Job Title: Onshore Senior Unix Linux SME
Location(s): Chicago, IL
(Remote)
Position SummaryWe are seeking an experienced Senior Linux/Unix Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support, modernize, and transform large-scale, mission-critical enterprise infrastructure. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience managing enterprise Linux/Unix environments, leading critical incident response, driving infrastructure modernization, and supporting hybrid cloud platforms across large-scale environments with 20,000+ servers.
Key ResponsibilitiesCritical Incident & Operations Management- Serve as the SME for P1/P2 incident response, root cause analysis, and rapid service restoration.
- Lead incident bridges, post-incident reviews, and implement preventive measures.
- Improve incident management processes, observability, and overall system reliability.
Linux / Unix Platform Engineering- Administer and support the complete RHEL lifecycle, including upgrades, patching, and end-of-life planning.
- Implement CIS-compliant operating system hardening and maintain security compliance.
- Develop and maintain automation using Chef, Ansible, Bash, KornShell, and Python.
- Build and manage RHEL golden images and cloud deployment templates.
Infrastructure Modernization- Lead migrations from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8.
- Drive migrations from legacy Unix platforms to Linux and Azure environments.
- Support application and database modernization initiatives.
- Contribute to datacenter consolidation and cloud transformation projects.
Hybrid Cloud & Virtualization- Support VMware, Nutanix, Dell VxRail, Azure IaaS, and Azure VMware Solution environments.
- Design and manage hybrid cloud architectures.
- Perform physical-to-virtual (P2V) migrations and optimize virtualized infrastructure.
Enterprise Platforms- Support enterprise applications including SAP, Oracle Database, Teamcenter, and HPC platforms.
- Administer Unix platforms including AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris.
- Manage IBM NIM, VIOS, HMC, GPFS, NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel storage environments.
Disaster Recovery & High Availability- Design, implement, and validate disaster recovery and high availability solutions.
- Support DR planning for enterprise platforms including Oracle and Teamcenter.
- Conduct disaster recovery exercises while ensuring RTO/RPO compliance.
Infrastructure Services & Security- Support enterprise infrastructure services including DNS, NTP, Satellite, and PXE.
- Manage monitoring and security platforms including Splunk, Rapid7, CrowdStrike, Qualys, Microsoft Defender, and Nagios.
- Perform vulnerability remediation, patch management, and security compliance activities.
Required Qualifications- 7-10 years of Linux/Unix system administration and engineering experience.
- Experience supporting enterprise environments with 10,000+ servers.
- Extensive experience handling P1/P2 incidents and performing root cause analysis.
- Strong expertise with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux, Ubuntu, AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris.
- Proven experience migrating legacy Unix workloads to Linux and cloud platforms.
- Strong experience with enterprise automation and configuration management.
Technical SkillsOperating Systems- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
- SUSE Linux
- Ubuntu
- AIX
- HP-UX
- Solaris
Virtualization & Cloud- VMware vSphere
- NSX
- vSAN
- Nutanix
- Dell VxRail
- Microsoft Azure (IaaS, Azure VMware Solution)
- Basic AWS knowledge
Automation & DevOps- Chef
- Ansible
- Terraform
- Bash
- KornShell
- Python
- Docker
- Kubernetes (working knowledge)
Storage & Infrastructure- GPFS
- NFS
- iSCSI
- Fibre Channel
- LVM
- Veritas Volume Manager
- DNS
- NTP
- PXE
Monitoring & Security- Splunk
- Nagios
- Rapid7
- CrowdStrike
- Qualys
- Microsoft Defender
- CIS Hardening
- Vulnerability Management
Enterprise Platforms- IBM NIM
- VIOS
- HMC
- Active Directory Integration
- Samba
- Satellite
- RPM-based Linux systems
- SAP
- Oracle Database
- Teamcenter
Required Certifications- Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
Preferred Certifications- VMware Certified Professional - Data Center Virtualization (2023)
- CompTIA Security+
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
Preferred Experience- Experience supporting enterprise environments exceeding 20,000 servers.
- Azure Skytap migration experience.
- Platform One exposure.
- SLURM workload manager experience.
- IBM WebSphere ecosystem experience.
Soft Skills- Excellent leadership and stakeholder management abilities.
- Strong communication skills during high-priority incidents.
- Ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives.
- Continuous improvement mindset with a focus on automation, stability, and operational excellence.
Success Metrics- Reduced incident recurrence and Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).
- Successful delivery of infrastructure modernization initiatives.
- Improved security compliance and vulnerability remediation.
- Increased system availability, performance, and operational reliability.
