Senior Linux Systems Administrator — TalentHop, United States

This is a Fully Remote Job

About Our Client:

This organization operates in the software supply-chain security space, supporting enterprises and government entities by reducing risk through hardened container images, runtime-based attack surface reduction, and automated vulnerability remediation. It manages and maintains the infrastructure that supports engineering teams and core systems, ensuring stability and security.

About the Opportunity:

The SENIOR LINUX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR is responsible for owning and maintaining the organization's infrastructure, including bare-metal Linux servers, virtual machines, containers, network connectivity, self-hosted development services, and cloud resources. This role ensures these systems remain reliable, secure, and well-documented, leads incident responses, and plans necessary changes. It is a hands-on senior individual contributor position requiring broad technical knowledge from hardware to networking.

Responsibilities:

• Build, configure, administer, and harden Linux systems including installation, services, packages, users, permissions, authentication, and access control

• Operate and maintain physical Linux servers, virtual machines, and containers with attention to storage, capacity planning, and hardware replacement

• Manage operating-system lifecycle including patching, upgrades, and end-of-life transitions

• Maintain configuration consistency and correct drift

• Design, operate, and troubleshoot network elements such as routing, firewalls, DHCP, DNS, and overlay networks

• Manage AWS resources, primarily EC2 and S3

• Operate self-hosted development tools including GitLab, CI runners, build machines, and package mirrors

• Diagnose production system problems involving CPU, memory, disk I/O, filesystems, systemd, networking, and service dependencies

• Use logs, metrics, and command-line tools for root cause analysis and validation of fixes

• Monitor systems and improve alerting to catch issues early with minimal noise

• Lead incident response activities and contribute to reviews and corrective measures

• Collaborate with developers, IT, data center staff, and vendors on cross-boundary issues

• Escalate issues as necessary with detailed findings and troubleshooting records

• Develop and maintain automation scripts in Bash and Python

• Create and manage Ansible roles and playbooks following team standards

• Replace manual tasks with automation stored in git and deployed through code review and automated processes

• Manage security and operational reliability including access control, patching, vulnerability scanning, backups, and change procedures

• Maintain documentation such as runbooks, configuration records, and troubleshooting notes

• Participate in on-call rotations and scheduled maintenance

Requirements:

• Eight or more years of hands-on Linux systems administration experience in production environments with root responsibility

• Experience managing physical hardware as well as cloud instances

• In-depth knowledge of Linux processes, services, permissions, package management, filesystems, and logging

• Strong experience with Debian and other Linux distributions

• Expertise in boot and kernel components including UEFI, GRUB, initramfs, kernel configuration, modules, and sysctl

• Proficiency in resource control and diagnostic tools such as cgroups v2, memory management, strace, perf, iostat, ss, and /proc

• Familiarity with both systemd and sysvinit init systems

• Solid understanding of TCP/IP fundamentals including IPv4/IPv6, subnetting, bridges, VLANs, bonding, NAT, and connectivity troubleshooting

• Advanced Linux routing knowledge including policy routing, multiple routing tables, and site-to-site routing

• Experience with traffic shaping using tc and related queueing disciplines and classification methods

Pay Range and Compensation Package:

• Base salary range is $125,000 to $165,000 annually, plus equity and benefits

Equal Opportunity Statement: Our client is an equal opportunity employer. They celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or national origin.

Note:

TalentHop is a recruitment partner of this role. Please note that all employment decisions, including candidate assessment, interviews, hiring, compensation, and employment terms, are made exclusively by the hiring employer.