Senior Systems Engineer, Linux

Location: Escazu, Costa Rica

Company

hirify.global delivers multi-shore custom application development and full software lifecycle services, including architecture, development, QA, and application maintenance and support.

What you will do

• Own the Linux platform for a large US-based client data center supporting more than 2,000 virtual Windows and Linux servers.
• Administer RHEL 8, 9, and 10 and CentOS servers, troubleshoot kernel and system issues, and tune performance.
• Harden servers, remediate vulnerabilities, and support the monthly operating-system patch cycle.
• Maintain and extend Chef cookbooks, using Ansible where appropriate, with scripts and changes managed in GitHub.
• Resolve infrastructure tickets and alerts through incident, change, and problem management, escalating only when needed.
• Participate in the client's seven-day on-call rotation, support planned overnight maintenance windows, and coach Infrastructure Administrators on Linux work.

Requirements

• 7+ years of administering Linux in enterprise data centers.
• Production experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or 9 and CentOS.
• Production experience writing and maintaining Chef cookbooks.
• Strong kernel and system-level troubleshooting, performance tuning, Linux security hardening, and vulnerability remediation skills.
• Bash and Python scripting experience, with changes maintained in a Git repository; the client uses GitHub.
• Networking fundamentals, including server IP addressing, subnets, and firewall rules, with the ability to explain required network changes to the network team.
• Ability to independently triage and resolve tickets and alerts through incident, change, and problem management.
• Professional written and spoken English is required for daily collaboration with a US-based client team.
• Availability for the client's seven-day on-call rotation and planned overnight maintenance windows is required.

Nice to have

• Ansible for configuration management and RHEL 10 experience.
• Tanium for operating-system patching.
• Linux on VMware vSphere and Azure IaaS experience.
• Familiarity with Datadog, Prometheus, or ServiceNow.
• Experience coaching administrators or junior engineers on Linux work.
• Terraform experience; the client is moving toward infrastructure as code.
• Relevant vendor certifications; hands-on experience is valued over certificates.

Culture & Benefits

• Contractor / 1099 engagement.
• Work within a cloud and infrastructure engineering group with technical escalation support, peer collaboration, shared scripts, and hardened builds.
• Culture emphasizes client service, trust-based relationships, innovation, collaboration, teamwork, and a one-team approach.
• Encouragement to identify automation opportunities and deliver solutions collaboratively.