Senior System Administrator

Position: Senior System Administrator
Location: Fort Meade, MD

Employment Type: Full-time

**MUST have an Active Secret Clearance and ability to meet DoD security standards.**

Overview:
We are seeking a highly skilled Senior System Administrator to support one of our clients technical projects. This role will facilitate the semi and fully automated installation of new environments, working with hardened Docker images running in a K8s Kubernetes cluster, and monitoring the system and application.

This project represents a multiyear effort for IT Modernization and Transformation requiring tested, secure, and hardened software solutions. The ideal candidate should be able to configure, manage/monitor cloud, and on premise Kubernetes environments running on Red Hat servers. Experience with several cloud environments including AWS and Azure is a plus. Looking for a self-motivated individual who proactively completes tasks with a strong attention to detail. The candidate must be able to work independently and as part of a team. Minimally, the candidate should have Linux, Kubernetes, shell scripting, Terraform, Ansible, and Cloud and VMWare administration experience.

Key Responsibilities:

• Monitoring the health of Kubernetes clusters and responding to incidents
• Providing support for implementation, hardening, troubleshooting, patching, and maintenance of RHEL VMs and Kubernetes.
• Creating and managing automation scripts for configuration, backup, and restoration of RHEL and Kubernetes based environments using Terraform, Ansible, and bash/PERL/Python scripting languages.
• Creation of automated release operations as well as the advancement of desired state automated CICD Pipelines using Jenkins.
• Providing support to critical IT systems including day-to-day operations, monitoring and problem resolution.
• Monitoring cloud resource key metrics.
• Configuring load balancing, Backup/restore and other storage-centric duties.
• Understanding and configuring monitoring capabilities for Kubernetes and the system applications (Kibana, Prometheus, etc.)

Required Qualifications:

• Must have a BS in Computer Science or a related field - plus 8 years of related experience or 12-15 years of experience in Computer Science in lieu of a degree
• Must have at least two (2) years of experience in the implementation and technical support of multi-system networks, to encompass diagnosing network performance shortcomings and designing and implementing performance improvements.
• Must have at least two (2) years of experience implementing network solutions for complex, high performance systems composed of UNIX or LINUX-based hardware platforms.
• AWS or Azure Cloud System/Service Certification
• Experience with patch management and lifecycle management of Kubernetes clusters.
• Proficiency in upgrading and patching Kubernetes components while ensuring minimal downtime and compatibility with Red Hat servers.
• Experience with VMware-based Kubernetes environments, including integration with vSphere, vCenter, and VM management tools.
• Proficient with the installation and maintenance of OSS Kubernetes clusters
• Proficient in building CI pipelines with Gitlab or similar tools
• Proficient in containerizing applications of various types with Docker
• Must understand how to create persistent storage volumes in Kubernetes.
• Must have experience with Ansible and Terraform 

Preferred Technical Skills:

• At least two (2) years’ experience writing software scripts using scripting languages such as Perl, or Python, for software automation.
• Experience in several Cloud environments
• Technical experience and knowledge of peer-to-peer distributed storage networks, peer-to-peer routing, and application messaging frameworks.
• Significant experience provisioning and sustaining network infrastructures and have experience developing, operations, and managing networks required to operate in a secure PKI, IPSEC, or VPN enabled environment.
• Experience implementing log aggregation and monitoring using the ELK stack.

Additional Requirements:

• Active Secret Clearance and ability to meet DoD security standards.
• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Ability to work onsite at Fort Meade, MD.

The Michelle Martin Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.