LINUX Systems Engineer with Security Clearance

Nightwing; Sterling (VA); On-site; USD 99,000 - 206,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

Dental insurance

401k plan

Paid time off

Job summary

Nightwing seeks a seasoned Linux Systems Engineer to design, deploy, and optimize large-scale Linux infrastructure for secure networking and remote access. You will collaborate across network, systems, and platform teams to deliver highly available, scalable environments in mission-critical settings.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years in Linux systems engineering, strong Linux networking, VPN engineering, and SaltStack automation, with top-secret clearance and SCI eligibility.

Qualifications

• Current Top-Secret Clearance with SCI Eligibility.
• 5+ years of Linux Systems Engineering experience.
• 3+ years of advanced Linux networking experience.
• 3+ years of VPN engineering experience.
• 3+ years of SaltStack administration and automation experience.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, administer, and maintain enterprise Linux environments.
• Develop standardized operating system configurations and hardened baseline builds.
• Perform OS upgrades, patching, lifecycle maintenance, and performance optimization.
• Troubleshoot complex OS, networking, and application issues.
• Design and implement advanced routing architectures (PBR, multiple tables, route maps).
• Configure and troubleshoot OSPF, VLANs, VRFs, NAT, firewall policies.
• Analyze network traffic with tcpdump, Wireshark, iproute2, nftables/iptables.
• Tune kernel for high-throughput, low-latency VPN gateway performance.
• Develop IaC with SaltStack; integrate into CI/CD and monitoring.

Skills

Linux systems engineering

Linux networking

VPN engineering

SaltStack

Python

Bash

Git

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

Tools

SaltStack

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

Job description

Pillars

Nightwing provides technologically advanced full-spectrum cyber, data operations, systems integration and intelligence mission support services to meet our customers' most demanding challenges. Our capabilities include cyber space operations, cyber defense and resiliency, vulnerability research, ubiquitous technical surveillance, data intelligence, lifecycle mission enablement, and software modernization. Nightwing brings disruptive technologies, agility, and competitive offerings to customers in the intelligence community, defense, civil, and commercial markets. Nightwing is seeking a highly skilled Linux Systems Engineer to design, deploy, optimize, automate, and support large-scale Linux infrastructure supporting secure networking and remote-access services. This role is ideal for an engineer with deep expertise in Linux networking, policy-based routing, kernel performance tuning, infrastructure automation, and modern VPN technologies including WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IPSec. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with network engineering, systems administration, and platform engineering teams to deliver highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructure solutions in mission-critical environments.

Primary Responsibilities

• Linux Infrastructure Engineering: Design, deploy, administer, and maintain enterprise Linux environments.
• Develop standardized operating system configurations and hardened baseline builds.
• Perform operating system upgrades, patch management, lifecycle maintenance, and performance optimization.
• Troubleshoot complex operating system, networking, and application issues.

Advanced Network Engineering

• Design and implement advanced routing architectures utilizing: Policy-Based Routing (PBR)
• Multiple routing tables
• Route maps and traffic steering
• Source-based and destination-based routing
• Multi-homed network environments

Configure and Troubleshoot

• OSPF and static routing
• VLANs, LACP, and 802.1Q trunking
• Network namespaces
• VRFs
• NAT and firewall policies

Analyze and Troubleshoot Network Traffic

• tcpdump
• Wireshark
• iproute2
• nftables
• iptables

Linux Kernel Tuning & Performance Optimization

• Tune Linux kernel parameters for: High-throughput networking
• Low-latency applications
• VPN gateway performance
• Large-scale concurrent connections

Optimize

• TCP/IP stack performance
• Network buffer sizing
• IRQ balancing
• CPU affinity
• NUMA awareness
• Memory management

Utilize Performance Analysis Tools

• perf
• sar
• vmstat
• iostat
• eBPF observability tools
• systemd performance metrics

VPN Engineering

• Design, deploy, and support secure VPN infrastructures using OpenVPN 2.6+
• WireGuard
• IPSec

Implement and Support

• Site-to-site VPNs
• Remote-access VPNs
• Hub-and-spoke architectures
• High-availability VPN clusters
• Dynamic routing across VPN overlays

Responsibilities include

• Troubleshooting encryption, routing, MTU, and performance issues
• Implementing modern cryptographic standards and VPN hardening best practices

Configuration Management & Automation

• Develop and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using SaltStack
• Salts States
• Custom modules
• Orchestration workflows
• Automate system provisioning
• Configuration deployment
• Compliance enforcement
• VPN deployments
• Security baseline management
• Integrate SaltStack with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure monitoring platforms.

Required Qualifications

• Current Top-Secret Clearance with SCI Eligibility
• Minimum 5+ years of Linux Systems Engineering experience
• Minimum 3+ years of advanced Linux networking experience
• Minimum 3+ years of VPN engineering experience
• Minimum 3+ years of SaltStack administration and automation experience

Operating Systems

• Debian Linux
• Ubuntu Linux

Networking Expertise

• Policy-Based Routing (PBR)
• iproute2
• Routing tables and policy rules
• Linux bridges
• Bonding and teaming
• VLANs
• VRFs
• Network namespaces
• Dynamic routing protocols
• High-availability networking architectures

VPN Expertise

• WireGuard
• OpenVPN 2.6+
• IPSec
• PKI and certificate management
• TLS authentication
• Multi-site VPN topologies
• VPN performance tuning

Automation & Scripting

• SaltStack
• Python
• Bash
• Git
• CI/CD workflows

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting cloud platforms including: Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Experience with container technologies: Docker
• Kubernetes
• Experience supporting confidential computing environments
• Knowledge of CNSA-compliant cryptographic implementations
• Familiarity with eBPF-based observability and network diagnostics
• Industry certifications such as:
• RHCE
• LFCE
• CCNP
• Equivalent advanced certifications

Desired Skills

• Exceptional troubleshooting and root-cause analysis capabilities
• Strong documentation and technical writing skills
• Ability to operate independently in mission-critical environments
• Experience designing highly available and fault-tolerant systems
• Security-first mindset with strong infrastructure design principles
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills

Salary & Benefits

The salary associated with this position ($99,000-$206,000) is commensurate with the selected candidate's qualifications, years of relevant experience, and demonstrated level of expertise. Compensation will be determined based on these factors to ensure alignment with skills, responsibilities, and market standards.

Nightwing offers medical, vision and dental insurance coverage in addition to a 401k plan, PTO, Holidays, and additional insurances.

Nightwing is An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status, age or any other federally protected class.