Job Description
The AFINC II contract supporting the 26th Network Operations Squadron (26NOS) is searching for qualified candidates for a position of Junior or Mid-Level Linux System Administrator (depends upon experience). We are seeking an individual for information system administration with a strong cybersecurity knowledge. If you are seeking a challenging place to work, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications. If you don’t meet all of the qualifications, a candidate may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Serve as Linux junior or mid-level systems administrator working within a team reporting to SME/Senior Linux team members operating in a 24×7 multi-enterprise networks environment
- Provide support for mission critical applications; Monitor, troubleshoot, and analyze overall health of Red Hat Enterprise Linux infrastructure (RHEL) and/or other Unix-based OS
- Manage, open, and remediate tickets (incident, problem, change, service requests, etc.) in accordance with 26 NOS policies and any Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This encompasses any ticketing system used to record tickets utilized by 26 NOS personnel in support of mission requirements
- Monitor, troubleshoot, and resolve hardware, software or network issues; coordinate with vendors for providing feedback and/or conducting break-fix actions or replacement of server hardware items
- Monitor all activities of the network facilities and ensure high system availability
- Maintain, update, develop and sustain technical documents, analyses, and reports
- Provide technical support in all customer interaction situations, including receipt of specifications, design, test, and response to service requests.
- Perform root cause analysis, recommend, and implement tactical and strategic solutions to problems
- Familiarity to utilize 26 NOS standard tools such as PuTTY, SecureCRT, Splunk Enterprise, SolarWinds, NAGIOS, NotePad++ to optimize and automate system administrator tasks
- Ability to utilize remote access out-of-band management tools such as Red Hat Satellite, SSH, SCP, integrated Dell Remote Access (iDRAC), integrated Lights-Out (iLO), or KVM technologies
- Ability to support 3rd party applications (NetBackup, ESS) and the implementation of Linux based security solutions across a variety of networks on physical and virtual environments
- Familiarity with general networking topics such as SSL, load balancing, routing protocols, firewall rules, and ability to support/interact with McAfee Endpoint Security System (ESS) for RHEL
- Ability to maintain valid system certificates, application certificates, F5 load balancing local traffic management (LTM) and two-factor authentication (2FA) within a smart card environment
- Preferred experience utilizing vendor best practices for RHEL systems and secure management across multiple unclassified and classified network locations supporting Tenable products within Assured Compliance Assessment Solution (ACAS) including .SC (SecurityCenter) and Nessus Scanner
- Ability or experience in evaluating scan report data from Tenable Nessus; participate in the audit, review and response phases of the Vulnerability Management (VM) life cycle
- Candidate able to install and patch operating systems, applications, and document Department Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guidelines (STIGs) checklists applicable to each Non-classified or Secret Internet Protocol (IP) Router Network (NIPRNet, SIPRNet)
- Monitor, implement and/or create report dashboard designs, automated custom email report notifications, report log data repositories for each environment specific to the following audiences: Leadership & Executives; Cybersecurity Staff; and System Administrators
- Ensure networks receive periodic updates from AFCYBER-released software patches, updates, and upgrades via Time Compliance Technical Orders (TCTO), Time Compliance Network Orders (TCNO), Maintenance Tasking Order (MTO) and Notices to Airman (NOTAMs)
- Assist AF Cyber personnel with the DISA Information Assurance Vulnerability Management (IAVM) programs, cybersecurity toolsets, and Operation Order (OPORD)/Fragmentary Order (FRAGO) support
- Ensures external networks receive inventory data for compliance data DoD Enterprise Logging Ingest, NiFi, and Cyber Situational Awareness Refinery (ELICSAR) Big Data Platform (BDP)
- Communicate, manage expectations, eliminate gaps and successfully interact with multiple external and internal 26th NOS team leads, admins, analysts, users, customers, system owners and management
- Candidate will report to the 26th NOS Systems Administration (SA) team leadership
Qualifications/Requirements:
- Candidate ideally will have 1 to 4 years hands-on experience
- Prefer RHEL experience implementation or administration in a large-scale environment preferably overseeing daily, weekly, monthly functions and best practices
- Working knowledge of defense-in-depth principles, network/hardware/software security architecture, network topology, IT device integrity, and common security elements
- Cybersecurity and privacy principles used to manage risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of data and information
- Support day-to-day technical communication systems, alerts and incident tickets in support of operations
- Prefer candidate with 2+ years of years of hands-on experience in Linux-based systems support with experience in mid-to-large data center environments and patch/update management
- Demonstrated advanced diagnostics, analytical, troubleshooting skills
- Preferred system hardening experience
- Preferred experience with physical servers and in virtualized environments such as VMware vSphere’s vCenter Server Appliance, ESXi hosts, virtual machines (VMs), deploying templates, host bus adapters (HBA) fiber connectivity, and/or VM/Host distributed resource schedules (DRS) groups/rules
- Ability or experience with Linux based scripting such as: Ansible, Bash, Bourne, Perl, or Python
- Knowledge of data communications, local-area networking (LAN), wide-area networking (WAN), servers, routers, switches, and firewalls
- Network (Layer 2, 3) LAN/WAN knowledge and switches/routers
- Thorough understanding of Internet Protocol (IP) routing, switching, and OSI model
Competencies:
- Possess refined critical thinking skills, should be a motivated self-starter, and multi-task capable
- Ability to follow policies and procedures
- Approach work tasks as diplomatic, adaptive to a dynamic environment, dependable and reliable
- Good communication and interpersonal skills; Strong written and oral communication skills
- Facilitate communications in a clear speaking voice as well as the ability to respond clearly to questions
- Aptitude to address negative situations and resolve them in a positive manner
- Capability to deal with conflicts with your peers and users
- Ability to lift, rack and provision government furnished equipment (GFE) servers
Education/Certification(s):
- Technical degree, Associates or, Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Information Systems, S.T.E.M. or 2-4 years’ relevant experience in Information Technology preferably within systems or applications administration is acceptable
- Required IA Certification: CompTIA Security+ CE (Continuing Education) or GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP) or (ISC)² SSCP – Systems Security Certified Practitioner
- Prefer one or more of the following CE/OS based technical certifications:
- CompTIA Linux+ or Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) or Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) or Linux Professional Institute LPIC-1, LPIC-2 or LPIC-3
- Preferred technical certifications (not required):
- ITIL certification a plus
- Splunk Core Certified User or Splunk Core Certified Power User
Clearance:
Active DoD Secret required or ability to complete investigation process for interim with potential to upgrade to Top Secret clearance preferred