Senior Infrastructure Engineer (Linux Platforms)

Why we need this role

The Senior Infrastructure Engineer is a technical authority responsible for the architecture, detailed design, implementation and lifecycle improvement of Linux-based platforms supporting critical telecommunications network services. The role leads complex engineering changes, establishes reusable standards, drives automation and provides technical leadership during major incidents and problem investigations.

The Senior Engineer will have deep Linux expertise and advanced capability in at least one relevant service domain, such as DNS, routing infrastructure, identity and authentication, or network observability. The role mentors Engineers, reviews technical designs and ensures that security, resilience, monitoring and operational readiness are engineered into each platform.

The role works as part of a team supporting a distributed estate of hundreds of Linux systems across critical network, security, operational and business services.

What you will do

Technical Leadership and Platform Engineering

Act as technical authority for assigned Linux platforms and services and provide advanced engineering guidance.
Lead high-level and low-level designs for complex, critical or high-risk infrastructure changes.
Set reusable engineering patterns, platform standards and implementation approaches.

Network-Critical Services

Design, implement and improve enterprise DNS services, including architecture, delegation, resolution, resilience, security and troubleshooting.
Engineer Linux platforms supporting route reflectors and other routing control-plane services in partnership with Network Engineering and Architecture.
Design and enhance authentication, authorisation, accounting, identity and directory services, including Red Hat and Oracle LDAP environments.

Resilience, Observability and Lifecycle

Define service-level indicators, health checks, alerting strategies, logging standards, dashboards and capacity measures.
Lead failure-mode analysis, resilience testing, failover exercises and backup and recovery validation

Automation and Operational Excellence

Design and maintain automation using Ansible, Bash, Python and infrastructure-as-code principles.
Reduce manual effort, configuration inconsistency and operational risk through repeatable engineering patterns.

Security and Compliance

Translate security and compliance requirements into platform designs, technical controls and validation criteria.
Apply secure-by-design practices and contribute to threat modelling for critical network services.
Engineer hardening, vulnerability remediation, privileged access, secrets, keys, certificates and centralised audit logging.

Collaboration, Documentation and Support

Work closely with Network Engineering, Security, Infrastructure, Architecture, Operations and application teams.
Produce and maintain architecture documents, technical designs, implementation plans, support models, runbooks and audit evidence.

What we're looking for

Required Skills and Experience

• Extensive experience engineering enterprise Linux platforms using distributions such as RHEL and Ubuntu; experience with CentOS or successor-compatible distributions is beneficial.
• Deep Linux troubleshooting, performance, lifecycle and platform design capability.
• Strong DNS expertise, including design, delegation, resolution, resilience, security, troubleshooting and operational governance.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP, IPv4 and IPv6, routing principles, BGP, network segmentation, firewalls and load balancing.
• Strong understanding of NTP, PKI, TLS, certificate lifecycle, authentication protocols, identity management and LDAP.
• Strong automation capability using Ansible, Bash or Python and infrastructure-as-code principles.

Desirable Skills and Knowledge

• Advanced knowledge in one or more of routing infrastructure, AAA, identity, network observability or network monitoring.
• Virtualisation platforms such as VMware and KVM.
• Containerisation technologies such as Docker or Podman and awareness of Kubernetes operational workflows.

Leadership and Behaviours

• Ownership and accountability: takes responsibility for high-quality technical and service outcomes.
• Technical leadership: guides engineering activity and decisions without formal line management.
• Outcome-driven: focuses on measurable, reliable, resilient and secure results.
• Strategic thinking: aligns technical decisions with broader network and business strategy.

Preferred Qualifications / Education and Experience

• Degree in Computer Science, Network Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant industry experience.
• Typically seven or more years of relevant Linux or infrastructure engineering experience.
• Certifications such as RHCE, LFCS, LFCE or relevant network or security credentials are beneficial.