Systems Administrator (Linux)

Bluestaq UK External; Lincoln; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Income protection

33 days leave (incl. bank holidays)

Private medical cover

Development support

Job summary

Bluestaq Limited is seeking a Linux systems administrator to join our UK team. You will maintain the AWS-based Linux estate that supports NATO delivery, handling day‑to‑day incidents and small changes, with escalation to senior engineers as needed.

This is an individual contributor role reporting to the Systems Administration Manager. You will work across test and production environments, contribute to automation, security, and on‑call coverage, and travel for onboarding as required.

Qualifications

• Hands-on Linux administration in production environments.
• Experience with cloud/on-prem environments (Azure/VMware).
• Scripting in Bash or Python and a drive to automate.
• Ability to troubleshoot using logs, status tools and documentation.
• Understanding of change control and security in a production estate.
• Strong communication and customer-service mindset.

Responsibilities

• Support enterprise systems across test and production environments, on cloud and on‑premises.
• Drive tickets and incidents from triage to resolution, prioritising your queue by severity and impact.
• Install, configure and secure common services, making small, low‑risk changes safely and verifying impact.
• Carry out patching, upgrades, backups and monitoring checks under change control.
• Propose small operational improvements: better alerts, clearer docs, simple automation.
• Support internal teams, data providers and data consumers.
• Participate in UK operational coverage, including on‑call rotation with the US team.

Skills

Linux administration

Azure / VMware

Scripting (Bash / Python)

Incident management

Troubleshooting

Automation mindset

Tools

Confluence

Jira

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

About Bluestaq Limited

Bluestaq starts with our people. We are looking for teammates who THINK strategically, SERVE the mission and LEAD from wherever they stand. If you bring curiosity, ownership and a thirst for delivery, we would like to hear from you.

Every society runs on invisible systems; Bluestaq is that, for data. Bluestaq Ltd is the UK sovereign subsidiary of Bluestaq LLC (Colorado Springs, USA), and we build the secure data infrastructure that allied operations depend on: mission-critical solutions, flowing through thousands of global users, from ingest to publication in milliseconds, for customers spanning the NATO, Five Eyes and wider allied partners.

We are in our formative years in the UK, building on proven foundations in the USA and Australia. That means real opportunity, early: decisions at your level, and colleagues who know their craft and trust you to know yours.

The Role

You will be the first line of response for Bluestaq’s UK systems, keeping the Linux estate that supports our NATO delivery running day to day on AWS. You will own routine incidents and small changes through to resolution. When a problem needs deeper expertise, you will elevate to our Senior Systems Administrators and learn from how they resolve it.

This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports, reporting to the Systems Administration Manager, with a clear technical path that does not require you to become a manager.

What You Will Do

• Support enterprise systems across test and production environments, in cloud and on-premises estates.




• Drive tickets and incidents from triage to resolution, prioritising your own queue on severity and impact.




• Install, configure and secure common services, making small, low-risk changes safely and verifying their impact.




• Carry out patching, upgrades, backups and monitoring checks under change control, and act on scan findings and logs.




• Propose small operational improvements: better alerts, clearer documentation, simple automation.




• Support internal teams, data providers, data owners and data consumers.




• Take part in UK operational coverage, including on-call rotation and structured handovers with the US team.

What You Bring

• Hands-on Linux administration in a live production environment. Experience on Microsoft Azure, VMware vSphere or similar platforms is transferable.




• A working understanding of how operating systems, networking, identity, storage and applications interact, including access control and permissions, and the ability to troubleshoot common faults using logs, status tools and documentation.




• Scripting in Bash, Python or similar, and an instinct to automate what should not be done by hand.




• Curiosity and method: you want to know why something broke, not just that it is working again, and you record what you did and why.




• Confidence handling user and system issues independently most of the time, within a ticketing or ITSM workflow, and an understanding of why change control matters in a secure estate.




• Ownership and a customer-service mindset: you communicate calmly and clearly with technical and non-technical colleagues, follow through, ask for help at the right moment and take responsibility for your own development.




• Judgement with AI tools: applying them where they help, reviewing what they produce and handling sensitive data responsibly.

Essential Conditions

• Right to work in the UK.




• Ability to meet the security requirements above.




• Willingness to work 10-hour shifts on a four-on, four-off rota, including weekends and bank holidays. Night shifts may follow as further systems come online and the service moves to 24/7.




• Willingness and eligibility to travel to Bluestaq headquarters in the United States for onboarding, and occasionally to sites across the UK and Europe thereafter.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with NATO structures, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), the MOD or other allied defence programmes.




• Linux certification such as RHCSA or LPIC-1, or CompTIA Linux+, Network+ or Security+.




• Exposure to configuration management or infrastructure‑as‑code tooling such as Ansible or Terraform.




• Exposure to containerised platforms such as Docker or Kubernetes.




• Experience with Confluence and Jira or similar platforms.

Why Join Us

• Workplace pension through salary exchange.




• Group income protection and group life assurance from day one.




• 33 days’ annual leave including bank holidays, applied to your shift pattern.




• Private medical cover and 24/7 remote GP access for you and your family.




• Professional subscription support and ongoing development.

Bluestaq Ltd is an Armed Forces Covenant signatory. Service leavers and reservists who know watch‑keeping, escalation and operating under pressure will recognise this work.

Bluestaq Ltd is committed to an inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, including career returners, service leavers, reservists and people underrepresented in defence technology. We recruit on capability and potential in line with the Equality Act 2010. If you need reasonable adjustments at any stage, tell us when you apply.

We are proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant. Service leavers and reservists who know watch‑keeping, escalation and operating under pressure will find this role speaks their language.

Join the Mission

Protect data that matters. Build capability the United Kingdom depends on. Launch into operations, not pitch decks.

Bluestaq Limited is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, including those returning from career breaks, military service‑leavers, and those underrepresented in the defence technology sector. We make recruitment decisions based on merit, in line with the Equality Act 2010.

When you apply to a job on this site, the personal data contained in your application will be collected byBluestaq LLC ("Controller"), located at 2 S. Cascade Ave., Ste 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, contactable at [e-mail]. Controller’s data protection officer is Ashley Higgins, who can be contacted at [e-mail].

Your personal data will be processed for the purposes of managing Controller’s recruitment activities, including setting up and conducting interviews and assessments, evaluating results, and other steps in the recruitment and hiring process. This processing is lawful under Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR as necessary for Controller’s legitimate interests in soliciting, evaluating, and selecting applicants for employment.

Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider based in the United States engaged by Controller to help manage recruitment on its behalf. Your data will accordingly be transferred to the United States once submitted. Greenhouse is certified under the UK Extension to the EU‑U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which the UK government has confirmed provides an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the UK.

Your personal data will be retained for 180 days from the date of your application, reflecting the time limit (including possible extensions) for bringing recruitment‑related legal claims in the UK, after which it will be deleted or anonymised. If you are hired, your application data will become part of your employee record, retained in accordance with our employee privacy notice.

Under the UK GDPR, you have the right to request access to, rectification of, or erasure of your personal data, and to request that processing be restricted. You also have the right to object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests, and the right to data portability. You may lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113.