Pay Rate - $50-56/Hr, W2
Location: Remote
Duration: 6+ months
The Linux Platform Engineering team owns the strategy, architecture, and lifecycle management of Linux-based infrastructure underpinning critical business operations across on prem and cloud environments.
The Lead Linux Platform Engineer is a senior technical leadership role, combining deep hands on engineering expertise with platform ownership, automation strategy, and cross functional influence across infrastructure, cloud, security, and application teams.
This is not a traditional system administrator position. This role operates as a platform owner and technical authority, accountable for how Linux platforms are built, secured, automated, monitored, and operated at scale.
This role participates in an on call rotation and is expected to lead complex incidents and drive systemic resolution, not merely respond.
Role Summary
The Lead Linux Platform Engineer is accountable for the design, standardization, reliability, and continuous improvement of the enterprise Linux ecosystem. This includes defining platform strategy, driving automation and infrastructure as code adoption, improving observability, and ensuring Linux platforms are secure, scalable, and aligned to business and cloud strategy.
This role moves beyond administration to own platform outcomes, define engineering standards, mentor engineers, and lead complex initiatives across hybrid environments.
Key Responsibilities
Platform Ownership & Strategy
• Own the enterprise Linux platform roadmap, including OS lifecycle management, patching strategy, standardization, and technical debt reduction
• Define and enforce engineering standards, build patterns, and operational best practices across Linux environments
• Establish automation first and reliability driven operating models for Linux platforms
• Continuously evaluate and improve platform scalability, resiliency, performance, and cost efficiency
Architecture & Engineering
• Design and implement scalable, resilient Linux-based solutions across on prem and cloud environments
• Act as a technical authority for compute, virtualization, storage integration, and core Linux services
• Lead technical design reviews and architecture decisions for Linux platforms
• Partner with application, database, and cloud teams to support modern platform patterns, including containers and hybrid cloud architectures
Automation & Modernization
• Lead the design and implementation of automation frameworks using tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Bash, and Python
• Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and reusable platform modules
• Eliminate manual, error prone processes through orchestration, automation, and self service capabilities
• Champion platform engineering and DevOps practices across the infrastructure organization
Reliability, Performance & Observability
• Own platform availability, performance, capacity, and recoverability, aligned to SLAs and business requirements
• Define and maintain monitoring, logging, and observability standards using enterprise tooling (e.g., Datadog, Dynatrace)
• Serve as a technical escalation lead during incidents, conducting deep root cause analysis and driving permanent corrective actions
• Ensure backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies are designed, implemented, and regularly validated
Security & Compliance
• Embed security by design principles into Linux platform architecture and operations
• Partner with security teams to implement OS hardening, vulnerability management, and compliance controls
• Own patching governance, security baselines, and audit defensible configuration standards
• Ensure Linux platforms meet enterprise and regulatory security requirements
Virtualization, Storage & Core Services
• Engineer and support Linux workloads running on VMware and cloud platforms
• Partner with storage teams on SAN/NAS integration, LUN provisioning, and performance tuning
• Own Linux-based infrastructure services such as DNS, DHCP, LDAP, and NTP
• Ensure platforms are optimally aligned with underlying compute, storage, and network architectures
Cross Functional Leadership
• Act as a technical leader and escalation point for complex Linux platform issues
• Collaborate with infrastructure, network, storage, database, application, and vendor teams to deliver integrated solutions
• Translate technical risk and trade offs into clear business impact for technical and non technical stakeholders
• Lead complex initiatives end to end, from design through execution and operational handover
Mentorship & Capability Building
• Mentor and guide engineers, raising platform engineering maturity and technical capability
• Promote a culture of automation, operational excellence, and continuous improvement
• Establish repeatable, documented, and audit defensible operating practices
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent practical experience
• 7–10+ years of progressive experience engineering and operating Linux platforms in enterprise environments
• Deep expertise in enterprise Linux (RHEL, SUSE, or equivalent) across large scale deployments
• Advanced proficiency with Linux CLI and scripting (Bash, Python; Perl a plus)
• Proven experience designing and operating automation and Infrastructure as Code solutions (Ansible, Terraform, Puppet, etc.)
• Strong experience with virtualization technologies (VMware vSphere or similar)
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, NTP, VPN)
• Hands on experience integrating Linux systems with enterprise storage (SAN, NAS, RAID)
• Experience with enterprise backup and recovery platforms (e.g., Veeam, Rubrik)
• Experience building, maintaining, and distributing RPMs and Linux packages
• Experience implementing monitoring and observability platforms (Datadog, Dynatrace, Nagios, SolarWinds)
• Strong understanding of Linux security hardening, patching strategies, and compliance requirements
• Demonstrated ability to own complex technical initiatives and platform outcomes
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non technical stakeholders
Preferred Qualifications
• RHCE, LPIC 3, or equivalent advanced Linux certifications
• Experience operating Linux platforms in hybrid or cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experience with containers and orchestration platforms (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
• Exposure to platform engineering or SRE operating models
• Experience supporting high availability enterprise applications, including Oracle (single instance and RAC)
• Experience with storage array level configuration and performance tuning
Skills: SUSE Linux
Experience Required: 8-10
Diverse Lynx LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive due consideration for employment without any discrimination. All applicants will be evaluated solely on the basis of their ability, competence and their proven capability to perform the functions outlined in the corresponding role. We promote and support a diverse workforce across all levels in the company.
