Senior Linux System Engineer

Senior Linux System Engineer

EMKS is seeking a Senior Linux System Engineer to support the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Independent Enterprise Testing Support Services (IETSS) contract. This project provides Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services to support the product Software Delivery Life Cycle and Modernization efforts on behalf of our Veterans Affairs (VA) government client. In our continuing efforts to implement more of our IV&V activities, we are seeking an experienced and highly skilled Senior Linux System Engineer to join our infrastructure team. In this role, you will be a subject matter expert in Red Hat Enterprise Linux environments, driving the design, deployment, and ongoing management of enterprise-grade Linux infrastructure. You will also play a key role in modernizing our platform through automation, containerization, and virtualization using Red Hat's broader ecosystem of technologies.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Architect, deploy, configure, and maintain RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 systems across physical, virtual, and cloud environments
• Perform OS lifecycle management including patching, upgrades, hardening, and decommissioning in accordance with security and compliance standards
• Develop, maintain, and scale automation workflows using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (AAP), including playbook development, role creation, and management of Automation Controller and Private Automation Hub
• Design and manage virtualized workloads using OpenShift Virtualization, migrating traditional VM-based workloads to the OpenShift platform as appropriate
• Support and administer Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) clusters, including day-2 operations, node management, storage configuration, networking, and cluster upgrades
• Collaborate with DevOps, security, and application teams to ensure Linux environments meet performance, availability, and compliance requirements
• Enforce system security baselines using tools such as OpenSCAP, AIDE, SELinux policies, and CIS/STIG frameworks
• Monitor system health, capacity, and performance; respond to and remediate incidents and alerts
• Create and maintain comprehensive technical documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and participate in knowledge-sharing across the team
• Participate in an on-call rotation for critical infrastructure support

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of hands-on Linux system administration experience in enterprise environments
• Deep expertise with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and/or 9, including systemd, networking, storage (LVM, XFS, NFS), and security subsystems (SELinux, firewalld, PAM)
• Strong proficiency with Ansible and/or Ansible Automation Platform, including writing complex playbooks, custom roles, and managing inventories at scale
• Working knowledge of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, including cluster operations, oc CLI tooling, and container/pod troubleshooting
• Familiarity with OpenShift Virtualization (formerly KubeVirt) for managing virtual machines within OpenShift
• Solid understanding of networking concepts: DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, VLANs, bonding/teaming, and network troubleshooting
• Experience with identity and access management integration (LDAP, Active Directory, SSSD, Kerberos)
• Proficiency in scripting (Bash, Python, or similar) for automation and tooling
• Strong documentation skills and experience working in ITIL or similar service management frameworks
• Must have excellent oral and written communication skills.

Education/Certifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in a recognized technical, engineering, scientific, managerial, business, or other discipline related to area of expertise.
• Active Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) certification
• Red Hat certifications in Ansible Automation or OpenShift Administration (EX280, EX374, EX480)

Clearance:

• U.S. Citizenship is required as is successfully passing a thorough Government background screening (Public Trust) requiring the completion of detailed forms and fingerprinting.
• Ability to obtain and maintain necessary security clearances as required for access to classified information.

About EM Key Solutions:

Founded in 2015, EM Key Solutions, Inc. (EMKS) is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) offering a broad range of services to support Federal Government enterprises in meeting their mission requirements and business demands. Relationships are key to EMKS! We adopt a customer-centric approach and proven management processes for every project we undertake. Through sound leadership and management principles, EMKS focuses on offering its clients the solutions they need to be successful at the most competitive rates throughout the project management lifecycle.

EMKS is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to hiring and retaining qualified and talented individuals. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

Reasonable Accommodation Requests

EM Key Solutions is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you need special assistance or accommodation while seeking employment, please e-mail View email address on click.appcast.io or call Human Resources at View phone number on click.appcast.io. We will make a determination on your request for reasonable accommodation on a case-by-case basis.

E-Verify

As a Federal Contractor, we are required to use E-Verify to validate employees' ability to work legally in the United States.

EEO is the Law

The law requires EM Key Solutions to post a notice describing the Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination.

Pay Transparency Non-Discrimination

EM Key Solutions will not discharge or, in any other manner, discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay.

For information regarding your legal rights and protections, please click on the following link: State and Federal Labor Notices