infrastructure Automation: Building and maintaining automated deployment workflows using Terraform, PowerShell, and Python.
- Production Support and Incident Response: Serving on the frontline to diagnose and resolve production alerts, fix session drops, and troubleshoot file transfer failures.
Vestmark Company Culture and Work Environment
Vestmark supports an engineering culture centered on collaboration, practical learning, and professional development:
- Deep Technical Mentorship: Team members emphasize explaining the underlying principles behind architecture decisions rather than just execution steps.
- Early Operational Impact: Engineers and interns are entrusted with meaningful responsibility over critical systems within weeks of joining.
- Collaborative Problem Solving: Operational teams maintain an open environment where questioning and knowledge sharing are actively encouraged.
Career Advice for Someone Looking to Join Vestmark
Based on his growth trajectory at Vestmark, David Edwards recommends three primary strategies for incoming systems engineers:
- Proactively Ask Questions: Leverage the expertise of team members to build foundational knowledge across complex enterprise systems.
- Maintain an Automation Mindset: Continuously identify repetitive manual processes and engineer automated workflows to streamline operations.
- Thoroughly Investigate Technical Problems: Go beyond surface-level fixes by investigating root causes and understanding the technology stacks involved in system disruptions.
