Senior UNIX System Engineer

Empower AI; United States; Hybrid; USD 96,000 - 149,000; Full time

Job summary

Empower AI seeks a Senior UNIX System Engineer to manage a mixed Red Hat/Oracle/Solaris UNIX environment, supporting DoD IT services across data centers and cloud-hosted setups.

You will plan hardware/software upgrades, create and maintain SOPs, and ensure security and operational excellence while collaborating with cross-functional teams and occasional government facility travel.

Qualifications

• Five+ years as UNIX Systems Administrator or IT Engineer with automation experience.
• Bachelor's degree preferred; equivalent hands-on UNIX/Linux experience considered.
• Active DoD Secret Clearance.
• Experience with patch management (YUM/RPM) and security updates.
• Experience in complex networks, VLANs, and hardening with firewalld/iptables.
• Experience managing many local users via command line and SOP development.
• Experience configuring DNS, SFTP, SMTP, and NTP services.

Responsibilities

• Manage, maintain, deploy, troubleshoot, and support servers in a mixed UNIX environment.
• Plan and implement new hardware and software; create SOPs and policies.
• Monitor performance; harden servers and report security/operational status.
• Recommend enterprise improvements and manage new integrations.
• Produce utilization reports; support data center and cloud-hosted environments.
• Travel to government facilities as needed.

Skills

UNIX/Linux systems engineering

DoD cybersecurity compliance

Team player

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

YUM

RPM

firewalld

iptables

DNS

SFTP

SMTP

NTP

Job description

Senior UNIX System Engineer

Job Locations: US-VA-Roanoke | US-Remote, Category: IT: Administrator / Analyst / Architect / Engineer, Type: Regular Full-Time.

Overview

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company's commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

Responsibilities

The Senior UNIX System Engineer supports a mixed and growing environment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and Solaris UNIX systems. Working alongside the existing UNIX team, this position manages, maintains, deploys, troubleshoots, and supports servers across a mixed customer environment, planning and implementing new system hardware and software while creating and maintaining team technical instructions, operating procedures, and policies.

This is a remote‑eligible position. Local candidates in the Roanoke and Radford, Virginia area are encouraged to apply, and work may be performed locally for those who prefer an on‑site or hybrid arrangement. The ideal candidate will bring hands‑on UNIX/Linux systems engineering expertise, strong DoD cybersecurity compliance knowledge, and the ability to support mission‑critical Army IT services across enterprise data centers and cloud‑hosted environments. Occasional travel to government facilities or data center locations may be required based on mission needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage, maintain, deploy, troubleshoot, and support servers in a mixed Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Oracle Enterprise Linux/Solaris UNIX environment.
• Plan, execute, and implement new system hardware and software.
• Create and maintain team technical instructions, operating procedures, and policies.
• Monitor and tune system performance; harden servers and report on overall security and operational status.
• Recommend and implement enterprise improvements and manage new software/hardware integrations.
• Produce utilization reports using existing tools to identify problems and corrective actions.
• Support the lifecycle of a mixed vendor equipment environment in the datacenter, including firmware version control and periodic preventive maintenance.
• Recommend, demonstrate, and implement technologies to expand, upgrade, and increase efficiency of the current environment.

Qualifications

Requirements:

• CompTIA Security+.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field is preferred; equivalent years of hands‑on UNIX/Linux systems engineering experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Experience in Computer Science or IT.
• Computing Environment (CE) Certification (e.g., RedHat) - may be waived for 30 days after project join date.
• Active DoD Secret Security Clearance.
• Five or more years' experience as a UNIX Systems Administrator or IT Engineer with experience automating assigned tasks.
• Three or more years' experience in patch management, including applying security updates via YUM and RPM.
• Three or more years' experience working in complex network environments, including VLANs and troubleshooting tools (ifconfig, netstat, ssh, telnet), and hardening systems using firewalld/iptables and hosts.
• Three or more years' experience managing a large pool of local users via the command line.
• Three or more years' experience creating, maintaining, and following Standard Operating Procedures for repeatable processes, disaster recovery, and common problem resolution.
• Three or more years' experience configuring and maintaining key services such as DNS, SFTP, SMTP, and NTP.
• Strong interpersonal skills and willingness to be a team player.

Preferred:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent years of experience.
• Four or more years' experience with SELinux, including basic and advanced management and configuration.
• Experience supporting Cybersecurity patch management and Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG), Security Requirement Guides (SRG), RMF, SCA-V, and Cyber Operational Readiness Assessments (CORA).
• Experience deploying large-scale hardware/software systems enhancements or upgrades across widely distributed geographic sites.
• Experience with current and emerging network and infrastructure management technologies and business practices.

Certifications:

• CompTIA Security+ | RedHat Computing Environment (CE) Certification

About Empower AI

All hiring and promotion decisions at Empower AI are based on merit to bring the best talent available to contribute to our firm's overall success. It is the policy of Empower AI not to discriminate against any applicant for employment, or employee because of age, color, sex, disability, national origin, race, religion, or veteran status. Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

Pay Band Min

USD $96,050.00/Yr.

Pay Band Max

USD $148,670.00/Yr.