Senior Linux System Administrator

About NFF

Since 1996, NFF has designed, architected, and delivered IT network and security solutions to many state, and local government agencies, K-20 educational institutions, federal agencies, and large enterprise businesses across the mid-Atlantic. NFF is a technology services and solutions provider, specializing in next-generation IT infrastructure including networks, data centers, cloud migrations, IT security, collaboration and mobility, and full/part-time staff augmentation services.   Our solutions, professional services and IT staffing portfolio are centered around building more resilient, secure, adaptive, and intelligent IT infrastructure and include comprehensive assessment, architecture, design, integration and installation services, and ongoing performance management services though our Network Operations Center (NOC).  

 

NFF is a Cisco Gold Partner with a Customer Experience Specialization and was a “Cisco Top-5 Mid-Atlantic SLED Partner” in 2019, 2020 and 2022. NFF has maintained Cisco Gold Partnership since 2008, is the only Cisco Gold Partner headquartered in the District of Columbia. In addition to Cisco, NFF has key partnerships with many manufacturers and IT solution providers including, Rapid7, Arctic Wolf, VMware, NetApp and Splunk.

NFF is a District of Columbia (DC) Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) and a SBA Certified Small Business with headquarters in downtown Washington, DC. Our dedication to quality is reflected in our accomplishment of being awarded multiple ISO 9001:2015 certifications.

About this Position / Responsibilities

Linux System Administration

• Perform routine patching to assigned systems.
• Respond to incident and request tickets raised in the service management system within required SLAs.
• Provision and maintain Linux infrastructure on-premise and in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.
• Build and maintain system monitoring tools such as BigFix, Nagios, Spunk, Nessus, CloudWatch etc.
• Ensure systems are backed up nightly or as defined in the backup and restoration policy.
• Implement new storage and file system requests from customers.
• Maintain a High-Performance Compute cluster comprised of Linux servers.
• Act in the event of system failure, due to an error, to restore the operation of software systems.
• In conjunction with the Storage team, ensure efficient use of NetApp storage resources.
• Update documentation using local standards to ensure systems are accurately reflected in documentation.
• Maintain overall industry knowledge on latest trends, technology, etc.

Server Operating System Administration

• Build Linux operating system servers.
• Build Linux virtual machines on the VMWare platform.
• Build EC2 machines in AWS Cloud.
• Implement security benchmarks such as DISA STIGs or CIS Benchmarks.
• Define and maintain system configurations using tools such as Puppet.
• Monitor system vulnerabilities using Nessus and Splunk dashboards.
• Patch and upgrade Linux servers.
• Perform in-place migration upgrades of VMs and physical hardware.

Qualifications

• 10 or more years’ experience as a Linux System Administrator.
• Successful applicants are expected to have a bachelor’s in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or a related field and a minimum of 5 years of related experience or a master’s degree and a minimum of 4 years of related experience.
• Expert knowledge of Ubuntu Linux Operating system.  Certifications such as Ubuntu or Red Hat Certified System Administrator is preferred.
• Networking fundamentals (TCP/IP configuration on servers).
• Experience with implementing Kerberos.
• Experience with Puppet configuration management tool to be able to create and modify Puppet modules and code.
• Proficiency in one or more scripting languages such as bash, perl, python etc.
• Experience with configuring directory services (Active Directory, LDAP).
• Experience with using tools such as BigFix, SCCM, Splunk.
• Experience with configuring and maintaining infrastructure in the Cloud – AWS EC2, EBS, EFS, RDS, FSx etc.
• Experience with infrastructure as code tools such as terraform.
• Experience with Netapp storage is preferred.
• Experience with High Performance Computing is preferred.
• Experience with Splunk is preferred.
• Knowledge of ITIL practices is preferred.
• Familiarity with ServiceNow platform is preferred.
• 2 or more years of experience in a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) environment.
• Experience with planning and executing successful migrations or upgrades of operating systems between major versions (Linux, Network, S