Unix System Administrator – Rancher Specialist

Role Overview

Vennote Technologies is seeking a highly skilled Unix System Administrator – Rancher Specialist to join our enterprise infrastructure team. In this role, you will be responsible for the end-to-end management of our Unix/Linux environments, with a specific focus on container orchestration and cluster management using SUSE Rancher.

The ideal candidate bridges the gap between traditional enterprise Linux administration and modern cloud-native container infrastructure, ensuring high availability, robust security, and seamless application delivery across multi-platform environments.

Key Responsibilities

1. Container Orchestration & Rancher Management

• Cluster Management: Deploy, configure, and manage enterprise Kubernetes clusters across production and non-production environments using SUSE Rancher.

• Operations & Scaling: Optimize Rancher for multi-cluster management, ensuring streamlined provisioning, upgrading, and day-2 operations of downstream Kubernetes clusters.

• Troubleshooting: Diagnose and resolve complex container orchestration issues, ingress routing problems, persistent volume allocations, and node-level failures within the Rancher ecosystem.

2. System Administration & Configuration

• Multi-Platform Support: Administer, install, and configure Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Solaris, and Oracle Linux environments.

• Virtualization: Manage and optimize bare-metal and virtualized server performance using modern enterprise virtualization technologies to support containerized workloads.

• Lifecycle Management: Lead Technology Refresh projects within the Unix/Linux and container domain to ensure infrastructure remains modern, supported, and scalable.

• Maintenance: Perform OS-level management, including patch updates, kernel fine-tuning, and robust access control.

3. Operations & Monitoring

• Account & Access Management: Handle the full lifecycle of user accounts, manage group policies, and implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) within both Linux OS and Rancher environments.

• Performance Monitoring: Proactively monitor server concurrent logins, processor utilization, network traffic, disk space, and Kubernetes cluster health/metrics.

• Data Protection: Execute regular backup and restore activities (including Velero for Kubernetes/Rancher and traditional OS backups) adhering strictly to corporate disaster recovery procedures.

4. Troubleshooting & Vendor Management

• High Availability & Clustering: Apply strong knowledge of traditional clustering technologies and Kubernetes high-availability architectures to maintain uptime and resolve complex failover issues.

• Vendor Coordination: Collaborate with principal vendors (such as Red Hat, Oracle, and SUSE) to conduct Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and implement permanent fixes for critical infrastructure incidents.

• Remote Assistance: Provide expert remote technical support for OS installation, configuration, and container platform deployment as needed.

5. Security & Compliance

• Infrastructure Hardening: Partner with the security team to apply patches, implement security policies, and perform strict system hardening.

• Container Security: Implement container security best practices, including image scanning, secure network policies in Rancher, and OS-level hardening.

• Investigations: Assist in security investigations, log analysis, and audit compliance activities.