Systems Engineer - Linux & Networking

Ambit Recruitment South Africa; Gqeberha; On-site; ZAR 420,000 - 660,000; Full time

Job summary

Ambit Recruitment South Africa is seeking a hands-on Systems Engineer with strong Linux and networking experience to maintain critical infrastructure. This role reports as 2IC to the Head of Infrastructure, requiring dependability, proactive communication, and ownership mindset.

You will build and secure Linux servers, automate provisioning, and design networking across production environments while troubleshooting issues and driving continuous improvements.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 6 years' relevant systems/infrastructure engineering experience.
• Minimum of 4–5 years' demonstrable Linux administration in production environments.
• Solid grounding in system administration: users, permissions, services, storage, performance tuning, troubleshooting.

Responsibilities

• Build, configure, and maintain Linux servers and services across the production environment.
• Automate provisioning, configuration, and routine operations to reduce manual effort and errors.
• Design and support networking infrastructure, including routing, DNS, and BGP peering.
• Monitor system health, respond to incidents, and perform root-cause analysis to keep problems fixed.
• Plan and execute upgrades, patching, and capacity improvements with minimal disruption.
• Document systems, processes, and runbooks for confident operation by the team.
• Collaborate with support, development, and network teams to keep services running smoothly.

Skills

Linux

Networking

Automation

Troubleshooting

System administration

DNS

BGP

TCP/IP

Communication

Tools

Ansible

Python

Bash

Monitoring tools

Job description

We’re looking for a hands-on Systems Engineer with strong Linux and networking experience who enjoys getting into the details, troubleshooting issues and keeping critical infrastructure running smoothly. This is a practical technical role for someone who is proactive, automation-minded and comfortable working across systems, servers and networks.

You will be 2IC to the Head of Infrastructure, so we are looking for someone dependable, responsible, and proactive, with excellent communication skills.

Please see salary and benefits in the questionnaire.

Experience Required:

• You have a minimum of 6 years' relevant systems/infrastructure engineering experience
• A minimum of 4–5 years' demonstrable experience administering Linux systems in a production environment.
• Strong grounding in system administration, users, permissions, services, storage, performance tuning, and troubleshooting
• Good networking knowledge, including DNS, BGP, routing, firewalls, and general TCP/IP fundamentals.
• A genuine interest in automation and eliminating repetitive work.
• A methodical, calm approach to diagnosing and resolving issues.
• Clear communication skills and a collaborative, ownership-driven mindset.

Advantageous:

• Previous telecommunications or ISP experience
• Hands-on experience with Ansible (or similar configuration-management / automation tooling)
• Experience with scripting (Bash, Python, or similar)
• Exposure to monitoring, logging, and observability tooling

Key Responsibilities:

• Build, configure, and maintain Linux servers and services across the production environment.
• Automate provisioning, configuration, and routine operations to reduce manual effort and human error.
• Design and support networking infrastructure, including routing, DNS, and BGP peering.
• Monitor system health, respond to incidents, and conduct root-cause analysis so problems stay fixed.
• Plan and execute upgrades, patching, and capacity improvements with minimal disruption.
• Document systems, processes, and runbooks so the team can operate confidently.
• Work closely with support, development, and network teams to keep services running smoothly.