IT Systems Administrator (Linux Admin)

CHAOS Industries•Washington, DC

5d•$140,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

CHAOS Industries is seeking a Senior IT Systems Administrator with deep Linux expertise to design, build, secure, and operate Linux infrastructure used by engineering and program teams. The role is responsible for reliable, patched, and compliant servers, services, and cloud workloads in a defense environment, with an emphasis on uptime and data protection. As a senior technical lead, this person sets Linux systems engineering standards, handles complex issues, mentors teammates, and partners with cybersecurity, service desk, engineering, and program teams. The position owns the Linux server environment, including architecture, configuration management, patching, monitoring, backup and recovery, and hardening. It also leads infrastructure projects such as platform migrations, site standups, and environment consolidations. The role includes an on-call rotation, occasional after-hours maintenance windows, and minimal travel of up to roughly 10% for office and site visits. Work is primarily sedentary at a computer, with occasional lifting of equipment up to 25 pounds and work in server or network rooms.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
At least 3 years of progressive experience administering enterprise Linux server environments such as RHEL, Rocky, CentOS, Ubuntu, or Debian.
Expert command-line and troubleshooting skills, with deep knowledge of systemd, networking, storage (LVM, file systems, NFS), and performance tuning.
Strong Bash and Python scripting and automation skills, and experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible.
Experience hardening Linux systems and remediating vulnerabilities in a regulated environment, including SELinux, auditd, DISA STIG or CIS baselines, and NIST SP 800-171 or CMMC requirements.
Experience integrating Linux with enterprise identity services (Active Directory, LDAP, Kerberos, SSSD) and managing SSH, sudo, and privileged access.
Experience owning patch management, monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery, including testing restores and meeting recovery objectives.
Track record of leading infrastructure projects and mentoring other engineers, with strong documentation and communication skills.
U.S. person status, as required for access to CUI and export-controlled data (ITAR/EAR).

Nice To Haves

Experience running Linux in Azure, AWS, Azure Government, or Microsoft GCC High environments, including hybrid and multi-cloud designs.
Experience with containers and orchestration (Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes) and virtualization platforms such as KVM or VMware.
Linux or cloud certification such as RHCSA, RHCE, LFCS, or Azure or AWS Associate-level certification; security certification such as Security+ or CISSP.
Experience with infrastructure as code and CI/CD tooling such as Terraform, Git-based workflows, or pipelines.
Experience supporting CMMC, NIST 800-171, or FedRAMP assessments, and an active U.S. government security clearance or ability to obtain one.

Responsibilities

Architect, administer, and maintain physical, virtual, and cloud Linux server environments across Red Hat-family and Debian-family distributions, including provisioning, configuration, patching, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
Design and maintain automation and configuration management using Ansible, shell, and Python to standardize builds, enforce configuration, and streamline patching, reporting, and routine administration.
Build and maintain hardened, standardized server images and templates aligned with DISA STIG and CIS benchmarks, including SELinux, auditd, and FIPS-validated cryptography where required.
Manage Linux storage and networking, including LVM, file systems, NFS, DNS, firewalls, and performance and capacity tuning.
Integrate Linux systems with enterprise identity services, including Active Directory, LDAP, Kerberos, and SSSD, and enforce SSH key management, sudo policy, MFA, and privileged access controls.
Deploy and manage Linux workloads in virtualized and cloud environments, including Azure and AWS virtual machines, and support containerized workloads where applicable.
Serve as technical lead and final escalation point for complex incidents, perform root-cause analysis, and drive permanent fixes.
Mentor and coach junior systems administrators and service desk staff; set technical standards, best practices, and peer review practices.
Lead infrastructure projects from planning through delivery, including platform migrations, site buildouts, and integration of newly acquired environments.
Own backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity design for Linux systems, including regular restore testing and recovery objectives.
Monitor system health, logs, and performance using centralized monitoring and logging tools, and remediate vulnerabilities in partnership with cybersecurity.
Support compliance requirements such as CMMC, NIST SP 800-171, and FedRAMP by maintaining configuration documentation, logs, and access reviews and providing audit evidence.
Review technical designs and changes, follow change control processes, and communicate maintenance windows and impacts to stakeholders.
Evaluate and recommend tools and technologies, and contribute to the infrastructure roadmap, capacity planning, and budget inputs.
Create and maintain system documentation, runbooks, and architecture diagrams.
Participate in an on-call rotation and occasional after-hours maintenance windows for critical systems.
Travel occasionally to company offices and new sites, up to roughly 10%.