Senior DevOps Engineer

Empat; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A software development company in the UAE is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to support local infrastructure for their Autonomics platform and provide remote assistance for Kubernetes deployments. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in Linux system administration, Kubernetes, and other related technologies. This role demands collaboration and troubleshooting across various deployment models while ensuring system optimization and reliability.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps roles.
• Expert-level knowledge of Kubernetes and container orchestration.
• Proficiency with configuration management tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.

Responsibilities

• Provide remote technical support for Kubernetes deployments.
• Manage and optimize Linux servers for application deployment.
• Configure and maintain security for bare-metal and VM deployments.

Skills

Linux system administration

Kubernetes

Docker

Configuration management tools

Automation scripting (Python)

Education

Relevant certifications (e.g., RHCSA, CKA)

Tools

Ansible

Nagios

Prometheus

Job description

Overview

Empat delivers full-cycle software development grounded inresearch, empathy, and technical excellence— from system architecture and engineering toUI/UX and go-to-market.Wecarefully analyze our clients’ business needs and assist indeveloping efficient, optimized, and user-friendly solutions that bring profit.

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Senior DevOps Engineer to provide local infrastructure support for our Autonomics platform deployment directly on Linux systems in the UAE region, while also providing remote support for our Kubernetes-based deployments for other international clients.

The ideal candidate will be responsible for maintaining and optimizing both native Linux infrastructure and containerized environments, ensuring reliable operations across diverse deployment models.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps roles
• Expert-level knowledge of Kubernetes and container orchestration for remote client support
• Expert-level Linux system administration (RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu)
• Proficiency with Docker containerization and Helm package management
• Strong experience with systemd service management and process monitoring
• Proficiency with configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet, Chef)
• Experience with reverse proxies and load balancers (nginx, HAProxy, Apache)

Key Responsibilities

• Kubernetes Remote Support
• Provide remote technical support for Kubernetes-based deployments across international clients
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues in containerized environments using Docker and Helm
• Support CI/CD pipeline operations and deployment automation for Kubernetes clusters
• Assist with cluster monitoring, scaling, and performance optimization
• Collaborate with international teams on Kubernetes best practices and troubleshooting

• Linux System Administration
• Manage and optimize Linux servers for direct application deployment
• Configure and maintain system services, process management, and resource allocation
• Implement security hardening and system monitoring for bare-metal and VM deployments
• Manage service discovery and inter-service communication without orchestration layers
• Configure and optimize system-level networking, firewall rules, and load balancing

• Application Deployment & Management
• Deploy and manage Java applications directly on Linux systems
• Configure application startup scripts, service files, and process monitoring
• Implement rolling deployments and blue-green deployment strategies at the OS level
• Manage application configuration, environment variables, and secrets
• Set up and maintain application logging and log rotation

• Database Operations
• Administer and optimize Percona MySQL databases on Linux systems
• Monitor and optimize existing Redis implementations for performance and reliability
• Support and maintain OpenSearch clusters that handle analytics for our product, processing denormalized operational and historical data
• Configure and maintain Cassandra distributed databases

• Monitoring & Observability
• Implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting for Linux-based services
• Configure system-level metrics collection and performance monitoring
• Design and maintain backup strategies and disaster recovery procedures
• Monitor and optimize disk performance, memory usage, and CPU utilization
• Set up centralized logging without containerized log aggregation

• Security & Network Management
• Configure and maintain Web Application Firewalls (WAF) at the system level
• Implement security best practices for Linux system hardening
• Optimize network performance including HTTP/2 implementation
• Manage SSL/TLS certificates and security protocols
• Configure reverse proxies and load balancers (nginx, HAProxy, etc.)

• Automation & Scripting
• Develop automation scripts using Python for system administration tasks
• Create and maintain deployment automation for Linux services
• Implement configuration management using tools like Ansible or similar
• Build monitoring and alerting automation for service health
• Knowledge of backup and disaster recovery strategies for both Linux and Kubernetes environments
• Understanding of Linux networking, iptables, and system security
• Experience with system monitoring tools (Nagios, Zabbix, Prometheus)
• Familiarity with HTTP/2 protocol and web performance optimization
• Experience with disk performance tuning and storage optimization
• Strong communication skills for remote client support and troubleshooting

• Database Experience
• Percona MySQL administration and optimization on Linux
• Redis administration, performance optimization, and troubleshooting of existing implementations
• OpenSearch cluster management with experience handling analytics workloads and large-scale data processing
• Apache Cassandra deployment and maintenance on Linux systems

• Programming & Scripting
• Proficiency in Python for automation and system administration
• Strong Bash scripting capabilities
• Understanding of Java applications and deployment requirements
• Experience with deployment automation and CI/CD for Linux environments

Preferred Qualifications

• RedHat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) or similar certifications
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or similar Kubernetes certifications
• Experience working with international clients across different time zones
• Experience migrating from containerized to native Linux deployments and vice versa
• Knowledge of Java application servers (Tomcat, Jetty) and JVM tuning
• Experience with blue-green deployments on both Linux systems and Kubernetes
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code tools for Linux provisioning and Kubernetes management
• Experience with centralized configuration management
• Knowledge of Linux performance tuning and optimization
• Experience with GitOps workflows and multi-environment deployment strategies

Technical Environment

Local UAE Client: Direct Linux deployment without Kubernetes orchestration, service-to-service communication via traditional networking, system-level process management and monitoring

International Clients: Kubernetes-based containerized deployments with Docker and Helm, requiring remote support and troubleshooting; Native Linux security and firewall configuration; Traditional and modern backup and disaster recovery approaches; Multi-client environment requiring adaptability between deployment models