Senior Linux Platform Architect and Lead

Default (MSD); Rockville (MD); On-site; USD 117,000 - 178,000; Full time

Job summary

MSD in Rockville, MD is seeking a Principal Linux Engineer to own the Linux platform design, build standards, hardening, and day-to-day reliability of the server estate. You will support Debian-based OS shipping in products and lead on-call rotations while collaborating with Security, Network, and QA teams.

Role requires a minimum of ten years of Linux systems experience, strong automation skills with Ansible/Terraform/Git, and RHCSA/RHCE preferred.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent work experience.
• A minimum of ten years of progressive Linux systems administration/engineering experience in production data center environments.
• Experience building, hardening, and supporting embedded or appliance Linux OS in products.
• Hands-on experience supporting databases on Linux: Oracle, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB.
• Experience in a production data center with clustering, high availability, and DR for Linux workloads.
• Experience in regulated environments with change control, documentation, and audit support.
• AWS experience preferred; Red Hat certification (RHCSA/RHCE) strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as technical lead and final escalation point for Linux support, triage, root-cause analysis, and permanent corrective action for complex incidents.
• Own architecture, build standards, and lifecycle of the Linux estate (RHEL and derivatives), including capacity planning and hardware/OS refresh.
• Define and enforce configuration management and infrastructure-as-code practices using Ansible, Terraform, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Provide engineering and support ownership for Debian Linux OS distributed with company products, including image definition and hardening.
• Partner with Product Engineering, R&D, Manufacturing, and Field Service on Raspberry Pi image provisioning and patch delivery.
• Lead performance analysis, fault isolation, and reporting of service exceptions across the Linux estate.
• Mentor Linux engineers, provide technical direction and workload prioritization.
• Author and maintain SOPs/runbooks and ensure compliance with quality/regulatory requirements.

Skills

Linux administration

Root-cause analysis

Scripting: Python

Scripting: Shell

System hardening

Cloud: AWS

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Ansible

Terraform

Git

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

MSD in Rockville, MD is seeking a Principal Linux Engineer to own the Linux platform design, build standards, hardening, and day-to-day reliability of the server estate. You will support Debian-based OS shipping in products and lead on-call rotations while collaborating with Security, Network, and QA teams.

Role requires a minimum of ten years of Linux systems experience, strong automation skills with Ansible/Terraform/Git, and RHCSA/RHCE preferred.