Senior IT Architect - Linux

University of Texas at Austin; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 117,000 - 143,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Paid time off

Tuition assistance

Training opportunities

Job summary

University of Texas at Austin is seeking a Senior IT Architect - Linux to lead the design, governance, and implementation of the university's Linux endpoint management platform. You will align stakeholders and guide decisions to build a sustainable enterprise service across diverse environments.

The role covers architecture, onboarding of distributed IT, automation, compliance, and hybrid cloud alignment, with remote work within the United States and some travel as needed.

Qualifications

• Advanced Linux expertise across RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux or similar distributions.
• Experience with enterprise Linux management and automation tools.
• Advanced scripting with Bash, Python, PowerShell, or IaC.
• Experience deploying patches, baselines, and compliance reporting for Linux.
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and dashboards for Linux environments.
• Familiarity with AWS/Azure and hybrid cloud patterns.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise Linux Platform Architecture: design, build, and improve a central Linux management platform.
• Onboarding and adoption: guide distributed IT teams and create onboarding docs.
• Automation, configuration, and compliance: develop reusable scripts and policies.
• Linux Platform Operations and Engineering: support RHEL/Ubuntu and cloud-hosted Linux.
• Reporting, metrics and service visibility: dashboards and KPI measures.
• Cloud and hybrid infrastructure alignment: support on-prem and cloud environments.
• Strategic service leadership: mentor staff and communicate across stakeholders.
• Perform other related functions as assigned.

Skills

Linux expertise

Automation

Scripting

Cloud platforms

Networking security

Tools

Tanium

Chef

Puppet

Ansible

Salt

Red Hat Satellite

Job description

Senior IT Architect - Linux

Hiring Department: Enterprise Technology - Customer Support

Position Open To: All Applicants

Weekly Scheduled Hours: 40

FLSA Status: Exempt from FLSA

Earliest Start Date: Jan 04, 2027

Position Duration: Expected to Continue Until Dec 31, 2029

Location: AUSTIN, TX

General Notes

This fixed-term position is funded for two years from the employee's start date and may be extended. Flexible work arrangements are available for this position, including the ability to work remotely within the United States. Remote work for individuals who reside outside Texas but within the United States and its territories will be considered and requires Central Office approval. May require occasional travel to Austin Main Campus. This position provides life/work balance with typically a 40-hour work week and travel limited to training (e.g., conferences/courses). Enterprise Technology is dedicated to supporting the mission of the University of Texas at Austin of unlocking potential and preparing future leaders of the state. Your skills will make a difference. You'll be working for a university that is internationally recognized for research and the work you do will make a difference in the lives of our students, faculty and staff. If you're the type of person that wants to know your work has meaning and impact, you'll like working for our campus.

Benefits

• Competitive health benefits (Employee premiums covered at 100%, family premiums at 50%)
• Vision, Dental, Life, and Disability insurance options
• Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
• Teachers Retirement System of Texas (a defined benefit retirement plan)
• Additional Voluntary Retirement Programs: Tax Sheltered Annuity 403(b) and a Deferred Compensation program 457(b)
• Flexible spending account options for medical and childcare expenses
• Training and conference opportunities
• Tuition assistance
• Athletic ticket discounts
• Access to UT Austin's libraries and museums
• Free rides on all UT Shuttle and Capital metro buses with staff ID card

For more details, please see: andMust be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis for any employer without sponsorship. This position requires you to maintain internet service and a mobile phone with voice and data plans to be used when required for work.

Purpose

The Enterprise Linux Management Program requires a dedicated Senior Technology Architect to provide strategic leadership for the design, governance, and implementation of the university's Linux endpoint management platform. The position will ensure alignment across stakeholders, guide complex technical decisions, and provide the leadership needed to transition from fragmented Linux management practices to a sustainable enterprise service.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise Linux Platform Architecture Lead the design, build, and continuous improvement of a central Linux management platform supporting diverse research, academic, and administrative environments. Develop platform architecture for configuration management, software deployment, patching, compliance, and reporting. Evaluate and implement enterprise Linux management platforms such as Tanium, RHEL, or comparable platforms. Create platform standards that are scalable, secure, and effective across heterogeneous Linux distributions.
• Distributed IT Onboarding and Adoption Work directly with distributed IT teams to assess existing Linux environments, operational maturity, management gaps, and onboarding readiness. Develop onboarding plans to help departments transition Linux systems into a central platform. Create guides, onboarding checklists and documentation for campus IT teams. Consult with system administrators, endpoint teams, cloud teams, and application owners on platform adoption and service integration. Identify opportunities to consolidate redundant tooling, reduce operational fragmentation, and improve consistency across departmental Linux management practices.
• Automation, Configuration, and Compliance Design and maintain automation frameworks for provisioning, configuration enforcement, policy compliance, patching, reporting, and system lifecycle activities. Develop reusable scripts, modules, playbooks, policies, or configuration baselines using Bash, Python, or comparable technologies. Implement practices that support drift detection, remediation workflows, auditable change, and repeatable operations. Partner with information security teams to align Linux management with institutional security requirements, vulnerability management, and compliance objectives.
• Linux Platform Operations and Engineering Provide advanced Linux engineering guidance across RHEL, Ubuntu, or comparable enterprise distributions. Support platform operations across physical, virtual, containerized, and cloud-hosted Linux systems. Develop operational standards for patching, software distribution, access control, monitoring, logging, and service health. Troubleshoot complex technical issues involving Linux systems, automation frameworks, management agents, network dependencies, storage, identity, or cloud integrations.
• Reporting, Metrics, and Service Visibility Design reporting that provide visibility into Linux inventory, platform adoption, compliance posture, vulnerability exposure, and platform health. Develop executive and operational dashboards that communicate service value, onboarding progress, risk reduction, and platform maturity. Define measures and key performance indicators for platform adoption, service quality, compliance, and operational effectiveness. Use metrics to identify improvement opportunities, prioritize remediation efforts, and guide long-term Linux service strategy.
• Cloud and Hybrid Infrastructure Alignment Support a Linux platform across on-premises and hybrid infrastructure environments. Develop management patterns for cloud-hosted Linux servers, container platforms, and infrastructure-as-code workflows. Provide guidance on operational consistency, logging, patching, and compliance, across cloud and campus-hosted systems. Partner with infrastructure teams to align Linux platform services with enterprise cloud architecture standards.
• Strategic Service Leadership Participate in technology roadmaps, service design, and long-term infrastructure planning. Mentor technical staff and provide leadership on Linux management, automation, reporting, and operational best practices. Communicate technical recommendations clearly to technical staff, managers, service owners, and institutional stakeholders. Help build an adoption-focused service model that encourages participation from distributed IT organizations and demonstrates measurable institutional value.
• Perform other related functions as assigned.

