Senior Lead Unix / Linux Engineer

Staples India; Chennai District; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Staples India is seeking a Senior L3 Unix and Linux Engineer to drive major platform engineering and operations across enterprise environments. The role covers OS lifecycle management, upgrades, migrations, clustering, automation, and production support, with collaborations with application, network, storage, and security teams.

The candidate will work on Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 7, 8, and later, AIX, VMware workloads, and IBM Power platforms, delivering stability and continuous

Qualifications

• 15+ years enterprise Unix/Linux experience.
• Strong L3 RH Linux and AIX expertise (7.x).
• Lifecycle management, upgrades, and OS migrations.
• Experience with IBM Power platforms and VIOS.
• Pacemaker/Veritas clustering and high availability.
• Automation with Ansible; Puppet and Git workflows.
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and communication.

Responsibilities

• Provide L3 engineering support for Red Hat Linux and AIX.
• Lead OS upgrades, hardware refresh, and platform modernization.
• Own builds, patching, upgrades, remediation, decommissioning.
• Resolve complex production issues with root cause analysis.
• Drive platform stability, standardization, and automation.
• Collaborate with application teams for deployments and troubleshooting.
• Mentor L2 engineers; document and enable knowledge transfer.
• Support PCI and DMZ environments and cross-functional teams.
• Manage Pacemaker/Veritas clustering and VM workloads.

Skills

Unix/Linux admin

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

AIX

L3 engineering

Performance troubleshooting

Scripting (Shell/Bash)

Automation (Ansible)

Configuration management (Puppet)

Version control (Git/Bitbucket)

Clustering (Pacemaker/Veritas)

VMware / virtualization

Incident & problem analysis

Documentation & mentoring

Tools

Red Hat Satellite

Pacemaker clustering

Veritas clustering

NIM / VIOS

HMC

VMware

Git

Bitbucket

Jira

Job description

Staples India Business Innovation Hub Private Limited | Permanent

Senior L3 Unix and Linux Engineer with strong hands on experience in Red Hat Linux and AIX, responsible for major platform engineering and operational activities across enterprise environments. The role includes operating system lifecycle management, upgrades, migrations, clustering, automation, scripting, and production support, with active collaboration with application and infrastructure teams in PCI and DMZ environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide L3 engineering support for Red Hat Linux and AIX platforms
• Lead major Unix and Linux initiatives including OS upgrades, hardware refresh, and platform modernization
• Own build, patching, upgrades, remediation, and decommissioning activities
• Resolve complex production issues using deep root cause analysis and performance troubleshooting
• Drive platform stability, standardization, automation, and continuous improvement
• Collaborate closely with application teams on deployments, upgrades, troubleshooting, and platform needs
• Act as senior technical interface with Network, Storage, Backup, and Security teams
• Maintain documentation, support audits, enable knowledge transfer, and mentor L2 engineers
• Hands on experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 7, 8, and later
• RHEL provisioning, patching, and major operating system upgrades
• Red Hat Satellite for system builds, patching, and content lifecycle management
• Pacemaker clustering including build, maintenance, failover, and troubleshooting
• Advanced Linux troubleshooting across CPU, memory, IO, filesystem, and services
• Support Linux workloads on VMware and physical infrastructure

AIX and IBM Power Engineering

• Hands on experience supporting AIX 7.x environments
• AIX installation, upgrades, technology level and service pack maintenance
• System tuning and capacity planning
• IBM Power migrations from Power8 through Power10
• VIOS build and administration
• LPAR creation, resizing, and live partition mobility
• HMC setup and management
• NIM Master configuration for builds, upgrades, cloning, and recovery
• mksysb creation, validation, and restoration

Clustering and High Availability

• Support high availability Unix and Linux platforms
• Red Hat Pacemaker cluster administration and troubleshooting
• Veritas Cluster Server on Linux and AIX including service groups and resources
• Failover and failback operations and routine cluster maintenance
• Troubleshooting heartbeat, split brain, and resource level issues
• Partner with application teams to meet availability and resiliency requirements

Automation, Tooling, and Collaboration

• Hands on experience with Ansible for patching, validation, and operational automation
• Basic to moderate experience with Puppet for configuration management
• Working knowledge of Git and Bitbucket including branching, commits, merges, and pull requests
• Experience with Jira and Agile workflows for incident, change, and project tracking
• Strong scripting skills using Shell and Bash to automate operational tasks

Security, Storage, and Operations

• Experience supporting PCI compliant and DMZ systems
• Operating system hardening, vulnerability remediation, and audit support
• Strong understanding of ITSM processes including ServiceNow
• Operating system level storage experience with SAN, NAS, and NFS
• Coordination with Storage and Backup teams for provisioning, expansion, migration, and restore

Requirements

Environments: PCI, DMZ, Non PCI, Production and Non Production

Infrastructure: IBM Power P8 through P10, VMware, Cisco UCS, HPE Gen10 and Gen11

Required Skills and Experience

• Fifteen or more years of enterprise Unix and Linux experience
• Strong L3 expertise in Red Hat Linux and AIX 7.x
• Proven hands on experience with Linux and AIX lifecycle management and upgrades
• Strong experience with IBM Power platforms including VIOS, LPAR, and LPM
• Experience with Pacemaker and Veritas clustering solutions
• Hands on experience with Red Hat Satellite, Ansible, Puppet, and Git based workflows
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and communication skills