IT Systems Administrator-Level 4 - Lead (15+ Years)

The Principal Engineer, Linux and AIX Infrastructure will provide senior-level engineering leadership for enterprise Linux platforms, with additional support for AIX and IBM Power Systems during platform transition and lifecycle activities. This role is focused on Linux operating system engineering, including server build standards, automation, hardening, performance, troubleshooting, monitoring, lifecycle management, and operational support. This is a senior engineering role focused on platform standards, automation, lifecycle strategy, and complex infrastructure delivery rather than day-to-day server administration. The Principal Engineer will help define the strategy, roadmap, standards, and service model for Linux infrastructure, with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon Linux as the primary platforms. This role requires both solution design and hands-on implementation experience. The Principal Engineer will work across infrastructure, security, identity, cloud, application, backup, resiliency, and operations teams to deliver secure and supportable Linux infrastructure solutions. This role reports directly to the infrastructure leadership team and may provide technical direction to indirect project resources. The position is based in either Palm Beach Gardens or Miami. Responsibilities and Duties

• Lead the design, engineering, and implementation of enterprise Linux infrastructure solutions across on-premises, virtual, and cloud environments.
• Act as the technical product owner for Linux infrastructure services, including standards, roadmap development, lifecycle planning, and platform improvement opportunities.
• Develop and maintain Linux build standards, golden images, hardened templates, security baselines, and configuration standards using tools such as Packer.
• Define and implement Linux automation using Ansible, Terraform, Bash, Python, Git, and CI/CD practices.
• Support Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon Linux as primary enterprise Linux platforms.
• Support AIX, IBM Power Systems, PowerVM, and LPAR environments during transition, lifecycle, and consulting activities as needed.
• Define and manage Linux lifecycle, patching, repository, and maintenance standards using Red Hat Satellite, including cadence, prioritization, exception handling, compliance reporting, and coordination with operations teams.
• Support Linux security hardening, vulnerability remediation, and compliance alignment with CIS and enterprise security standards.
• Provide advanced troubleshooting for Linux performance, stability, security, and operational issues.
• Define standard Linux hosting patterns for enterprise applications, including configuration, monitoring, backup, recovery, security, identity integration, and support requirements.
• Define monitoring standards, alerting requirements, operational thresholds, service catalog offerings, knowledge management, and CMDB standards for Linux services.
• Partner with identity, security, backup, resiliency, application, infrastructure, cloud, and operations teams on cross-functional projects and recovery requirements.
• Participate in architecture reviews, design reviews, change planning, and technical governance processes; create technical documentation, implementation plans, diagrams, and executive-ready materials.
• Lead technical workstreams, provide direction to indirect project resources, and work with vendors or managed service providers to resolve complex issues and improve platform operations.

• 10+ years of infrastructure engineering experience, including 5+ years of hands-on Linux engineering in enterprise environments.
• Deep technical experience with Linux operating systems, including build, configuration, troubleshooting, patching, hardening, lifecycle management, and operational support.
• Experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon Linux.
• Advanced troubleshooting experience with Linux performance, system logs, services, kernel parameters, filesystems, networking, storage integration, identity integration, and security controls.
• Strong Bash and Python scripting experience.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code patterns for server provisioning and configuration using tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Packer, Git, and CI/CD practices.
• Experience building and maintaining Linux golden images, hardened templates, automated deployment patterns, and configuration baselines.
• Experience with Linux security hardening, vulnerability remediation, configuration compliance, and CIS standards.
• Required experience with Red Hat Satellite for Linux patching, repository management, lifecycle management, compliance reporting, and operational support.
• Experience with sudo, LDAP integration, and enterprise identity/access integration patterns, preferably with Quest One Identity.
• Experience defining monitoring requirements, alert thresholds, operational metrics, service catalog offerings, knowledge management, CMDB standards, and related ServiceNow processes.
• Experience developing standards, roadmaps, documentation, service models, and operational procedures.
• Experience leading technical workstreams, working with indirect project resources, and communicating with technical teams, stakeholders, and senior leadership.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience with AIX.
• Experience with IBM Power Systems, PowerVM, and LPARs.
• Experience with additional Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Oracle Linux, or SUSE.
• Experience with Linux workloads in AWS, GCP, or other cloud platforms.
• Experience with cloud-native Linux images, AMIs, machine images, or automated image pipelines.
• Experience with container platforms, Kubernetes, or OpenShift.
• Experience with enterprise monitoring platforms and observability tools.
• Experience working in regulated or security-focused enterprise environments.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Relevant Linux, automation, cloud, security, or infrastructure certifications are preferred.
• Preferred certifications may include Red Hat, AWS, Google Cloud, Terraform, Ansible, ITIL, security, or related infrastructure certifications.