Systems Administrator III (Senior Linux/Unix Systems Engineer)

Title: Senior Linux/Unix Systems Engineer
Location: Washington, DC (hybrid). Telework with onsite support (Hybrid -2 days/week flexible)
work hours: Standard 8hrs, 8-5 Some weekend or off hours support.
Duration: 6 months, FTE Possible.
Interview: One Panel interview Virtual (Possibly 2).
Security clearance: Public Trust.

Senior Linux/Unix Systems Engineer supporting the Federal Trade Commission, you are the senior technical authority for the agency s Linux platform. You will design, engineer, and modernize the RHEL and Oracle Linux environment that hosts mission applications, set the standards the rest of the team builds to, and serve as the final escalation point when an issue exceeds Tier 1 and Tier 2 support. This is a hands-on engineering role with design ownership: you will contribute to how the platform is built, hardened, automated, and recovered, and you will mentor the administrators who operate it day to day.

Duties and Responsibilities:
Engineering and Design::
Own engineering and architecture decisions for the RHEL and Oracle Linux estate, including server builds, golden images, and platform standards.
Design and maintain the enterprise patch and configuration management architecture (Red Hat Satellite, Ansible or Ansible Automation Platform), converting manual administrative work into automated, repeatable, version-controlled workflows.
Lead operating system lifecycle and major version migration engineering, including RHEL 7/8/9 upgrade paths, Oracle Linux, and on-premises to cloud migration, with planning, risk assessment, rollback design, and execution.
Author and maintain security hardening baselines aligned to CIS Benchmarks and applicable DISA STIGs; own vulnerability scan remediation and support FISMA and NIST SP 800-53 control implementation, POA&M closure, and audit evidence.
Perform performance engineering and capacity planning, including trend analysis, right-sizing recommendations, and proactive remediation of systemic conditions rather than recurring symptoms.
Engineer high availability, backup, and disaster recovery solutions and validate them through scheduled testing.

Technical Leadership::
Serve as the senior escalation point for Linux platform incidents, lead technical bridge calls during critical outages, and author formal root cause analyses with corrective actions.
Mentor junior and mid-level administrators and conduct peer review of scripts, configurations, and change records.
Represent the Linux platform in change control, architecture review, and technical planning forums, and brief technical recommendations to government stakeholders.
Produce engineering design documentation, as-built records, and standard operating procedures.

Operations and Sustainment::
Install, configure, and maintain Linux-based servers and systems (Red Hat).
Manage system performance, monitoring, backups, and troubleshooting.
Ensure system security by configuring to CIS recommended baselines and applying patches and updates.
Collaborate with other operations teams to configure environments and troubleshoot system-related issues.
Monitor and resolve hardware, software, and networking issues in a timely manner.
Perform system upgrades, patching, and security compliance checks.
Resolve incidents and assigned tasks, and provide emergency response to critical outages.
Document system configurations, procedures, and troubleshooting steps.

Required Qualifications::
Bachelor s degree in computer science, information systems, engineering, or a related technical field, and eight (8) or more years of progressive Linux/Unix administration and engineering experience. Equivalent additional experience may substitute for the degree.
A minimum of three (3) years performing at a senior, lead, or principal level with design and architecture ownership for an enterprise Linux environment.
Senior-level RHEL administration and engineering; working knowledge of Oracle Linux.
Demonstrated experience designing and implementing enterprise automation and configuration management (Ansible or Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Satellite, or comparable tooling).
Demonstrated experience planning and executing major operating system version migrations or platform modernization efforts.
Solid understanding of networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, VPN, and related).
Experience with virtualization technologies (VMware, Hyper-V, and comparable platforms).
Expertise in shell and scripting languages (Bash, Python) applied to automation, remediation, and troubleshooting.
Experience with version control tools such as Git, including version control of infrastructure and configuration artifacts.
Working knowledge of cloud infrastructure (AWS or Azure) and of on-premises to cloud migration approaches.
Applied knowledge of system security engineering, including CIS and STIG hardening, vulnerability management, and federal compliance frameworks (FISMA, NIST SP 800-53).
Demonstrated ability to complete technical projects independently, with strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
Strong problem-solving skills and excellent written and oral communication skills.

Required Certifications:
Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA).

Preferred Certifications:
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC-2).
CompTIA Linux+.
AWS or Microsoft Azure associate-level certification.
Clearance, Citizenship, and Work Conditions

Background requirements:
Must possess, or be eligible to obtain and successfully complete, a Public Trust background investigation and/or Public Trust clearance.
Location: Washington, DC (hybrid). Telework with onsite support at Headquarters at least twice per week, or as needed to meet the needs of the program.
Hours, core hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST, with occasional overtime, weekend work, or after-hours response to critical outages and scheduled maintenance windows.
Physical requirements: None required for this position.