Ops & Patch Engineer - AWX/Ansible, Linux & Windows

Credence; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental &amp

Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)

Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary &

Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & P

Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)

Short Term & Long Term Disability

Training & Development

Job summary

Credence seeks an Operations Support Engineer / Systems Administrator to support federal hosting environments. You will run nightly patching with AWX/Ansible, validate results, and troubleshoot issues across Linux and Windows.

The role covers system administration, vulnerability remediation, and change-management processes in a security-focused setting. The position requires 3+ years in systems work, hands-on Linux/Windows experience, scripting skills, and the ability to obtain Public Trust.

Qualifications

• Must have at least 3 years of experience in systems administration, systems engineering, infrastructure operations, cloud operations, or a related technical field.
• Experience administering Linux or Windows server environments.
• Experience performing operating system patching, package management, system maintenance, and post-patch validation.
• Experience using AWX/Ansible or similar automation platform for patching, configuration management, or systems administration.
• Experience troubleshooting AWX/Ansible job failures, playbooks, inventories, variables, package dependencies, repository issues, and execution results.
• Ability to support scheduled nightly patching outside normal business hours.
• Experience with Linux package-management tools (DNF, YUM, RPM).
• Experience with Windows patching or Windows Server administration.
• Experience using scripting languages (Shell, Python, PowerShell).
• Familiarity with system monitoring, logging, service management, and basic networking troubleshooting.
• Ability to follow established procedures and apply technical judgment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to document technical issues, maintenance activities, exceptions, and resolution steps.
• CompTIA Security+ certification or the ability to obtain within 60 days.
• AWS certification or the ability to obtain within 90 days.

Responsibilities

• Execute and monitor scheduled patching jobs through AWX/Ansible.
• Support nightly patching activities outside normal business hours, including preparation, execution, validation, and troubleshooting.
• Review AWX results, investigate failures, coordinate re-execution.
• Review patch requirements, repo content, maintenance schedules, and change requests before execution.
• Validate system health, services, connectivity, and application availability after patching.
• Troubleshoot patching failures, conflicts, repository issues, dependencies, service failures, and unexpected behavior.
• Monitor patching progress and provide status updates and reports.
• Document reasons for systems that cannot be patched and remediation needs.
• Assist with Linux and Windows server administration, hardening, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
• Assist with vulnerability remediation and compliance-related maintenance.
• Support provisioning, OS upgrades, configuration changes, retirement, and tech refresh.
• Coordinate with Engineering, cybersecurity, and stakeholders to resolve issues.
• Maintain AWX job templates, inventories, credentials, and related documentation.
• Develop scripts or processes to improve patching efficiency, validation, reporting, and support.
• Maintain system records, patching docs, procedures, runbooks, and reports.
• Follow change-management, incident-management, security, and configuration-management processes.
• Participate in scheduled maintenance, incident response, and on-call if assigned.

Skills

Systems administration

Patching

AWX/Ansible

Linux

Windows

Scripting (Shell Python PowerShell)

Documentation

Communication

On-call support

Education

CompTIA Security+ certification

AWS certification

Tools

AWX/Ansible

WSUS

Red Hat Satellite

Job description

Credence seeks an Operations Support Engineer / Systems Administrator to support federal hosting environments. You will run nightly patching with AWX/Ansible, validate results, and troubleshoot issues across Linux and Windows.

The role covers system administration, vulnerability remediation, and change-management processes in a security-focused setting. The position requires 3+ years in systems work, hands-on Linux/Windows experience, scripting skills, and the ability to obtain Public Trust.