Linux System Engineer

aqua IT; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Aqua IT in Chantilly, VA seeks an experienced Linux Systems Engineer to support a mission-critical identity and access management platform. You will provide lifecycle engineering support and collaborate with development and operations to meet customer requirements.

The role emphasizes strong Linux expertise, AWS experience, and proficiency with scripting, automation, and agile collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket. Candidates should have 4–6 years of related work experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related discipline and 4-6 years of experience.
• Proactive self-starter with excellent communication skills.
• 2+ years of AWS (S3, EC2, Reserved Instances, etc.).
• Experience troubleshooting OSI model layers 4-7.
• Familiar with system engineering documentation (network diagrams, data flows).
• Experience with Agile tools such as Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket.

Responsibilities

• Provide Tier II support for customer-facing issues.
• Perform root cause analysis (RCA) and mitigation; communicate findings and feedback to development.
• Act as SME to review metrics, system health, and performance; implement proactive measures.
• Develop scripts to automate tasks and use playbook-based automation as needed.
• Manage COTS and GOTS software products across environments.
• Coordinate with Enterprise Services to ensure security compliance.
• Interface with customers and external teams to diagnose access issues.
• Utilize visualization to understand workflows and identify bottlenecks.

Skills

Linux

AWS

Network troubleshooting

Bash scripting

Python scripting

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or related discipline

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Bitbucket

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Overview

Aqua IT is seeking an experienced Linux Systems Engineer to provide support to a mission critical enterprise identity and access management system. A successful candidate will develop an understanding of the services offered to external organizations, provide lifecycle systems engineering support to development and operations on the program, and use a combination of technical and functional expertise to recommend solutions to satisfy customer requirements.

Responsibilities

• Provide support to Tier II personnel in resolving customer-facing issues.
• Perform root cause analysis (RCA) and mitigation for operational issues. Communicate findings with interested parties and establish a feedback loop to development.
• Work as a subject matter expert (SME) to review user metrics, system health, overall performance checkouts, and implement proactive measures to support operational availability.
• Develop scripts to accomplish operational tasks, and utilize playbook-based automation processes, as necessary.
• Manage Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and Government-Off-The-Shelf (GOTS) software products in several environments.
• Work with Enterprise Services to ensure compliance with security services and applications.
• Interface with customers and outside technical teams to diagnose and mitigate access issues.
• Utilize abstract visualization skills to understand system workflows and identify bottlenecks.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related discipline plus 4-6 years of professional experience as a Systems Administrator or similar technical role.
• Proactive self-starter demonstrating a positive, willing attitude and excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Two or more years of experience with Amazon Web Services (S3 Buckets, EC2, Reserved Instances, etc.)

• Experience troubleshooting network-related issues (Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model levels 4-7)

• Familiar with System Engineering documentation creation (network diagrams, data flows, etc.)
• Experience working with Agile Team Collaboration tools such as (Jira, Confluence, BitBucket)
• Strong Linux background and familiarity with best practices of infrastructure management

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with Identity Federation, Single Sign-On, and authorization technologies (e.g. smart cards/Common Access Cards (CACs), SAML, OIDC, OAuth, Kerberos)
• Experience with Oracle COTS product experience (Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Unified Directory, Oracle WebLogic, etc.)
• Experience with Kubernetes
• Experience with scripting languages, such as Bash and Python
• Experience with LDAP (in lieu of Oracle Unified Directory experience)
• Experience with ElasticSearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK tools)
• Experience with AWS and other cloud-based architectures
• Familiar with cross domain architectures at various levels
• Experience with automated testing and monitoring
• Experience with Engineering Review Boards and Change Management