DTRA--Systems Administrator Senior-Linux Administrator

Defense Engineering Inc. (DEi) is seeking a Linux Senior Systems Administrator to support our long‑term contract located at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at Fort Belvoir, VA.

Job Category: Information Technology – Linux Senior Administrator

Salary: Negotiable

Location: Fort Belvoir, VA US

Clearance Level Must Currently Possess:

TS/SCI, US Citizenship

Certifications (Baseline):

• 8570 Baseline Active IAT Level II (Minimum of one)
  • Security+ CE
  • CySA+
  • GICSP
  • GSEC
  • SSCP

Additional Certs

Linux certification (RHCSA Preferred), CompTIA Linux, LCFS/LCFE, etc.

Education/

Experience:

BS with 6-8 years, or MS degree with 4-6 years of experience in IT operations working with Linux servers and Virtualization.

Schedule: Full-time

Potential for Teleworking: Situational

Travel: None

Shift: Day Job

DEi is seeking a Linux Administrator to support the DTRA I3TS Infrastructure Services team to maintain and optimize the Linux production environment. The candidate will be responsible for sustaining Linux servers as well as the conceptualization, design, development and implementation of new Linux capabilities. The candidate is expected to work well as a part of the DTRA Systems Administration team using ITIL best practices as well as work independently on assigned tasks.

Candidate is expected to support the entire service lifecycle from design through development to production, building and deploying Linux based systems in a virtual environment.

Candidate should be familiar with system automation technologies, basic database administration and tuning. Candidates must demonstrate a high degree of problem‑solving ability in a complex environment and be able to communicate effectively, both to the customer and to team members.

• Provision servers and environments
• Manage user access
• Full lifecycle management of Linux servers, including installation, configuration and patching in production and test environments.
• Automation knowledge scripting in Unix shell and Ansible playbooks.
• Perform security patching, upgrades, and hardening to meet compliance standards and remediate critical vulnerabilities.
• Monitor system performance and respond to alerts.
• Establish and maintain NTP services in the production environment.
• Maintain satellite servers for the agency, software releases and patches.
• Experience with the following emerging technologies or equivalent technology:
  Kubernetes, Open Shift, Containers, Git Hub, Ansible Tower.
• Ensure compliance with security standards and practices aligned with DoD STIGs.
• Experience with web servers and use of certificates.
• Open Source:
  Apache Hadoop, Zookeeper, Puppet.
• App Servers: JBoss, Tomcat, Jetty, NGINX, HT.
• Be able to work in a fast‑paced environment and must be able to work independently.
• Work on multiple projects, leading projects that fall within the area of responsibility.
• Communicate with internal team members across multiple areas and client team members.
• Provide support on a M‑F business hours schedule, also responsible for on‑call, extended hour, and weekend support as required by mission or emergency situations.
• Create, maintain, and implement detailed documentation and maintain standard operating procedures.

• BS with 6-8 years, or MS degree with 4-6 years of experience in IT operations working with Linux servers and Virtualization.
• Must hold a Top Secret/SCI Clearance.
• Hands‑on experience administering Red Hat Enterprise Linux environments.
• Direct experience supporting systems with Red Hat Satellite.
• Understanding of virtualized infrastructure, server backup and restore procedures, application of STIGs and cyber hardening approaches.
• Basic experience with log file analysis.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem‑solving skills.

• Red Hat certifications (RHCSA or RHCE).
• Experience implementing and maintaining DISA STIG compliance using Red Hat Satellite and Ansible.
• Experience integrating Linux systems with Active Directory or LDAP.
• Familiarity with virtualization platforms (VMware, KVM).
• Scripting experience (Bash or Python) to support automation initiatives.
• Experience supporting classified networks or cross‑domain environments.