Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) Senior Consultant

We are seeking a highly skilled RH Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) Senior Consultant to design, implement, and document advanced automation solutions within enterprise environments. The ideal candidate will possess deep technical expertise in Ansible Automation Platform 2.5.x, strong knowledge of Python-based plugin development, and proven experience in governance, integrations, and operational automation.

This position requires a hands-on consultant who excels in technical delivery, documentation, collaboration, and customer engagement.

Key Responsibilities:

Core Consulting & Delivery Skills:

• Perform industry-standard gap analysis and propose automation improvement strategies.
• Create high-level integration and playbook design documents.
• Maintain technical documentation in GitHub repositories (roles, README files, and code references).
• Document architectural decisions and workflows using Confluence and draw.io diagrams.
• Communicate clearly with customers, provide frequent demos, and manage scope expectations.
• Escalate appropriately to Project Managers and Principal Architects when needed.
• Work both independently and collaboratively, proactively sharing knowledge with the team.
• Follow Agile methodologies, adhering to MVP principles, Jira tracking, and proactive status reporting.

Ansible & Python Development:

• Set up Ansible within Python virtual environments and manage development servers (bastion hosts).
• Build structured Ansible project repositories, playbooks, and roles from the ground up.
• Write and test custom plugins, modules, and inventory plugins using Python.
• Create and publish Ansible Collections and execute playbooks using ansible-navigator and ansible-inventory.
• Debug and validate automation content for production readiness.

Integrations & Automation Platform Expertise:

• Design integrations using Ansible REST API (uri module) or custom Python modules.
• Leverage vendor Ansible Collections for system interoperability.
• Extensive experience with Ansible Automation Platform 2.5.x, including containerized deployments via Podman on RHEL.
• Implement Config-as-Code concepts using Ansible playbooks to manage AAP configuration.
• Deep understanding of AAP 2.5.x components (Gateway, Controller, Automation Hub, Redis, PostgreSQL, Event-Driven Ansible).
• Configure and manage Automation Hub, Event-Driven Ansible, and RBAC-based governance.
• Onboard tenants, manage credentials, inventories, and repositories.
• Establish Center of Excellence (CoE) governance and best practices for automation.

Day 2 Operations & Compliance Automation:

• Develop CIS Level 1 Compliance automation playbooks for OS hardening across RHEL 8/9 and Windows Server 2016/2019/2022.
• Deliver reusable, certified Day 2 playbooks for:
• User/team onboarding
• RBAC policy enforcement
• Job lifecycle management
• Monitoring and log forwarding
• Backup, recovery, and PostgreSQL snapshot automation
• Disaster recovery and restoration validation
• Support Dev and Pre-Prod environments ensuring compliance and reliability.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Senior-level experience with RH Ansible Automation Platform 2.5.x (containerized deployment).
• Strong Python scripting skills for custom Ansible plugin and module development.
• Deep understanding of Linux (RHEL) environments and containerization with Podman.
• Experience implementing RBAC, multi-tenant onboarding, and governance within AAP.
• Proven experience with documentation, Agile methodology, and Jira task management.

Preferred Qualifications:

• RH Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation Platform or equivalent certification.
• Experience building automation solutions for CIS compliance and OS hardening.
• Exposure to config-as-code and event-driven automation frameworks.
• Familiarity with backup, disaster recovery, and monitoring automation best practices.