The Requirements
The ideal candidate for this role will have a mix of private and government experience including substantial sysadmin work resulting in a well-rounded skill-set of tools and talents. To be meet the basic qualifications for the Principal Systems Engineer III opportunity, you must have:- Legal authorization to work permanently in the United States for any employer without requiring a visa transfer of visa sponsorship.
- A current Active TS security clearance or higher. Quick question for you - click here
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).
- A bachelor's degree in a relevant field (preferred).
- 10+ years of experience as a System Engineer with a skill-set focused on Unix based systems such as Red Hat Linux, Solaris, SuSE, and CentOS.* Quick question for you - click here Quick question for you - click here
- Experience with tools including Satellite Server, Puppet and BigFix.
- Ability to deliver independently and also serve as a strong team member.
- A strong work ethic and proactive approach.
The Role
Opportunity OverviewYou will join our newly forming team working in Pocatello, Idaho, and play an important role in the new Data Center Operations Support project. The project was created to support the Department of Justice and the FBI in maintaining their current production private cloud and to develop a new data center design standard for a new multi-tenant private cloud to support DOJ-wide data center consolidation. Areas of support include Windows, Linux, Storage, Security and Network Engineering as well as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) operations and maintenance. Areas of focus will include:
- Ensuring the FBI’s unclassified and classified computer systems are maintained in a secure, reliable manner with minimum disruption.
- Ensuring productions systems have a 99% uptime.
Role Details
Reporting to the PM, as Principal Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for design, deployment, testing, certification, patching, addressing interoperability issues, not only of the base operating system, but for all support libraries, components and application dependencies. You'll do a good deal of scripting and automation configuration, as well as break/fix and upgrades of equipment.
More specifically, you will:
- Engineer, design, install, implement, and configure systems as well as provide ongoing support of the Unix/Linux Infrastructure. Quick question for you - click here
- Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) for all Linux environments.
- Create and maintain bare-metal and virtual machines with the appropriate distribution and patch levels of Linux and network configuration, using tools that include Satellite Server, Puppet and BigFix.
- Provision/configure required software onto servers, such as web servers and databases.
- Evaluate, improve, and maintain the information security throughout the Linux infrastructure.
- Monitor and correct critical server issues and create recovery processes for failures and performance bottlenecks.
- Manage and monitor all installed systems and infrastructure.
- Possess excellent knowledge base in DNS, DHCP, LDAP, SMTP, and integration with Windows to solve technical or functional issues.
- Install, configure, test and maintain operating systems, application software and system management tools.
- Proactively ensure the highest levels of systems and infrastructure availability.
- Monitor and test application performance for potential bottlenecks, identify possible solutions, and work with developers to implement those fixes.
- Maintain security, backup, and redundancy strategies.
- Write and maintain custom scripts to increase system efficiency and lower the human intervention time on any tasks.
- Participate in the design of information and operational support systems.
- Provide 4th level support.
- Build new baselines with the appropriate security and access controls to include DISA STIGS and required security controls. Updated baselines will be required quarterly and new versions within 90 days of the manufacturer’s release to production and full DISA STIGS.
- Engineer multi-factor authentication between Linux environments and the enterprise Windows infrastructure components.
- Engineer solutions for baselines to operate in full standalone mode, domain mode, and fully integrated mode for all classification levels and enclaves.
- Work with the developers to transition applications from one platform to another to include from physical to virtual and virtual to cloud.
- Work with security components to resolve any security findings or vulnerabilities and apply fixes or updates as well as solutions to achieve closure.
- Liaise with vendors and other IT personnel for problem resolution.
- Ensure technical documentation exists for all systems and is kept up to date to include inventory and patch levels of all systems to include hostnames, property numbers, IP addresses, enclave, number of cores, and number of processors, admin passwords, certificates, and service accounts on a monthly interval.
- Integrate systems with Windows as it applies to authentication and core services dependencies such single sign-on and Active Directory. Engineer and implement solutions for multi-factor authentication with FBI standardized software and hardware.
