Linux Systems Engineer

Nightwing provides technically advanced full-spectrum cyber, data operations, systems integration and intelligence mission support services to meet our customers’ most demanding challenges. Our capabilities include cyber space operations, cyber defense and resiliency, vulnerability research, ubiquitous technical surveillance, data intelligence, lifecycle mission enablement, and software modernization. Nightwing brings disruptive technologies, agility, and competitive offerings to customers in the intelligence community, defense, civil, and commercial markets.

Nightwing is seeking a highly skilled Linux Systems Engineer to design, deploy, optimize, automate, and support large-scale Linux infrastructure supporting secure networking and remote-access services. This role is ideal for an engineer with deep expertise in Linux networking, policy-based routing, kernel performance tuning, infrastructure automation, and modern VPN technologies including Wire Guard, OpenVPN, and IPSec.

The successful candidate will collaborate closely with network engineering, systems administration, and platform engineering teams to deliver highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructure solutions in mission-critical environments.

Primary Responsibilities Linux Infrastructure Engineering Design, deploy, administer, and maintain enterprise Linux environments.

Develop standardized operating system configurations and hardened baseline builds.

Perform operating system upgrades, patch management, lifecycle maintenance, and performance optimization.

Troubleshoot complex operating system, networking, and application issues.

Advanced Network Engineering Design and implement advanced routing architectures utilizing:

Policy-Based Routing (P )Multiple routing tables

Route maps and traffic steering

Source-based and destination-based routing

Multi-homed network environments

Configure and troubleshoot:

OSPF and static routingVLANs, LACP, and 802.1Q trunking

Network namespacesVRFsNAT and firewall policies

Analyze and troubleshoot network traffic using:tcpdump

Wiresharkiproute2nftablesiptables

Linux Kernel Tuning & Performance Optimization Tune Linux kernel parameters for:

High-throughput networking

Low-latency applicationsVPN gateway performance

Large-scale concurrent connections

Optimize:

TCP/IP stack performance

Network buffer sizingIRQ balancing CPU affinityNUMA awareness

Memory management

Utilize performance analysis tools including:perfsarvmstatiostateBPF observability toolssystemd performance metricsVPN Engineering Design, deploy, and support secure VPN infrastructures using:

OpenVPN 2.6+WireGuardIPSecImplement and support:

Site-to-site VPNsRemote-access VPNsHub-and-spoke architectures

High-availability VPN clusters

Dynamic routing across VPN overlays

Responsibilities include:

Troubleshooting encryption, routing, MTU, and performance issues

Implementing modern cryptographic standards and VPN hardening best practices

Configuration Management & Automation Develop and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using Salt Stack.

Create and maintain:

Salt States Pillars Custom  modules

Orchestration workflows

Automate:

System provisioning

Configuration deployment

Compliance enforcementVPN deployments

Security baseline management

Integrate Salt Stack with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure monitoring platforms.

Required Qualifications:

Current Top-Secret Clearance with SCI Eligibility Technical Experience5+ years of Linux Systems Engineering experience3+ years of advanced Linux networking experience3+ years of VPN engineering experience3+ years of Salt Stack administration and automation experience

Operating Systems Strong hands-on experience with:

Debian Linux Ubuntu Linux Networking Expertise Demonstrated expertise with:

Policy-Based Routing (P )iproute2

Routing tables and policy rules

Linux bridges

Bonding and teamingVLANsVRFsNetwork name spaces

Dynamic routing protocols

High-availability networking architecturesVPN Expertise Strong practical experience with:

Wire Guard Open VPN 2.6+IPSecPKI and certificate managementTLS authentication

Multi-site VPN topologiesVPN performance tuning

Automation & Scripting

Experience with :

Salt Stack Python Bash Git CI/CD workflows

Preferred…