Senior Proxmox Cluster Administrator

Peraton Labs; College Park (MD); On-site; USD 135,000 - 216,000; Full time

Job summary

Peraton Labs seeks a Senior Proxmox Cluster Administrator to own day-to-day operations and lifecycle management of a Proxmox-based, multi-OS research infrastructure. This on-site role near College Park, MD collaborates with Peraton teams and government customers to ensure platform reliability, security posture, and automation maturity.

The ideal candidate has strong Linux administration, Proxmox VE experience, and automation skills (Ansible, Bash, Python), with TS/SCI clearance and excellent

Qualifications

• Minimum 12+ years experience with a degree, or 16 years without a degree.
• Senior, hands-on experience administering Linux infrastructure in production.
• Production experience operating a virtualization platform at scale (Proxmox VE preferred).
• Automation proficiency using Ansible and scripting in Bash and/or Python.
• Strong knowledge of cluster/HA concepts, virtualization performance, networking, and storage.
• At least one active technical certification in systems engineering, information security, networking, system administration, virtualization, IT systems management, or project management.
• US Citizenship with Active/current TS/SCI security clearance with a current polygraph.

Responsibilities

• Administer and sustain Proxmox VE clusters (quorum/corosync, HA, upgrades, capacity).
• Standardize VM/LXC provisioning.
• Lead incident response and complex troubleshooting across compute/network/storage.
• Manage Proxmox host networking (bridges, bonding, VLAN trunking).
• Own backup/restore and DR readiness for virtualization workloads.
• Maintain platform documentation and audit-ready artifacts.
• Collaborate with internal teams and contractors to onboard workloads safely.
• Develop automation to reduce toil (Ansible workflows, patch pipelines).

Skills

Linux administration

Proxmox VE

Automation (Ansible)

Scripting (Bash/Python)

Cluster/HA concepts

Networking (VLANs/bonding)

Storage/backup

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Master's degree (preferred)

Ph.D. (optional)

Tools

Proxmox VE

Ansible

Bash

Python

Networking tooling

Job description

About Peraton

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world's leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees solve the most daunting challenges that our customers face. Visit peraton.com to learn how we're keeping people around the world safe and secure.

About The Role

Peraton Labs is seeking a poly cleared Senior Proxmox Cluster Administrator to own day-to-day operations and lifecycle management of a mission-critical Proxmox virtualized environment supporting a complex Multi-OS research infrastructure. You will work closely with Peraton team members, sub-contractors, as well as directly with our Maryland-based customer, in a fast-paced environment.

This role is hands-on and operationally focused, with responsibility for platform reliability, security posture, and automation maturity. Exceptional candidates for this role may also have additional experience in Linux Administration/Engineering and/or Automation/DevSecOps Engineering.

This position requires full-time on-site work at a customer site near College Park, MD.

Key responsibilities may include:

• Administer and sustain Proxmox VE clusters (quorum/corosync, HA policies, node health, upgrades, scaling, capacity forecasting)
• Standardize VM/LXC provisioning
• Lead incident response and complex troubleshooting across compute/network/storage
• Manage Proxmox host networking (Linux bridges, bonding, VLAN trunking, segmented management planes)
• Own backup/restore and DR readiness for virtualization workloads, including periodic restore validation
• Maintain platform documentation (runbooks, SOPs, diagrams, change records) and support audit-ready artifacts as required by the program
• Partner with Peraton internal, sub-contractors, and government support teams to onboard workloads safely and support continuous improvements
• Additional ability to provide support in one or more of the following:
• Maintain secure and standardized Linux services and baselines supporting the enclave (hardening, platform services, lifecycle/patch coordination, reliability improvements)
• Develop automation to reduce toil and drift (Ansible/Git-based workflows, provisioning/patch/validation pipelines, compliance evidence automation)

*This position may be eligible for an increased sign-on bonus. Eligibility, bonus amount, and applicable terms and conditions will be discussed during the recruiting process*

Qualifications

Required qualifications

• Minimum of 12+ years of experience and a Bachelors, 10+ years and a Masters, or 8+ years and a Ph.D. in Computer Science or related discipline. In lieu of a Bachelors degree, 4 additional years of experience is required for a total of 16 years.
• Senior, hands-on experience administering Linux infrastructure in production (RHEL/Ubuntu or similar)
• Production experience operating a virtualization platform at scale (Proxmox VE preferred)
• Automation proficiency using Ansible and scripting in Bash and/or Python
• Strong foundational knowledge in:
• Cluster/HA concepts (quorum, failover, maintenance/rollback)
• Virtualization performance troubleshooting (CPU/Memory/IO contention, capacity planning)
• Networking (VLANs, bonding, segmentation)
• Storage and data protection (ZFS and/or distributed storage, backup/restore operations)
• At least one active technical certification in: systems engineering, information security, networking, system administration, virtualization, IT systems management, or project management. (e.g., Security+, CISSP/CISM, CASP+, CCNA/CCNP, RHCSA/RHCE, VMware VCP, ITIL, PMP, etc.)
• US Citizenship with Active/current TS/SCI security clearance with a current polygraph is required

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep Proxmox experience related to HA tuning, corosync troubleshooting, multi-cluster scaling, and lifecycle upgrades
• Advanced virtualization capabilities
• Familiarity with DevSecOps/IaC best practices
• Experience with security/compliance operations in controlled environments (STIG/RMF/NIST-aligned practices) and vulnerability remediation workflows
• Experience with observability tooling (Prometheus/Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch, Splunk) and SLO-driven operations

Details

Target Salary Range: $135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual's experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

Benefits Statement: Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.

EEO:

Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.