Linux Operations Engineer - 12 Month Contract

RealityMine; Stretford; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

RealityMine is seeking an Operations Engineer on a fixed-term 12-month contract to maintain and operate our VPN data capture systems. The role is Linux-heavy, focusing on server administration, deployment, capacity management and incident response in a hybrid Manchester-based team.

You will work with Puppet, PHP and Python tooling, coordinate with the Operations Team Lead and external providers, and keep systems reliable, secure and observable while documenting changes and following security

Qualifications

• Strong Linux administration experience, ideally with CentOS, AlmaLinux or similar.
• Experience operating traditional dedicated or virtual server environments.
• Confidence with deployment, configuration, patching and troubleshooting of production services.
• Experience reviewing monitoring, performance metrics, logs and alerts to diagnose operational issues.
• Ability to manage capacity thoughtfully, including decommissioning, resizing and scaling services safely.
• A proactive approach to security findings, vulnerability notifications and operational risk.
• Ability to follow established processes, document work clearly and communicate progress effectively.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to source information independently.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and administer Linux-based SVPN data capture servers and supporting services.
• Plan and execute controlled deployments, configuration updates and operational changes.
• Manage capacity across the legacy estate, including reducing unused capacity where appropriate and scaling up where customer demand requires it.
• Review metrics, performance indicators, monitoring dashboards, alarms and alerts to identify and address issues early.
• Investigate service performance, availability and reliability issues across traditional hosted server environments.
• Respond to security notifications, vulnerability findings and operational risks, coordinating remediation through agreed processes.
• Work with dedicated server and VPS providers to provision, resize, decommission or troubleshoot infrastructure.
• Use existing automation and configuration management, including Puppet, to support repeatable and controlled operations.
• Troubleshoot operational issues involving supporting PHP and Python code or scripts where needed.
• Document changes, follow established processes and communicate operational status clearly to the team.
• Adhere to company policies and procedures with respect to security, quality and health and safety.

Skills

Linux admin

CentOS/AlmaLinux

Server deployment

Monitoring

Security remediation

Documentation

Communication

Problem-solving

Tools

Puppet Bolt

PHP

Python

Job description

RealityMine is seeking an Operations Engineer on a fixed-term 12-month contract to maintain and operate our VPN data capture systems. The role is Linux-heavy, focusing on server administration, deployment, capacity management and incident response in a hybrid Manchester-based team.

You will work with Puppet, PHP and Python tooling, coordinate with the Operations Team Lead and external providers, and keep systems reliable, secure and observable while documenting changes and following security