UNIX/Linux/Solaris Engineer

GDIT is seeking a UNIX/Linux/Solaris Engineer to support NIH CIT’s HSS program. You will keep mission-critical systems stable, secure, and performant across Solaris (Zones/LDOMs) and Red Hat Linux on VMware, while applying careful, responsible automation to reduce toil—modernizing only where it strengthens reliability, security, and customer outcomes. 

Location: Hybrid (3 days/week onsite, Bethesda, MD) 

Responsibilities:

• Operate and administer Solaris and Red Hat estates: Solaris—administer Zones and Logical Domains (LDOMs); manage OS lifecycle, patching, and hardware (Oracle platforms such as T-series where applicable). Red Hat—administer RHEL systems virtualized on VMware (in partnership with the Windows/VMware team). 

• Patching & change execution: Drive Solaris patching using Alternate Boot Environments (ABE)—build, patch, and reboot into ABEs on standard cycles (e.g., 3rd Friday for non-prod, 4th Friday for prod) with rapid rollback capability if needed. 

• Adapt to Oracle’s revised patch cadence (security bundles every ~6 weeks, with potential interim bundles) and plan out-of-band updates when required by vulnerability severity. 

• Maintain Red Hat patching via Puppet, ensuring customer-managed servers also receive monthly OS updates. 

• Automation & tool transitions: Lead the transition off Oracle Ops Center (EOL/waiver ends Dec 31) toward Ansible (preferred) or Puppet playbooks for Solaris patch automation; author playbooks/modules and operational runbooks for the new process. 

• Support upgrade from Oracle OEM 13.5 to 24 AI and ensure monitoring/administration workflows remain reliable during and after the migration. 

• Monitoring & security operations: Configure and consume SL1 monitoring for OS/hardware health (CPU/memory/filesystems) and notifications; coordinate with DCOB (operations management) for platform configuration as needed. 

• Triage security alerts from Tenable scans and follow-on tickets in Tripwire (file integrity) and Splunk (log-based anomalies such as SSH attempts); enforce host-level firewalls and raise network blocks when needed. 

• Implement account policies (e.g., password expiration changes) safely across environments; validate changes in non-prod first to avoid service impact. 

• Service models & customer engagement: Solaris—own root and full OS/hardware administration; grant sudo for customer application operations. Red Hat—support both managed (GDIT administers OS; customers manage apps) and customer-managed servers (customers hold root; GDIT ensures OS patching and provides consulting on request). 

• Incident response & governance: Use ServiceNow for change and incident management; adhere to CAB approvals and standard change windows; deliver post-incident RCA where applicable. 

• Participate in XMatters on-call rotations (15-minute acknowledge; tiered escalation), coordinating with NOC bridge during ent