Systems & IT Engineer (w/m/d) 80-100%

Papers AG; Switzerland; On-site; EUR 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days vacation year-round

Hybrid/home-office options

Support for learning and development

Job summary

Papers AG is seeking an experienced DevOps/SRE engineer to own and evolve our Linux-based infrastructure. You will manage bare-metal servers, apply patches, and maintain CI/CD pipelines with GitLab CI.

You will implement Ansible-based IaC, secure the environment with proper TLS and access controls, and support on-call rotations for mission-critical services including blockchain components. English communication is essential.

Qualifications

• 3+ years hands-on experience in DevOps, SRE, or infrastructure roles.
• Proficient with Linux/Ubuntu system administration on self-managed servers.
• Comfortable with Docker / Docker Compose and CI/CD workflows (GitLab CI).
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Ansible).
• Confident with Nginx, TLS, shell scripting, and practical networking.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.

Responsibilities

• Manage and improve our self-hosted Linux-based infrastructure (Ubuntu) on bare-metal servers.
• Maintain OS/security updates and keep applications up to date.
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI); build images, push to registry.
• Set up and optimize Docker and Docker Compose deployments.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning with Ansible and define backup strategies.
• Run our observability stack (Telegraf/InfluxDB/Grafana; Graylog) and manage alerts.

Skills

DevOps

SRE

Linux administration

Docker & Docker Compose

GitLab CI

Ansible

Nginx & TLS

Security fundamentals

Scripting (Bash, Python)

English communication

Tools

GitLab CI

Docker

Docker Compose

Ansible

Nginx

TLS/Certificates

Telegraf/InfluxDB/Grafana

Graylog

PagerDuty

Azure Active Directory

PostgreSQL

Job description

Please note that for this position, we'll only consider applications from people who are already living in Switzerland.

About Papers

Papers is a software engineering company founded on high-tech talent. We support the full lifecycle of innovative web3 products — from concept to software market fit — building secure, scalable futures for our clients and the internet at large.

With over a decade of experience and a reputation built on delivering for Fortune 500s and blockchain ecosystems, our teams combine deep technical know-how with a mission to enable meaningful, decentralized innovation.

As an engineering-driven team, we work with autonomy and purpose. Our culture is built on meritocracy, long-term thinking, and a commitment to quality over buzz. We aim to collaborate with people who love tech for its own sake and want to help shape the future by solving real-world challenges.

Tasks

Your Responsibilities

• Manage and improve our self-hosted, Linux-based infrastructure (Ubuntu) running on a fleet of dedicated/bare-metal servers
• Keep servers patched and up to date (OS/security updates, reboots) and maintain the various applications we self-host
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI): build images, push to the GitLab Container Registry
• Set up and optimize Docker and Docker Compose deployments
• Automate infrastructure and host provisioning with Ansible
• Define and enforce backup strategies and disaster-recovery processes.
• Run our observability stack — Telegraf + InfluxDB + Grafana for metrics and alerting (alerts route to Teams/PagerDuty), Graylog for log aggregation — and write runbooks for the alerts
• Administer Microsoft 365 / Entra ID (Azure AD) — identity & access management, MFA, Conditional Access, SSO, and email/collaboration security
• Own and continuously improve our security posture: SSH/host hardening, firewalls, secrets management, least-privilege access, periodic access reviews, and incident response
• Participate in on-call rotations to support critical services (incl. the Acurast blockchain/bridge infrastructure)
• Collaborate with backend engineers to streamline integration and delivery
• Continuously identify and automate repetitive tasks to reduce manual intervention

Tech Stack Overview

You'll be working with:

• Linux (Ubuntu), bare-metal/dedicated hosts
• GitLab CI, Docker, Docker Compose
• Ansible (infrastructure-as-code)
• Nginx, Let's Encrypt/certbot
• Telegraf, InfluxDB, Grafana (metrics + alerting); Graylog (logs), PagerDuty
• PostgreSQL, NATS, NetBird (mesh VPN)
• Microsoft 365 / Entra ID (Azure AD) — identity, MFA, Conditional Access
• Scripting: Bash, Python

Requirements

Your Profile

• 3+ years of hands-on experience in DevOps, SRE, or infrastructure roles
• Proficient with Linux/Ubuntu system administration on self-managed servers
• Comfortable with Docker / Docker Compose and CI/CD workflows (GitLab CI)
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Ansible especially)
• Confident with Nginx, TLS, shell scripting, and practical networking (reverse proxies, firewalls, VPN/overlay networks)
• Comfortable owning a metrics/alerting stack and responding to incidents
• Solid grasp of security fundamentals: identity & access management (MFA/SSO, least privilege), host hardening, secrets handling, and patch management
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English
• Self-driven, self-organized, pragmatic, and comfortable working independently

Benefits

Bonus if you have:

• Background in blockchain/web3 infrastructure (we run Acurast network and bridge services)
• Microsoft 365 / Entra ID administration (Conditional Access, Intune, Defender)
• Deeper security background: hardening, vulnerability/patch management, or a security certification
• Experience operating a TIG stack (Telegraf/InfluxDB/Grafana) or other time-series monitoring
• Managed-cloud experience (GCP/AWS/Azure) and Kubernetes/Helm
• Terraform or other declarative IaC (transferable to our Ansible setup)
• Contributions to open-source projects
• Experience scaling infrastructure in startup or high-growth environments

Why join Papers?

• Work with cutting-edge web3 clients and technology.
• 25 days paid vacation per year.
• 2 days of home office per week possible
• High ownership, low bureaucracy — your voice matters.
• Influence the DevOps strategy from day one.
• Regular team events and retreats when possible.
• Learning and development supported.