Senior Linux Engineer
Location: Symonston, ACT
Contract Duration: 02 March 2026 – 30 June 2027 (308 days max)
Extensions: Two × 12‑month options at client’s discretion

Role Purpose
Our client seeks a Senior Linux Engineer to design, develop, build and support the environment and deployable systems. This role is a hands‑on technical position responsible for capability development, system design, secure operations, and configuration control within classified and offline environments. The Senior Linux Engineer will contribute to the validation and verification of emerging technologies and support large‑scale compute and storage environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain Linux‑based servers, infrastructure and software across physical and virtual environments.
• Ensure high availability, fault tolerance and optimal performance of mission‑critical systems.
• Design, build and implement secure network and system configurations
• Collaborate closely with engineering, DevSecOps and environment teams to securely deploy and maintain experimental systems and contribute to architectural decisions.
• Provide technical support to exercises for role‑specific technologies and systems.
• Conduct system audits, vulnerability assessments and manage patching activities.
• Manage SELinux policies, configure firewalls (iptables/nftables) and enforce secure access controls in accordance with the Information Security Manual (ISM).
• Support accreditation processes and maintain compliance documentation.
• Deploy, maintain and manage large‑scale Linux environment management tools such as Red Hat Satellite and Ansible.
• Develop and maintain automation scripts using Bash, Python and Ansible to streamline operations.
• Support DevSecOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, GitLab and automated configuration management.
• Work with containerisation and cloud‑native technologies including OpenStack, OpenShift, Docker, Podman and Kubernetes.
• Standardise system deployments and enforce configuration baselines.
• Maintain version‑controlled infrastructure‑as‑code repositories to ensure traceability and continuous improvement.

Qualifications & Experience
Required

• Extensive experience in Linux system administration within secure, mission‑critical environments, primarily Red Hat‑based systems.
• Strong knowledge of networking, storage and virtualisation technologies (KVM, VMware).
• Demonstrated ability to implement security controls and respond to cyber threats.
• Experience integrating emerging technologies into secure infrastructure.

Desirable

• Certifications such as RHCE, Security+, CISSP or equivalent.
• ITIL Foundation certification.
• Cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, GCP) for hybrid environments.
• Experience with monitoring and visualisation tools such as Grafana, Prometheus and Elastic Stack.