Senior RHEL Engineer: Enterprise Linux & Automation

Ignite IT, LLC; Suitland (MD); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with matching

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

HSA

Life Insurance

Paid time off

Professional development

Training

Tuition reimbursement

Flexible schedule

Referral program

Paid Legal Plan

Job summary

Ignite IT, LLC is seeking a very experienced, senior-level Red Hat Linux Admin/Engineer to support the Census Bureau’s Unix Management Branch. You will manage RHEL servers, automate deployments with Ansible, and optimize performance across clustered environments.

You will collaborate with owners and operators across divisions, implement security per standards, and participate in 24/7 on-call rotations to maintain mission-critical systems.

Qualifications

• US Citizenship required.
• Background investigation for Public Trust clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, or related field (or 7+ years of equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of dedicated Linux/RHEL engineer/administrator experience.
• Strong Linux performance tuning, kernel parameter analysis (sysctl), and troubleshooting with vmstat, iostat, sar, perf.
• Expert Bash scripting and strong Ansible for automation.
• In-depth knowledge of Linux storage (LVM, XFS, NFS, CLVM) and networking (TCP/IP, DNS, bonding).
• Expertise across RHEL 7, 8, and 9 environments.

Responsibilities

• Linux platform administration: lifecycle (provisioning, patching, upgrading, decommissioning) of all RHEL servers.
• Develop and maintain automation using Ansible, Bash, and/or Python for rapid deployments.
• Deploy and maintain servers in clustered environments.
• Performance tuning: monitor and optimize RHEL for high-throughput data processing; kernel tuning (sysctl); I/O and network analysis.
• Operational support: serve as escalation point; root cause analysis; coordinate with storage, network, and application teams; ensure backups.
• Security and compliance: implement security per NIST/FISMA/DISA STIGs; manage access/SSSD-LDAP-AD; address SELinux; participate in on-call rotation.

Skills

10+ years Linux/RHEL engineering

Bash scripting

Ansible automation

Python scripting

Linux performance tuning

Networking (TCP/IP, DNS, bonding)

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Information Technology

7+ years of equivalent experience

Tools

Ansible

LVM

XFS

NFS

CLVM

Job description

Ignite IT, LLC is seeking a very experienced, senior-level Red Hat Linux Admin/Engineer to support the Census Bureau’s Unix Management Branch. You will manage RHEL servers, automate deployments with Ansible, and optimize performance across clustered environments.

You will collaborate with owners and operators across divisions, implement security per standards, and participate in 24/7 on-call rotations to maintain mission-critical systems.