Linux Infrastructure Engineer

Linux Infrastructure Engineer

About Northern Light

Northern Light provides the world's most sophisticated machine learning‑powered competitive intelligence platform for market research. For over 25 years, we've been helping Fortune 1000 enterprises make smarter, faster, and more informed decisions through our award‑winning Single Point knowledge management platform. Our clients include global leaders across technology, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and life sciences who depend on us to transform fragmented data into strategic clarity.

We're an employee‑owned company that takes pride in our compulsive drive to provide exceptional client support. We wake up each day ready to tackle the challenges of knowledge management and we never stand still. Our recent innovations include generative AI capabilities, machine learning insights, and advanced competitive intelligence automation.

Northern Light is seeking an experienced Linux Infrastructure Engineer to take hands‑on ownership of our Linux‑based infrastructure. In this role, you’ll be responsible for operating, maintaining, and evolving a mission‑critical environment that runs on a mix of bare‑metal and virtualized systems in our private colocation datacenter.

This is a highly technical, hands‑on position for someone who enjoys working close to the hardware, values operational excellence, and thrives in environments where reliability, security, and scalability matter.

• Operate and maintain a Linux infrastructure of ~70 HPE DL360 Gen9/Gen
  10 bare‑metal servers and ~150 virtual machines
• Administer RHEL‑based systems (primarily Oracle Linux
  9), including installation, patching, upgrades, and security hardening
• Support virtualization platforms, including:
  • VMware (5 nodes, ~100 VMs), with potential future migration to Red Hat OVE
  • KVM‑based virtualization supporting Kubernetes workloads (~50 VMs)
• Perform on‑site datacenter operations in a private six‑rack cage, including racking, cabling, labeling, hardware replacement, and decommissioning
• Maintain and administer core infrastructure services such as:
  • Mail relay (Sendmail)
  • DNS (BIND)
  • SFTP (ProFTPd)
  • LDAP‑backed authentication and authorization
  • Package repository mirroring (Foreman)
  • Centralized automation and orchestration (Ansible Automation Platform)
  • On‑prem Git Lab Premium for version control and CI/CD
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures covering:
  • Inventory management (Net Box)
  • Monitoring, alerting, and observability (Logic Monitor)
  • Incident response and root‑cause analysis
  • Vulnerability and patch management (Tenable One)
  • Backup, recovery, and disaster recovery (Veeam)
• Participate in incident response, scheduled maintenance, and post‑incident reviews
• Collaborate with vendors, service providers, and internal engineering, security, and operations teams
• Support secure, compliant infrastructure that enables product delivery and business needs

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent practical experience
• 7+ years of industry experience, including 3+ years in Technical Operations or System Administration roles

• Strong Linux systems engineering experience in production environments, including high‑availability and redundant architectures
• Deep expertise with RHEL‑based distributions (Oracle Linux strongly preferred)
• Hands‑on experience with bare‑metal servers and datacenter operations (racking, cabling, inventory, hardware lifecycle)
• Experience supporting VMware and KVM‑based virtualization platforms
• Working knowledge of automation and configuration management (Ansible, infrastructure‑as‑code concepts)
• Experience with monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, vulnerability management, and compliance‑focused operations
• Familiarity with container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals and experience collaborating with network teams (switches, firewalls, load balancers)
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and cross‑team collaboration skills

• On‑site presence required at a private colocation facility in Somerville, MA
• Datacenter work may involve elevated noise levels and variable…