Senior Systems Administrator (Linux)
Senior Linux systems administrator owning NATO-delivery Linux systems on AWS for a UK defence data-infrastructure firm: configuration, monitoring, upgrades, incident response and mentoring junior sysadmins, on a four-on/four-off shift rota. Core stack: Linux, AWS, Ansible/Terraform/Kubernetes/Docker, networking and IAM.
- Compensation
- £50K–£55K / yr
- Location
- Lincoln / Lincolnshire, UK
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Devops
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Strong hands-on Linux systems administration in complex, secure production environments (service behaviour, performance tuning, hardened configuration); Azure/vSphere experience transferable
- Sound networking fundamentals: DNS, DHCP, VLANs, firewalls, routing
- Hands-on identity and access management across directory services and cloud platforms
- Experience with automation/IaC tooling such as Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker or Packer
- Patching discipline and configuration compliance in an accredited environment
- Incident discipline: diagnose faults under pressure to root cause and document findings
- Experience owning systems and deliberately mentoring less experienced colleagues
- Clear written and verbal communication; confident use of ITSM workflows and tools such as Confluence and Jira
- Judgement with AI tools, including responsible handling of sensitive data
- Right to work in the UK
- Ability to meet security requirements
- Willingness to work 10-hour shifts on a four-on, four-off rota including weekends and bank holidays; possible night shifts later
- Willingness and eligibility to travel to US HQ for onboarding and occasionally to UK/Europe sites
Nice to have
- Familiarity with NATO structures, NCIA, MOD or allied defence programmes
- Linux certification such as RHCSA, RHCE or LPIC
- CISSP, CompTIA Security+ or equivalent security certification
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps or Secure by Design delivery
- Experience with database administration or data-platform operations
- Background in cloud, cyber security or C4ISR environments
Full description
**About Bluestaq Limited
**Bluestaq starts with our people. We are looking for teammates who THINK strategically, SERVE the mission and LEAD from wherever they stand. If you bring curiosity, ownership and a thirst for delivery, we would like to hear from you.
Every society runs on invisible systems; Bluestaq is that, for data. Bluestaq Ltd is the UK sovereign subsidiary of Bluestaq LLC (Colorado Springs, USA), and we build the secure data infrastructure that allied operations depend on: mission-critical solutions, flowing through thousands of global users, from ingest to publication in milliseconds, for customers spanning the NATO, Five Eyes and wider allied partners.
We are in our formative years in the UK, building on proven foundations in the USA and Australia. That means real opportunity, early: decisions at your level, and colleagues who know their craft and trust you to know yours.
The Role
You will own specific Linux systems supporting our NATO delivery on AWS, from configuration and monitoring to upgrades and incident response. You will be the specialist the team escalates to when a fault defeats first-line troubleshooting, and you will improve reliability as well as restore it.
You will mentor Systems Administrators in troubleshooting and operational hygiene. This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports, reporting to the Systems Administration Manager, with a clear technical path to Lead Systems Administrator.
What You Will Do
- Own one or more systems or environments, covering configuration, monitoring and alerting, upgrades and incident response.
- Debug difficult faults, including performance problems, resource exhaustion and integration failures, and take each incident from first symptom to a root cause and a remediation plan that holds.
- Configure and tune services with secure, hardened defaults, and turn scan output and logs into lasting remediation.
- Plan and execute upgrades and changes under change control, with realistic risk assessment and a tested rollback.
- Act as the escalation point for Systems Administrator colleagues, mentor them, and document patterns others can reuse in runbooks and standard operating procedures.
- Work across engineering, cyber and data teams on cross-functional problems.
- Take part in UK operational coverage, including on-call rotation and structured handovers with the US team.
What You Bring
- Strong hands-on Linux systems administration in complex, secure production environments, with depth in service behaviour, performance tuning and hardened configuration. Experience on Microsoft Azure, VMware vSphere or similar platforms is transferable.