Associate Linux Systems & Datacenter Infrastructure Engineer

Innovative Defense Technologies•Fall River, MA

12h•$70,000 - $116,000•Onsite

About The Position

Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT), a leading defense software company, is seeking an Associate Linux Systems & Datacenter Infrastructure Engineer to support our Fall River, Massachusetts office. The Associate Engineer will have a foundational exposure to technology through a degree or dedicated personal technical projects but is ultimately defined by an aggressive drive for knowledge. Technical proficiency can be taught, but a relentless motivation to understand how systems work under the hood cannot. If you are someone who actively seeks out complex technical challenges, builds out home labs, pushes past surface-level answers, and is highly motivated to kickstart a career in enterprise-scale cloud infrastructure, you are the right fit for this team. In this role, you will bridge the gap between academic/personal technology projects and advanced datacenter engineering. You will support the day-to-day operations of our private cloud services under the direct mentorship of senior engineers, handling immediate tactical infrastructure needs. While your ultimate career path here will involve deep-dive software development, kernel optimization, and advanced architectures, you will immediately execute daily operations—ranging from physical server deployments to basic workflow automation—while actively absorbing the advanced skills required to design, secure, and maintain complex, diskless VMware and centralized storage environments. All applicants must currently possess an active Secret U.S. Security Clearance. This is an on-site position. Requiring at least 5 days in office, based out of our Fall River, MA location.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, information systems, computer engineering, or related field of engineering, or equivalent hands-on technical background.
0–2 years of experience (relevant internships, dedicated university lab work, or complex personal technical projects will be heavily considered).
Ability to travel up to 10% of the time as needed
Physical capability and willingness to work hands-on in a physical datacenter environment (racking equipment, lifting servers, running cable runs).
Demonstrated ability to shift from one project to another in an agile work environment.
Ability to communicate technical approaches and details within small project teams.
Ability to capture technical approaches, designs, block diagrams, and implementations in written and graphical form
Active Secret U.S. Security Clearance.

Nice To Haves

High Motivation & Curiosity: A strong internal drive to learn advanced infrastructure concepts and apply them practically.
Personal Technical Projects: Experience building home labs, setting up personal servers, exploring open-source tools, or tinkering with Linux environments outside of classwork.
Ownership & Urgency: A clear sense of responsibility for system availability and operational execution.
Analytical Troubleshooting: Solid analytical abilities, coupled with the ability to methodically deconstruct a complex problem down to its root cause.
Exposure to virtualization hypervisors (VMware ESXi, Proxmox, KVM) via academic labs or home projects.
Familiarity with configuration management tools like Ansible or version control like Git.
Basic classroom understanding of enterprise storage concepts (iSCSI, NFS) or networking concepts (VLANs, firewalls).
Security+ or equivalent level I or II IAT/IAM certification (DoD Directives 8140/8570), VMware, or Red Hat certifications highly encouraged.

Responsibilities

Assist with building, racking, stacking, and bringing new enterprise physical server systems online. Learn cabinet physical layouts, including running and terminating high-density network and power cabling.
Handle daily operational sysadmin tasks, including account provisioning, access controls, permissions management, and infrastructure triage.
Learn to troubleshoot and resolve physical hardware component failures (drives, memory, power supplies) across enterprise server stacks.
Troubleshoot localized physical and logical connection issues (checking links, verifying IP assignments, basic ping/traceroute diagnostics).
Identify repetitive manual tasks and build out automated solutions using shell scripting (Bash) or Python to streamline routine administrative workflows.
Assist with system hardening, vulnerability remediation, and applying security patches to maintain strict system integrity.
Actively shadow senior engineering staff to master the Linux boot process, custom image generation, enterprise virtualization (VMware), and central storage architectures.
Contribute to a vibrant team atmosphere built on camaraderie, mutual support, and a shared commitment to excellence, balancing hard work with community and fun.