Senior Systems Engineer, Linux

About the role

• Aubrant Digital is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer, Linux, to own the Linux platform in a large US-based client data center supporting a 2,000+ virtual server environment (Windows and Linux). The RHEL and CentOS estate is already largely automated through Chef. You will administer RHEL 8, 9, and 10 and CentOS servers; troubleshoot kernel and system issues and tune performance; harden servers and remediate vulnerabilities; maintain and extend Chef cookbooks, using Ansible where it fits; support the monthly OS patch cycle; and coach the Infrastructure Administrators on Linux work. You will join Aubrant's cloud and infrastructure engineering group (we call it a studio), which gives you a technical leader to escalate to, peers on other engagements to call on, and a shared catalog of scripts and hardened builds to start from.

Must-Have Requirements

• 7+ years of administering Linux in enterprise data centers.

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 8 or 9) in production; CentOS experience.

• Chef in production: writing and maintaining cookbooks.

• Kernel and system-level troubleshooting and performance tuning.

• Linux security hardening and vulnerability remediation.

• Bash and Python scripting, with changes kept in a Git repository (the client uses GitHub).

• Networking fundamentals (server IP addressing, subnets, firewall rules) and the ability to explain a needed network change to the network team.

• Ability to triage and resolve tickets and alerts independently through incident, change, and problem management, escalating only when needed.

• Willingness and availability to participate in the client's seven-day on-call rotation and to shift working hours for planned overnight maintenance windows.

• Professional written and spoken English; daily collaboration with a US-based client team.

Should-Have Requirements

• Ansible for configuration management.

• RHEL 10.

• Tanium for OS patching.

• Linux on VMware vSphere.

• Azure IaaS.

• Familiarity with Datadog, Prometheus, or ServiceNow.

• Experience coaching administrators or junior engineers on Linux work.

Could-Have / Nice-to-Have Requirements

• Terraform (not widely used by the client yet, but the team is moving toward infrastructure as code).

• Relevant vendor certifications (not required; hands-on experience is valued over certificates).

Ideal Candidate Traits:

• Curious, proactive, and collaborative.

• Strong communication and teamwork skills.

• Committed to delivering solutions together, not in competition.

• Works comfortably the client's incident, change, and problem management, keeps looking for the next thing to automate, and promotes a one-team culture.