Pending AWARD: Linux Automation Engineer - Junior Level and ; Already hold Secret Level

• 08-oct-2026 to 30-nov-2026 (est)
• pre-contract award
• baltimore, md, usa
• per hour
• hourly
• full time
• medical, dental, vision, paid vacation, paid holidays, 401k matching, and the list goes on!

description :

this candidate and its peers report to the operations task lead and maintains a fleet of linux systems (mostly rhel 8 and rhel
9) across on-premises and cloud networks, both with, and without internet connectivity. Responsible for configuring and securing systems utilizing configuration as code (ansible playbooks) that are deployed via gitlab pipelines.

telework status : no telework allowed

clearance level required : secret level clearance or higher

responsibilities :

what you will do:

• provision, manage, and support red hat enterprise linux (rhel) and ubuntu servers across several internet-connected and internet-disconnected networks.
• develop, utilize, and maintain ansible playbooks to secure, patch, and configure linux servers.
• manage kubernetes clusters as well as the workloads deployed on the clusters.
• manage and configure connected services such as network adapters, storage, and firewalls.
• deploy, configure, and support monitoring capabilities to detect anomalous conditions or service disruptions.
• investigate service disruptions and provide root cause analysis reports and implement additional steps to prevent subsequent issues.
• support deployments of new hardware and software applications and appliances.

schedule :

• core hours are  monday-friday to ensure overlap with the team, attendance is expected outside of this window as needed to support meetings, deployments, and team activities. The system administration team is expected to have on-site coverage  monday-friday and schedules will be coordinated with other members of the team to ensure this coverage.

r equired skills/credentials :

• must be a u.s. Citizen and have an active secret clearance or higher
• bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, math, information technology, or cybersecurityand 3 years' experience or a master's degree in one of these domain sand 1 year of experience
• strong oral and written communications skills
• expertise with configuration as code (cac) tooling (ansible preferred)
• expertise managing red hat enterprise linux (rhel) and ubuntu systems on disconnected environments.
• certification compliant with dod 8570/8140 iat ii (e.g., security+ or similar)
• experience with infrastructure as code ( iac ) tooling (terraform preferred).
• experience administering kubernetes clusters and services.
• experience managing secure comput ing environments to adhere with disa stigs and nist 800-53 controls.
• experience monitoring system uptime and performance with tools such as splunk, grafana, and solarwinds.
• experience providing detailed technical after-action reports with root cause analysis after outage or security incidents.
• familiarity with host-level networking such as instance firewalls.
• familiarity with storage provider management such as network file systems (nfs).
• familiarity with source code management tooling such as github or gitlab.
• mission focused work environment
• hsa contributions
• 401k matching
• holiday and paid time off (pto)
• monthly wan parties & quarterly events
• flexible hours

remote work is not an option. We do offer relocation assistance . Please see our careers page or inquire with your recruiter about the terms and conditions.

salary and other compensation:

the hourly wage range is: $48.08 - $108.17

the salary range for this position is subject not only to the hire's skills, education, expertise, and years of experience, but also to features of the final position offered to the hire: including, but not limited to the location of the position, clearance required for the position, and the contract associated with the position. See our perks & benefits page for a general description of benefits and other potential compensation benefits:

about us:

at cipher tech solutions, inc. (cipher tech), we take great pride in supporting some of the most mission critical work in the department of defense and the intelligence community. The majority of our company is comprised of extremely talented software developers who write production tools which directly support one of two missions: digital forensics and malware reverse engineering.

digital forensics is the practice of extracting and processing evidence from computers,…