Linux Contract Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

Why AIS?

When you join AIS, you’re joining a mission-driven team that’s passionate about making a difference. You’ll work on projects that matter, alongside industry-leading experts, in an environment that fosters innovation, driving client success, and empowering our team to make a lasting impact. As an employee-owned company, we value collaboration, inclusivity, continuous growth, and shared success. Employee Ownership: Your contributions directly impact the company’s success, and you share in its achievements. Continuous Learning: Access to resources, training, and mentorship to support your professional growth. Inclusive Culture: A workplace where diversity is celebrated, and everyone’s voice is valued. Mission-Driven Work: Engage in projects that make a meaningful difference for our clients and communities.

What are we looking for?

At AIS, we're looking for more than just skills - we're looking for driven individuals who are passionate about making a difference, eager to grow, and aligned with our core principles.

What you will be doing?

This position is contingent upon contract award. We are currently pursuing a proposal and are seeking qualified candidates to include in our submission and identify candidates for future hiring needs on the program once awarded. At AIS, we are dedicated to providing our employees with diverse opportunities to grow their careers while supporting a variety of impactful projects. For this position, we are seeking a talented individual to join AIS as a Lead Infrastructure Engineer.

Core Knowledge & Skills:

Aligns infrastructure strategy to business goals, leads large projects, applies compliance frameworks, designs high availability/disaster recovery and performance optimization patterns, and shapes deployment pipeline design.

Work & Complexity:

Directs cross-team programs, performs advanced tuning, implements high availability/failover architectures, leads audits, plans growth, and manages budgets.

Quality & Independence:

Delivers high-quality outcomes, sets team standards, introduces innovative solutions, and makes high-impact decisions.

Teamwork & Communication:

Leads the engineering team, develops talent, resolves conflicts, and communicates effectively with senior leadership and stakeholders.

Consulting & Engagement:

Provides high-level consulting to leadership, builds roadmaps, negotiates vendor contracts, and sponsors innovation initiatives.

As your initial project assignment, you will support the unique needs of our client as a Linux Automation Administrator.

Project Summary

AIS is seeking a Linux Automation Administrator for a Federal Contract as part of a highly talented, highly motivated, and high-performing team. This position offers a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of cyber investigations, digital forensics, cyber threat analysis, and mission support in a dynamic and collaborative environment. The successful candidate will contribute to protecting national security interests by leveraging technical expertise, analytical skills, and innovative problem-solving to address complex cyber challenges.

Key Responsibilities

• 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.

Required For This Opportunity

Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of experience or a Master’s degree and 3 year of experience. A degree in one of the following fields is highly desired: Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or Cybersecurity. However, an additional 4 years of relevant experience or specialized training may be accepted in lieu of a Bachelor’s degree. 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.

Clearance Requirement

Top Secret/SCI Clearance

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tooling, Terraform preferred.
• Experience administering Kubernetes clusters and services.
• Experience managing secure computing 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.

At AIS, we are committed to offering competitive and fair compensation that reflects the skills, experience, and contributions of each team member. The targeted base salary range for this role is $121,000-$182,000 per year. Please note that this range is provided as a guideline and the final offer will be based on several factors, including but not limited to, skillset and competencies, level of experience, education, certifications, and location. We value transparency in our hiring process and are happy to discuss how your unique qualifications align with our compensation structure during the interview process.

Applied Information Sciences does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis. Employment decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs. If you're committed to curiosity, life-long learning, and passionate about technology – AIS is the place for you. Learn more at ais.com.

Benefits

• Competitive Salaries
• Qualified Overtime
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Flexible Holiday Leave (88 hours per year)
• Parental Leave
• Immediate Healthcare: Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
• 401(k) Retirement Plan (5% match on base compensation, immediate 100% vesting)
• Tuition Reimbursement & Learning Allowance
• Referral Bonus Program (up to $5k)