Linux Engineer

Ignite IT•Suitland-Silver Hill, MD

About The Position

The U.S. Department of Census is seeking a highly skilled and senior-level Linux Engineer to join our core infrastructure team. This role is responsible for the engineering, administration, and support of our large-scale Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) environment, which spans RHEL 7, RHEL 8, and RHEL 9. A primary mission for this position will be to help plan, execute, and drive the enterprise-wide migration from RHEL 7 to RHEL 9. The ideal candidate must be a technical expert in RHEL system administration and possess a proven track record of managing complex OS lifecycle projects. This role requires extensive collaboration, and you will be a key technical liaison, supporting application owners by providing guidance, troubleshooting, and remediation support to ensure a seamless transition of critical services onto the new platform.

Requirements

Must be a U.S. Citizen.
Must be able to pass a background investigation to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or 4+ additional years of equivalent experience).
7+ years of dedicated experience as a Linux/RHEL Engineer or Administrator in a large-scale, 24/7 data center environment.
Expert-level proficiency with RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 system administration.
Demonstrated experience with RHEL 9, including installation, configuration, and migration.
Proven experience planning and executing a large-scale OS migration (e.g., RHEL 6 to 7, or 7 to 8/9).
Strong, documented experience supporting application owners and development teams during OS or platform migrations.
Strong proficiency in scripting and automation (Bash and/or Ansible).
Hands-on experience with Red Hat Satellite for patch management and provisioning.
Solid understanding of networking concepts (TCP/IP, VLANs, DNS) and storage (SAN/LUNs) as they relate to RHEL.

Nice To Haves

Active Public Trust clearance.
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA).
Experience with RHEL high-availability clustering and GFS2.
Experience with Red Hat Identity Management (IdM) / FreeIPA.
Familiarity with container technologies (Podman, Docker, OpenShift).
Deep knowledge of federal security hardening (STIGs, CIS Benchmarks).

Responsibilities

RHEL 7 to RHEL 9 Migration: Serve as a technical lead and subject matter expert for the RHEL 7 to RHEL 9 migration project.
Develop migration strategies, including in-place upgrades, new builds, and application re-platforming.
Actively partner with application owners to assess application compatibility with RHEL 9, identify dependencies, and develop test plans.
Provide hands-on support to application teams during migration, troubleshooting package, library, and configuration-related issues.
System Administration & Engineering: Manage the day-to-day operations of the RHEL 7, 8, and 9 server fleet, including provisioning, configuration, and decommissioning.
Develop and maintain automation solutions using Ansible, Bash, or Python for patching, configuration management, and system builds.
Manage RHEL subscriptions, repositories, and patching lifecycles using Red Hat Satellite.
Support and Security: Perform system hardening and ensure compliance with federal security standards (NIST, FISMA, and DISA STIGs).
Serve as a senior escalation point for all Linux-related incidents, performing advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
Monitor system performance, capacity, and health, implementing proactive measures to ensure stability.
Create and maintain comprehensive documentation, including system diagrams, build guides, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Participate in an on-call rotation for 24/7/365 operational support.