Senior Linux Systems Engineer — Remote, Government Ops

nationwideitservices; United States; Remote; USD 100,000 - 137,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) with employer match

Paid holidays

PTO

Commuter benefits

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Educational reimbursement

Pet Insurance

Job summary

Nationwide IT Services is seeking a hands-on Senior Linux Systems Engineer to support mission-critical USGS infrastructure. The role centers on Linux administration, troubleshooting, and operational support across applications, databases, networking, automation, and security.

The engineer will own problems, trace root causes, and collaborate with software developers, network engineers, and security staff to resolve issues. A strong curiosity and practical systems thinking are essential.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on Linux systems administration experience in enterprise or production environments.
• Ability to independently troubleshoot complex technical problems and perform root-cause analysis.
• Strong understanding of Linux services, processes, logs, filesystems, permissions, packages, configuration, and general system operations.
• Experience performing system maintenance, patching, configuration, troubleshooting, and operational support.
• Experience using monitoring and logging information to investigate system or application behavior.
• Hands-on scripting or automation experience.
• Ability to read application or automation code sufficiently to support troubleshooting, identify relevant logic, and communicate effectively with software developers.
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, ports and protocols, routing concepts, firewalls, and connectivity troubleshooting.
• Practical familiarity with relational databases, including database installation/configuration, connectivity, basic administration, and SQL queries.
• Familiarity with system security concepts such as patching, access controls, host firewalls, vulnerability remediation, and secure system configuration.
• Ability and willingness to investigate unfamiliar technologies rather than stopping troubleshooting when an issue crosses into another technical domain.
• Ability to communicate technical findings clearly and work collaboratively with specialists in other technical areas.

Responsibilities

• Administer, maintain, troubleshoot, and support Linux-based production, development, test, and supporting infrastructure.
• Investigate system and application problems through logs, configuration, monitoring data, network behavior, application code, database activity, and other available evidence.
• Perform root-cause analysis of technical issues and drive problems toward resolution.
• Determine when an issue can be resolved directly and when it should be escalated or routed to software developers, network engineers, security personnel, or other technical specialists.
• Perform Linux system maintenance, patching, configuration, software installation, service management, performance troubleshooting, and operational support.
• Support system security and hardening activities, including vulnerability remediation, access controls, host firewalls, security configuration, and compliance-related changes.
• Use and maintain automation and configuration-management capabilities supporting the environment.
• Work with monitoring systems to understand system health, investigate alerts, determine what should be monitored, and create or modify monitoring checks as needed.
• Support relational databases at an operational level, including installation and configuration, connectivity, access, basic SQL queries, and troubleshooting.
• Support messaging and event-driven infrastructure used to move information between systems and applications.
• Read application and automation code as part of troubleshooting. Trace program logic, identify relevant functions or processes, test components where appropriate, and communicate findings to developers.
• Develop or modify scripts and lightweight automation to support administration, troubleshooting, monitoring, and operational activities.
• Troubleshoot connectivity and system communication issues using a practical understanding of networking fundamentals.
• Work with technical staff across systems, software development, networking, security, and scientific operations to resolve issues that cross traditional technology boundaries.
• Document technical findings, configurations, troubleshooting steps, and operational procedures.

Skills

Linux administration

Troubleshooting

Root-cause analysis

Scripting/Automation

Networking fundamentals

Monitoring/logging analysis

Cross-team collaboration

Reading code for troubleshooting

Security concepts

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Tools

Ansible

Nagios

Prometheus

Grafana

Git/GitLab

AWS

Job description

Nationwide IT Services is seeking a hands-on Senior Linux Systems Engineer to support mission-critical USGS infrastructure. The role centers on Linux administration, troubleshooting, and operational support across applications, databases, networking, automation, and security.

The engineer will own problems, trace root causes, and collaborate with software developers, network engineers, and security staff to resolve issues. A strong curiosity and practical systems thinking are essential.