Linux Infrastructure Engineer

Northern Light • Somerville, MA

1d • $130,000 - $160,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Northern Light is seeking an experienced Linux Infrastructure Engineer to take hands-on ownership of our Linux-based infrastructure. In this role, you’ll be responsible for operating, maintaining, and evolving a mission-critical environment that runs on a mix of bare-metal and virtualized systems in our private colocation datacenter.

This is a highly technical, hands-on position for someone who enjoys working close to the hardware, values operational excellence, and thrives in environments where reliability, security, and scalability matter.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent practical experience
• 7+ years of industry experience, including 3+ years in Technical Operations or System Administration roles
• Strong Linux systems engineering experience in production environments, including high-availability and redundant architectures
• Deep expertise with RHEL-based distributions (Oracle Linux strongly preferred)
• Hands-on experience with bare-metal servers and datacenter operations (racking, cabling, inventory, hardware lifecycle)
• Experience supporting VMware and KVM-based virtualization platforms
• Working knowledge of automation and configuration management (Ansible, infrastructure-as-code concepts)
• Experience with monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, vulnerability management, and compliance-focused operations
• Familiarity with container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals and experience collaborating with network teams (switches, firewalls, load balancers)
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and cross-team collaboration skills
• On-site presence required at a private colocation facility in Somerville, MA
• Datacenter work may involve elevated noise levels and variable temperatures
• Limited after-hours or weekend maintenance and incident response (historically ~3–5 times per year)
• Must be authorized to work in the United States (unfortunately, we cannot sponsor visas).

Responsibilities

• Operate and maintain a Linux infrastructure of ~70 HPE DL360 Gen9/Gen10 bare-metal servers and ~150 virtual machines
• Administer RHEL-based systems (primarily Oracle Linux 9), including installation, patching, upgrades, and security hardening
• Support virtualization platforms, including: VMware (5 nodes, ~100 VMs), with potential future migration to Red Hat OVE KVM-based virtualization supporting Kubernetes workloads (~50 VMs)
• Perform on-site datacenter operations in a private six-rack cage, including racking, cabling, labeling, hardware replacement, and decommissioning
• Maintain and administer core infrastructure services such as: Mail relay (Sendmail) DNS (BIND) SFTP (ProFTPd) LDAP-backed authentication and authorization Package repository mirroring (Foreman) Centralized automation and orchestration (Ansible Automation Platform) On-prem GitLab Premium for version control and CI/CD
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures covering: Inventory management (NetBox) Monitoring, alerting, and observability (LogicMonitor) Incident response and root-cause analysis Vulnerability and patch management (Tenable One) Backup, recovery, and disaster recovery (Veeam)
• Participate in incident response, scheduled maintenance, and post-incident reviews
• Collaborate with vendors, service providers, and internal engineering, security, and operations teams
• Support secure, compliant infrastructure that enables product delivery and business needs

Benefits

• Benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).
• Holiday and Paid time off.
• Parental leave.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Remote flexibility and a supportive team culture.
• Opportunity to work with top global brands and cutting-edge AI solutions.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level