RHEL Clustering and Automation Engineer

Terms of Employment

• W2 Contract, 12 months (Possible Extension)
• This position is remote.
• Candidates must be local to Chicago, IL or Baltimore, MD.
• On-call rotation will be required.

Overview
Our client is seeking an RHEL Clustering and Automation Engineer to provide hands-on support for the delivery and maintenance of IT solutions. The RHEL Clustering and Automation Engineer will provide IT teams and business personnel with technology solutions by weighing the advantages of technology standards, market availability of products, and the risks and benefits of technology to meet business/IT needs. The RHEL Clustering and Automation Engineer will also maintain significant customer engagement, work planning, and project management services provided to IT customers.

Responsibilities

• Manage RedHat 6, 7, 8, and 9 servers from both a hardware and operating system standpoint.
• Manage support of VMware vSphere hypervisor to allow hosting of servers in a virtualized, highly available environment.
• Configure and maintain server processes, configurations, and backups.
• Maintain and monitor Linux and VMware platform health and performance.
• Maintain server inventory information to ensure the accuracy of the configuration management database.
• Support the production release management system for documenting, planning, and implementing IT changes.
• Plan, coordinate, communicate, and implement security patching activities for Linux server platforms.
• Refine and automate regular processes, track issues, and document changes.
• Assist in racking and stacking servers in data centers.
• Provide 24x7 support and participate in on-call rotation for critical production systems.
• Perform scheduled maintenance and support release deployment activities after hours.
• Provide technical expertise and/or solution delivery support for maintaining the performance and reliability of server solutions.
• Maintain and enhance engagement with business and IT partners to sustain service levels and high availability of server computer services.
• Be visible and accessible to clients, providing guidance for how to successfully request new devices as needed.
• Build and maintain knowledge of new technologies or technology opportunities for on-premise and cloud-based services.
• Assist in coordinating and implementing planned infrastructure changes for business and/or IT clients.
• Ensure proper implementation of technology, both within the production and the development environments.
• Look for ways to automate processes to allow more efficient use of resources.
• Find ways over, around, and through barriers to success. Be a self-starter and a results-oriented doer.
• Promote and encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Required Skills & Experience

• Bachelor s Degree in Computer Science or a related field and 5-7 years of relevant experience (IT infrastructure support, application support, cloud computing, disaster/recovery) or 6-9 years of relevant work experience.
• At least 6-8 years of System Administrator experience (Oracle, Unix, Linux, clustering, etc.).
• Expertise in Unix system administration.
• Experience with Red Hat Linux and Oracle Linux.
• Storage administration experience (ZFS, LVM, Veritas).
• Ability to create original scripts/programs for system administration in at least one of these languages: Bourne shell, Perl, Python, Java.
• Experience with Ansible.
• Experience with build and patch automation for RHEL and OEL.
• Experience with Red Hat PCS clustering.
• Experience leading technical discussions among peers and driving troubleshooting to resolution.
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to make well-thought-out decisions on complex or ambiguous issues.
• Understanding of change management principles associated with sustaining high availability of systems and preventing change-related incidents due to human performance factors.
• Ability to participate in on-call rotation.
• Ability to work extended hours or a modified schedule for planned or emergency work.
• Ability to work with little oversight to drive assigned initiatives through to completion.
• Demonstrated proficiency in at least one operational domain, such as storage, compute, database, collaboration, application support, cloud hosting, and related technologies.
• Ability to lift up to 25lbs to rack servers with assistance and the use of server lifts as needed.
• Ability to travel domestically.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Solaris experience.
• Enterprise environment experience preferred, non-government profiles (local, state, or federal).
• Experience with Ansible playbooks.
• Experience with OS clustering - one of: Veritas Infoscale, Oracle Clusterware, Solaris, Red Hat PCS.
• Experience with Oracle Exadata.
• Experience administering servers on-premise (physical and virtual) and in Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
• Experience with Oracle Enterprise Linux, Solaris, and Exadata hardware.
• Experience with a scripting language such as Python or Shell.
• Zerto experience.
• Certifications such as Azure Administrator, Oracle Cloud Administrator, VMware, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server.
• Demonstrated ability with knowledge in current versions of VMware hypervisor technology.
• Working-level knowledge of backups, RAID, SAN, and NAS storage.