Principal Linux Engineer

Piper Companies; Rockville (MD); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical benefits

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401k and ADP employer match

Paid time off

Paid holidays

Sick leave as required by law

Job summary

Piper Companies is seeking a Principal Linux Engineer in Rockville, MD, offering a full-time hybrid role. You will lead the enterprise Linux platform, set design and hardening standards, and drive automation through Ansible/Terraform.

The role includes mentoring teams and developing SOPs for reliable system operations. You should have 10+ years in Linux engineering, hands-on experience with embedded Linux, ARM64 platforms, and AWS cloud services.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of Linux System Admin/Engineering experience.
• Experience building, hardening, and supporting an embedded or appliance Linux OS.
• Working knowledge of ARM64/aarch64 Linux and Raspberry Pi platform specifics: boot chain and firmware, device tree overlays, GPIO/I2C/SPI and serial peripherals.
• Experience with cloud hosting, SaaS, PaaS technologies – AWS experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Act as technical authority for the enterprise Linux platform.
• Serve in a Linux support lead capacity, owning the design, build standards, hardening, and day-to-day reliability.
• Define and enforce configuration management and infrastructure-as-code practices using Ansible, Terraform, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Mentor and develop Linux engineers and administrators, providing technical direction, training, and workload prioritization.
• Author and maintain SOPs and runbooks

Skills

Linux administration

ARM64/aarch64 Linux

Embedded Linux

AWS

Tools

Ansible

Terraform

Git

CI/CD

Job description

Piper Companies is looking for a Principal Linux Engineer to join a biotech research organization. This is a full-time position and hybrid out of Rockville, MD.

Essential Duties of the Principal Linux Engineer:

• Act as technical authority for the enterprise Linux platform.
• Serve in a Linux support lead capacity, owning the design, build standards, hardening, and day-to-day reliability.
• Define and enforce configuration management and infrastructure-as-code practices using Ansible, Terraform, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Mentor and develop Linux engineers and administrators, providing technical direction, training, and workload prioritization.
• Author and maintain SOPs and runbooks

Qualifications of the Principal Linux Engineer:

• 10+ years of Linux System Admin/Engineering experience
• Experience building, hardening, and supporting an embedded or appliance Linux OS.
• Working knowledge of ARM64/aarch64 Linux and Raspberry Pi platform specifics: boot chain and firmware, device tree overlays, GPIO/I2C/SPI and serial peripherals.
• Experience with cloud hosting, SaaS, PaaS technologies – AWS experience preferred.

Compensation for the Principal Linux Engineer:

• $120,000 - $170,000 (based on experience)
• Comprehensive benefit package; Cigna Medical,Cigna Dental, Vision, 401k w/ ADP, PTO, paid holidays, Sick Leave as required by law, paid holidays

This job opens for applications on 11/5/2026. Applications for this job will be accepted for at least 30 days from the posting date.