Platform and Automation Engineer (Linux and Ansible)

OmniVista Consulting; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

OmniVista Consulting is seeking a Platform and Automation Engineer (Linux and Ansible) to manage a 40-server Linux estate across multiple environments. The role focuses on turn-key automation, Ansible Tower, and infrastructure as code in a federal AWS GovCloud setting.

The position is remote-first with occasional on-site presence in Washington, DC, requiring DC-area residency. A Public Trust Tier 2 clearance is preferred and U.S. Citizenship is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5 to 7 years administering Linux servers in enterprise or federal environments with production responsibility.
• Experience with configuration management at scale.
• Experience in a federal environment with security hardening and vulnerability remediation.
• Experience documenting operational procedures.

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain approximately 40 Linux servers across five environments, including build, configuration, and lifecycle management.
• Troubleshoot platform, network, and application-layer issues in coordination with product teams.
• Support middleware, web server, and application server configuration and upgrades.
• Build and maintain Ansible Tower playbooks and manage scripts; ensure configuration consistency.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code so rebuilds are routine and well-versioned.
• Bring undocumented manual configuration under version control; support container platform operations.

Skills

Linux administration

Scripting

Python

PowerShell

AWS GovCloud

Security hardening

Troubleshooting

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Ansible Tower

Automation Platform

Docker

Kubernetes

Splunk

Job description

Platform and Automation Engineer (Linux and Ansible)

Location Washington, DC metro area - remote with occasional on-site presence; local residency required

Clearance Public Trust Tier 2 (Moderate Background Investigation)

The Platform and Automation Engineer is responsible for keeping a federal Linux estate of approximately 40 servers healthy, patched, consistent, and documented across development, test, user acceptance, staging, and production environments. The customer uses Ansible Tower in AWS GovCloud for automation. Much of the current configuration knowledge is undocumented, and converting it into repeatable, version-controlled automation is the core of this role. The position works closely with the integration engineer, DevSecOps engineer, and agency infrastructure and security staff.

Level: Mid-level - 5 to 7 years

Location: Remote, with occasional on-site presence in Washington, DC. Candidates must currently reside in the Washington, DC metropolitan area (DC, Maryland, or Northern Virginia). Relocation is not offered.

Clearance: Public Trust Tier 2 (Moderate Background Investigation). U.S. Citizen a Must. An active Tier 2 Public Trust or higher is strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain approximately 40 Linux servers across five environments, including build, configuration, and lifecycle management.
• Troubleshoot platform, network, and application-layer issues in coordination with product teams.
• Support middleware, web server, and application server configuration and upgrades.

Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code

• Build and maintain Ansible Tower playbooks and manage scripts; hold configuration consistency so environments do not drift.
• Implement repeatable environment builds as Infrastructure as Code so a rebuild is a routine operation rather than a recovery project.
• Bring undocumented manual configuration under version control.
• Support container platform operations where applicable.

Patching, Hardening, and Certificate Management

• Execute scheduled and emergency security patching inside government maintenance windows.
• Apply and maintain security hardening baselines.
• Manage certificate lifecycle including inventory, renewal, and expiry alerting.
• Support vulnerability scanning and remediation of platform findings by severity and age.

Monitoring, Backup, and Recovery

• Monitor platform health and availability and tune alert thresholds to real service expectations so alerts remain meaningful.
• Verify backup and recovery and support continuity testing against stated recovery point and recovery time objectives.
• Report availability, patch currency, and certificate currency.

Documentation and Incident Support

• Produce and maintain runbooks covering routine maintenance, patching, escalation, backup, and recovery.
• Support incident and problem management, including root cause analysis on recurring issues.
• Document platform architecture and operational dependencies.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Experience

• 5 to 7 years administering Linux servers in an enterprise or federal environment (RHEL, CentOS, or comparable), including production responsibility for a multi-environment estate.
• Demonstrated configuration management experience at scale.
• Experience in a federal environment with security hardening and vulnerability remediation.
• Experience documenting operational procedures others follow.

Technical Skills

• Advanced Linux administration: RHEL or CentOS, systemd, networking, storage, and performance troubleshooting.
• Hands-on Ansible experience; Ansible Tower or Automation Platform strongly preferred.
• Scripting in Bash plus at least one of Python or PowerShell.
• AWS infrastructure experience, ideally including GovCloud.
• Monitoring and log analysis with Splunk, StatusCake, or comparable.
• Certificate and key management, including TLS and SSH administration.
• Familiarity with security hardening baselines such as DISA STIGs or CIS benchmarks.
• Container experience with Docker or Kubernetes.

Certifications (Preferred)

• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
• CompTIA Linux+ or Security+
• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator or Solutions Architect Associate
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation
• Bias toward automating a task rather than repeating it.
• Discipline to document while building, not afterward.
• Calm, methodical troubleshooting under production pressure.
• Comfort working in a government network environment with secure transfer constraints.

Work Arrangement and Travel

This position is remote-first. Expect to be on site in Washington, DC a few days per month for customer meetings, quarterly planning, and team offsites, scheduled in advance. Standard business hours, Eastern time, Monday through Friday, with occasional scheduled maintenance windows planned in advance.

About OmniVista Consulting. OmniVista is an 8(a)-certified, minority-owned Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business delivering enterprise IT services to federal customers since 2013. This role supports a federal agency; the agency is identified during the interview process. OmniVista is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.