Systems Engineer - Linux (Research Focused)

Title:

Systems Engineer - Linux (Research Focused)

Department:

Core Systems & Cloud Computing

Reports To:

Director, Core Systems Cloud Service

Position Type:

Staff

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Director of Core Systems and Cloud Services, the Systems Engineer - Linux position focuses on designing, implementing, and managing infrastructure, configuration management, and automation solutions. The role requires expertise in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ansible, and AWS Cloud technologies. This position supports research-based systems, including workstations and cloud resources such as AWS EC2 and RDS, and is critical to ensuring efficient and scalable operations in a dynamic and innovative environment.

Essential Functions:

• Maintains and optimizes Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems to ensure reliability, security, and performance.
• Implements infrastructure as code (IaC) and automates system configuration using Ansible for provisioning and configuration management.
• Manages version control using Git for infrastructure, configuration, and code changes.
• Develops and maintains custom scripts (e.g., Bash, Python) to automate tasks such as monitoring, backup, deployments, and system health checks.
• Monitors infrastructure performance and implements appropriate scaling strategies and troubleshooting.
• Implements and maintains security and compliance best practices in both cloud and on-premises environments.
• Manages system backups, disaster recovery plans, and ensures data integrity across environments.
• Any additional responsibilities as required by management.
  
  

Prerequisite Qualifications:

• 3-5 years of experience as a Linux Systems Administrator or DevOps Engineer with a focus on RHEL or similar distributions required.
• Proficiency with Ansible for configuration management and infrastructure automation.
• Strong experience with Git for version control and collaborating on scripts and configuration changes.
• Experience scripting in Bash, Python, or other relevant scripting languages to automate repetitive tasks.
• Solid understanding of networking, security (SSH, firewalls), and system performance tuning in a Linux environment.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and attention to detail.
• Effective communication skills to support interdisciplinary research teams.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a research-driven environment.
• Willingness to learn and cross train-train peers.
• At the university's discretion, the education and experience prerequisites may be exempted where the candidate can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the university, an equivalent combination of education and experience specifically preparing the candidate for success in the position
  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or equivalent certification.
• Bachelor’s degree in information systems, Computer Science, Project Management, or a related field preferred.
• Knowledge of Terraform or similar infrastructure-as-code tools.
• Hands-on experience with AWS technologies, specifically EC2, VPC, IAM, S3, RDS, and CloudFormation.
• Experience using Splunk operational intelligence tools
• Experience with NetApp storage systems.
• Understanding of monitoring and alerting solutions like CloudWatch, or Nagios.
• Experience with VMware vSphere/Nutanix for virtual machine management.
• Experience in backup and recovery technologies like Rubrik.
• Understanding of NIST 800-171, CIS benchmarks as they apply to research computing environments.
  
  

Bargaining Unit:

PSA

Range/Band:

26

FLSA:

Exempt

Full-Time