- Document system configurations to include passwords, access controls, version number, and revision numbers, patch levels, and inventory to include hostnames, TCP/IP addresses, number of processors, and number of cores, memory, and license keys.
- Continually transition knowledge to the government staff through training and assistance on how to use the technology using industry best practices.
Winning Traits
More about BEBuchanan & Edwards (BE) delivers forward-focused technology solutions that help our customers transform the way they perform their missions. Whether it’s through applying big data analytics to protect Americans at home or abroad, engineering cloud solutions that dramatically improve the delivery of citizen services, or employing the latest cyber intelligence to increase network security, our innovative solutions help defense, intelligence and federal customers improve outcomes, increase efficiency and decrease costs.
Thriving and excelling at BE
Those who thrive and excel with us are proactive and forward thinking. They accept challenges and push forward, even through tough situations. They are talented, highly qualified, collaborative and innovative. They see solutions and give recommendations rather than limitations. They love to learn and continually work to be better. If that sounds like you, you'll fit right in.
Why Buchanan & Edwards
Ground-floor opportunityWe're just forming the team for this initiative and you can add your name to those of other talented IS team members. You'll work and share ideas with top professionals, including close to a dozen Linux administrators, and a total team of more than 50, in an environment that is ripe with collaboration and innovative ideas.
Long-term project
The FBI is investing $100 million in their new facility and BE is also heavily invested in the area and the partnership. We will be there from the opening day of the data center in Idaho and well beyond. Pictured right: Pocatello, ID. Beauty abounds in the area where the new data center is located.
Support a mission you can believe in
The FBI's mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Their priorities include:
- Protecting the United States from terrorist attack
- Protecting the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage
- Protecting the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes
- Combating public corruption at all levels
- Protecting civil rights
- Combating transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises
- Combating major white-collar crime
- Combating significant violent crime
Inclusive, team-oriented environment
Buchanan & Edwards, Inc. is dedicated to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity and inclusion. We are committed to crafting a workplace that endorses creativity and innovation, and promotes engagement through open communication, acceptance of new people and ideas, and a supportive team dynamic.
3 Great Location Choices
Pocatello: A beautiful place to live and workSet against a Rocky Mountain backdrop in south-eastern Idaho, Pocatello Idaho is uniquely positioned as an emerging high-tech city heading into 2018’ thanks to Buchanan & Edwards and the FBI’s new $100 million-dollar high tech facility.
Pocatello is the gateway to a number of beautiful outdoor attractions including Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Grand Targhee Ski Resort, Mesa Falls, Jackson Hole, Wyoming skiing, Sun Valley skiing, Craters of the Moon, Salt Lake City, World Famous Fly Fishing and Mountain bike trails.
Bridgeport, West Virginia: Small town charm with great amenities
The City of Bridgeport (Pop. 8,355) is located conveniently in Central West Virginia, two hours north of the State Capital in Charleston, WV, and two hours south of Pittsburgh, PA. It offers family-oriented, small town living, lovely homes and great schools, and a rich heritage dating back to the 1750's when it was still a part of Virginia.
Although Bridgeport is a small town, it boasts the #1 rated high school in the state, a state-of-the-art recreation center including four baseball fields (two regulation and two little league size), and the Pete Dye Golf Club, rated one of the top 100 golf courses in America according to Golf Digest. Bridgeport also offers beautiful scenery and boating, fishing, hiking and winter sports. It's a great place to live and work.
Washington DC: FBI Headquarters
Washington DC needs no introduction. You'll be at the heart of the action in a bustling city offering everything and anything you could need. It boasts monuments and museums, including the Smithsonian, some of the best indoor and outdoor music and entertainment venues in the nation, such as The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, top educational institutions, a lively nightlife and much, much more. If you enjoy city life, you'll love the vibrant atmosphere of Washington, DC.
Pictured right: the FBI Headquarters, Washington DC.