Required Qualifications

Technical Expertise

• Advanced expertise with Linux operating systems including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux, or comparable distributions.
• Experience with enterprise Linux management, configuration management, endpoint management, automation, or systems management platforms such as Tanium, Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Salt, Red Hat Satellite, or comparable tools.
• Advanced scripting and automation experience using Bash, Python, PowerShell, infrastructure-as-code tools, or comparable technologies.
• Experience with software deployment, patch management, configuration baselines, and compliance reporting for Linux systems.
• Experience designing or integrating monitoring, logging, observability, dashboarding, and operational reporting solutions.
• Experience with AWS and Azure infrastructure services, hybrid cloud operations, or cloud-hosted Linux management patterns.
• Strong understanding of enterprise networking, identity, authentication, security, storage, virtualization, and containerization concepts.
• Experience with source control, DevOps practices, documentation, and repeatable operational workflows.

Professional Skills

• Ability to consult with distributed IT teams and guide technical onboarding.
• Ability to translate platform capabilities into practical adoption plans, standards, and operational procedures.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to system administrators, managers, service owners, and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to balance standardization with legitimate local requirements in a federated or decentralized IT environment.
• U.S. Citizen, resident, or officially recognized asylee - Applicant selected will be subject to government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information at the level appropriate to the project requirements of the position.

Equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in higher education, research computing, public-sector IT, or similarly distributed technology environments.
• Experience onboarding decentralized organizations into centralized or shared IT service platforms.
• Experience implementing service consolidation, technology standardization, or platform adoption initiatives across multiple units.
• Experience operating Linux management platforms at enterprise scale.
• Experience with observability tools such as Splunk, Graylog, Prometheus, Grafana, Nagios, Netdata, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with virtualization, Kubernetes, container platforms, infrastructure-as-code, or cloud-native operations.

Salary Range

$130,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• May work around standard office conditions
• Repetitive use of a keyboard at a workstation
• Use of manual dexterity

Work Shift

Monday - Friday, 8am-5pm; May require occasional overtime nights and/or weekends

Required Materials

• Resume/CV
• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor
• Letter of interest

Employment Eligibility

Regular staff who have been employed in their current position for the last six continuous months are eligible for openings being recruited for through University-Wide or Open Recruiting, to include both promotional opportunities and lateral transfers. Staff who are promotion/transfer eligible may apply for positions without supervisor approval.

Retirement Plan Eligibility

The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to the position being at least 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length.

Background Checks

A criminal history background check will be required for finalist(s) under consideration for this position.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The University of Texas at Austin, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

Pay Transparency

The University of Texas at Austin will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information.

Employment Eligibility Verification

If hired, you will be required to complete the federal Employment Eligibility Verification I-9 form. You will be required to present acceptable and original documents to prove your identity and authorization to work in the United States. Documents need to be presented no later than the third day of employment. Failure to do so will result in loss of employment at the university.

E-Verify

• E-Verify Poster (English and Spanish) [PDF]
• Right to Work Poster (English) [PDF]
• Right to Work Poster (Spanish) [PDF]

Compliance

Employees may be required to report violations of law under Title IX and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). If this position is identified a Campus Security Authority (Clery Act), you will be notified and provided resources for reporting. Responsible employees under Title IX are defined and outlined in HOP-3031. The Clery Act requires all prospective employees be notified of the availability of the Annual Security and Fire Safety report. You may access the most recent report here or obtain a copy at University Compliance Services, 1616 Guadalupe Street, UTA 2.206, Austin, Texas 78701.