Senior Information Systems Specialist (Linux)

ALTA IT has a Long-Term Contract position open for a Linux Systems Administrator. Washington DC 20006 - We have a hybrid work model where staff are required to be onsite 1-2 days per week. There are occasions where it will be required to travel to the data center location in Baltimore, MD. Per Federal Govt Sector U.S Citizenship is required Ability to pass Federal background check is required for Level 4 Public Trust Clearance The Advanced Research Computing section develops and operates a dynamic computing environment optimized for economic research, analysis, and measurement, and made available to staff across the economics divisions. Supports roughly 850 staff, including 650 economists engaged in monetary policy and independent research efforts. The mission is to ensure that the Board’s computing environment enhances our ability to attract and retain talented professionals. This requires a strong partnership, fostered by the ARC chief, with the Board’s Division of Information Technology (IT). IT provides endpoint, data center, and software development services to other lines of business at the Board, as well as core enterprise services relied upon. Today we provide an environment on-premises in the Board’s data centers and in the Cloud. Seeking a Senior Information Systems Specialist to support our Linux infrastructure that supports the research community computing infrastructure. The Senior Information Systems Specialist will ensure uptime of systems, resolve customer issues and work on infrastructure modernization projects. The hours of service will be 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. The successful candidate may be required to work over 40 hours per week based upon requirements and deliverables. Linux System Administration Perform routine patching to assigned systems. Respond to incident and request tickets raised in the service management system within required SLAs. Provision and maintain Linux infrastructure on-premise and in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. Build and maintain system monitoring tools such as BigFix, Nagios, Spunk, Nessus, CloudWatch etc. Ensure systems are backed up nightly or as defined in the backup and restoration policy. Implement new storage and file system requests from customers. Maintain a High-Performance Compute cluster comprised of Linux servers. Act in the event of system failure, due to an error, to restore the operation of software systems. In conjunction with the Storage team, ensure efficient use of NetApp storage resources. Update documentation using local standards to ensure systems are accurately reflected in documentation. Maintain overall industry knowledge on latest trends, technology, etc. Server Operating System Administration Build Linux operating system servers. Build Linux virtual machines on the VMWare platform. Build EC2 machines in AWS Cloud. Implement security benchmarks such as DISA STIGs or CIS Benchmarks. Define and maintain system configurations using tools such as Puppet. Monitor system vulnerabilities using Nessus and Splunk dashboards. Patch and upgrade Linux servers. Perform in-place migration upgrades of VMs and physical hardware. Basic Qualifications 10 or more years’ experience as a Linux System Administrator. Successful applicants are expected to have a bachelor’s in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or a related field and a minimum of 5 years of related experience or a master’s degree and a minimum of 4 years of related experience. Expert knowledge of Ubuntu Linux Operating system. Certifications such as Ubuntu or Red Hat Certified System Administrator is preferred. Networking fundamentals (TCP/IP configuration on servers). Experience with implementing Kerberos. Experience with Puppet configuration management tool to be able to create and modify Puppet modules and code. Proficiency in one or more scripting languages such as bash, perl, python etc. Experience with configuring directory services (Active Directory, LDAP). Experience with using tools such as BigFix, SCCM, Splunk. Experience with configuring and maintaining infrastructure in the Cloud – AWS EC2, EBS, EFS, RDS, FSx etc. Experience with infrastructure as code tools such as terraform. Experience with Netapp storage is preferred. Experience with High Performance Computing is preferred. Experience with Splunk is preferred. Knowledge of ITIL practices is preferred. Familiarity with ServiceNow platform is preferred. 2 or more years of experience in a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) environment. Experience with planning and executing successful migrations or upgrades of operating systems between major versions (Linux, Network, Storage, RDBMS, and/or Windows). Experience maintaining technical documentation using C4 Model nomenclature and diagrams or similar. Experience working in an economic research or academic environment preferred. M2