Linux Systems Engineer

Medical Guardian•Philadelphia, PA

54d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Linux Systems Engineer is responsible for ensuring the stability, performance, and reliability of our Linux-based environment. This role focuses on proactive monitoring, process management, and system optimization, maintaining uptime and smooth operation across critical business applications. Serving as a key bridge between the infrastructure, development, and managed service provider (MSP) teams, the Linux Systems Engineer will collaborate to triage issues, coordinate escalations, automate recovery and maintenance tasks, and improve visibility across systems. This position is central to maintaining a resilient environment today while building the technical foundation for our future state in the cloud. As the organization continues migrating workloads to Azure, this role offers a clear growth path into cloud infrastructure, automation, and observability. The ideal candidate will not only strengthen current Linux operations but also evolve into a cloud or DevOps engineer, supporting the transition toward modern, scalable, and automated environments.

Requirements

3+ years of hands-on experience managing and troubleshooting Linux-based production environments (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat), supporting at least 50+ servers or VMs in enterprise or high-availability settings.
Strong knowledge of Linux internals, including:
Process management (ps, top, htop, etc.)
Systemd service configuration and management
Journald log review and tuning
Performance tuning using tools like vmstat, iostat, sar, strace.
Direct experience configuring and managing Apache web servers, including:
Virtual hosts, modules (e.g., mod_ssl, mod_rewrite)
SSL/TLS setup and certificate management (e.g., Let's Encrypt, custom CAs)
Performance optimization techniques (e.g., KeepAlive tuning, gzip, caching modules)
Monitoring and alerting experience with at least one major tool (list in resume preferred):
Datadog, Prometheus, Nagios, Zabbix, Azure Monitor, or similar
Automation experience, including:
Bash scripting for recurring tasks (share sample scripts if applicable)
Python scripting or Ansible playbooks for config management, deployments, or maintenance
Experience with network and DNS troubleshooting (e.g., dig, nslookup, tcpdump, iptables, or netstat)
Understanding of load balancing concepts (e.g., HAProxy, Nginx, or cloud-native load balancers)
Demonstrated incident response or root cause analysis contributions (please highlight real examples in resume or cover letter)
Strong documentation habits: e.g., created or maintained runbooks, internal wikis, or system diagrams
Exposure to Azure (preferred) or other cloud platforms (AWS, GCP); ideally involved in VM provisioning, resource scaling, or hybrid infrastructure setup
Familiarity with containerized environments, including:
Dockerfile creation and image management
Kubernetes basics (e.g., kubectl, pods, deployments, Helm charts)
Experience integrating monitoring or infrastructure steps into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins)
Basic understanding of web stacks from an operational standpoint:
Familiarity with at least one runtime: PHP, Node.js, or Python
Experience supporting app releases, restarts, or environment debugging
Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future need for visa sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Apache performance enhancements using PHP-FPM configuration and tuning
Experience with Jasmin SMPP Server for SMS gateway or similar messaging infrastructure
Familiarity with RabbitMQ or other message brokers (e.g., Kafka, Redis Streams)
Operational knowledge of Mosquitto MQTT or similar protocols used for IoT messaging
Exposure to hybrid web server environments (e.g., Apache with Nginx reverse proxy)

Responsibilities

Monitor system and application health using tools such as Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, or Azure Monitor.
Respond to alerts in real time, performing root cause analysis and executing immediate remediation when required.
Restart or recover Linux services, containers, and background processes safely and efficiently.
Analyze logs and system metrics to detect trends, prevent outages, and drive long-term stability improvements.
Participate in on-call rotation and defined incident response procedures.
Maintain, configure, and optimize Linux systems (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS, or Red Hat) across production and development environments.
Manage, configure, and troubleshoot Apache web servers, including virtual hosts, SSL/TLS certificates, modules, and performance tuning.
Perform updates, patching, and configuration changes in line with change management and compliance standards (HIPAA, PCI, SOC 2).
Automate maintenance and monitoring routines using Bash, Python, or Ansible.
Support operational readiness for application releases and infrastructure changes.
Work closely with application, platform, and development teams to ensure seamless deployments and stable operations.
Collaborate regularly with the Managed Service Provider (MSP) to coordinate incident response, validate system health, and ensure SLA alignment.
Participate in joint troubleshooting sessions with the MSP to identify root causes and implement permanent resolutions.
Provide detailed system insights and maintain accurate communication channels between internal IT leadership and the MSP.
Partner with Engineering and Platform teams to improve alerting, logging, and observability.
Document all processes, incident reports, and runbooks in Confluence or equivalent repositories.
Ensure system configurations align with internal security policies and compliance standards.
Maintain logging and access controls consistent with HIPAA, SOC 2, and PCI DSS expectations.
Apply the principle of least privilege and use secure methods for credential and key management.