Linux Platform Engineering

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Linux Platform Engineering professional based in United States.

This is a senior technical leadership opportunity focused on owning and evolving enterprise Linux platforms across on-premises and cloud environments.

You will shape platform strategy, architecture, automation, security, reliability, and lifecycle management at significant scale.

The role goes beyond traditional systems administration, with responsibility for platform outcomes, engineering standards, and continuous modernization.

You will drive Infrastructure as Code, automation, observability, and DevOps practices to create resilient and efficient platforms.

Working across infrastructure, cloud, security, application, database, network, and storage teams, you will influence technical decisions and deliver complex initiatives end to end.

You will also act as a senior escalation point during critical incidents, leading root-cause analysis and permanent corrective actions.

This role is ideal for an experienced Linux engineer who combines deep technical expertise with strategic thinking, ownership, and a passion for mentoring others.

Accountabilities

• Own the enterprise Linux platform roadmap, including operating system lifecycle management, patching strategy, standardization, technical debt reduction, and continuous modernization.
• Define and maintain engineering standards, platform build patterns, operational practices, and reliability-focused processes across Linux environments.
• Design and implement scalable, resilient Linux solutions across on-premises and cloud infrastructure.
• Act as a technical authority for compute, virtualization, storage integration, and core Linux services.
• Lead architecture discussions, technical design reviews, and key engineering decisions related to Linux platforms.
• Drive automation and Infrastructure as Code adoption using technologies such as Ansible, Terraform, Bash, and Python.
• Develop reusable automation frameworks, platform modules, orchestration workflows, and self-service capabilities to eliminate manual and error-prone processes.
• Champion platform engineering and DevOps practices across the wider infrastructure organization.
• Own platform availability, performance, capacity, resiliency, and recoverability in line with SLAs and business requirements.
• Establish and maintain monitoring, logging, and observability standards using enterprise platforms such as Datadog and Dynatrace.
• Lead complex infrastructure incidents, perform deep root-cause analysis, and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Ensure backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies are properly designed, implemented, tested, and maintained.
• Embed security-by-design principles into Linux architecture and operations, partnering with security teams on hardening, vulnerability management, patching, and compliance.
• Maintain security baselines, configuration standards, and audit-ready operational practices.
• Engineer and support Linux workloads running on VMware and cloud platforms.
• Collaborate with storage teams on SAN/NAS integration, LUN provisioning, capacity planning, and performance optimization.
• Own and maintain Linux-based infrastructure services, including DNS, DHCP, LDAP, and NTP.
• Work closely with infrastructure, network, storage, database, application, and vendor teams to deliver integrated technical solutions.
• Translate technical risks, dependencies, and trade-offs into clear business impact for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Lead complex initiatives from initial design through implementation, deployment, and operational handover.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to raising technical capability and platform engineering maturity across the organization.
• Promote automation, operational excellence, continuous improvement, and repeatable, well-documented operating practices.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7-10+ years of progressive experience engineering and operating Linux platforms in enterprise environments, with approximately 8-10 years of relevant experience preferred.
• Deep expertise in enterprise Linux distributions, particularly SUSE Linux, RHEL, or equivalent platforms, across large-scale deployments.
• Advanced proficiency with the Linux command line and scripting, particularly Bash and Python; Perl experience is an advantage.
• Proven experience designing and operating automation and Infrastructure as Code solutions using tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Puppet, or comparable technologies.
• Strong experience with virtualization platforms, particularly VMware vSphere or equivalent technologies.
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, NTP, and VPN.
• Hands-on experience integrating Linux environments with enterprise storage technologies such as SAN, NAS, and RAID.
• Experience with enterprise backup and recovery solutions such as Veeam or Rubrik.
• Experience building, maintaining, and distributing RPMs and Linux packages.
• Practical experience implementing and managing monitoring and observability solutions such as Datadog, Dynatrace, Nagios, or SolarWinds.
• Strong understanding of Linux security hardening, patching strategies, vulnerability management, and enterprise compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of complex technical initiatives and deliver measurable platform outcomes.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to influence both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Advanced Linux certifications such as RHCE, LPIC-3, or equivalent are desirable.
• Experience with hybrid and public cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, or GCP, is a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with containers and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, or OpenShift is beneficial.
• Exposure to platform engineering or SRE operating models is a plus.
• Experience supporting highly available enterprise applications, including Oracle single-instance and RAC environments, is advantageous.
• Experience with storage-array configuration and performance tuning is desirable.

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation of $50-$56 per hour on W2, with final compensation dependent on qualifications, experience, and location.
• Remote working arrangement.
• Initial contract duration of 6+ months.
• Opportunity to take ownership of enterprise-scale Linux platforms and influence long-term infrastructure strategy.
• Exposure to modern DevOps, automation, Infrastructure as Code, cloud, observability, and platform engineering technologies.
• Opportunity to lead complex technical initiatives and contribute to infrastructure modernization.
• Collaborative environment involving infrastructure, cloud, security, application, database, network, and storage teams.
• Opportunities to mentor engineers and help advance platform engineering practices.
• Experience working with large-scale hybrid infrastructure and mission-critical enterprise systems.