Linux Systems Engineer

Who we are:

For more than 70 years, NATO’s mission has been to preserve peace and security in the Alliance for nearly one billion citizens. The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) and its predecessors have worked tirelessly in providing the means that enable the connectedness and togetherness that keep our Alliance strong. We are the NCI Agency, a team of 3000 civilian and military staff in 29 locations throughout Europe, North America and Asia.

Our technology and cyber experts allow NATO to conduct critical operations, protect NATO’s airspace, make data-driven decisions, defend against cyber-attacks, secure NATO networks and maintain superiority in space. This is all possible because of our greatest force, our people. In order to keep this edge we aim to hire, train and retain the very best staff.

Our staff members represent both the diversity and unity of our Alliance. When you join the NCI Agency, you will be part of an organization where you can contribute authentically to the mission and purpose of NATO and help us keep our technological edge.

About the job:

Based in Mons, Belgium you will join the Agency as we embark on a journey to transform our IT services to support NATO’s Digital Endeavour. You will join NATO Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is responsible for planning and executing all lifecycle management activities for cyber security. In executing this responsibility, NCSC provides specialist cyber security-related services covering the spectrum of scientific, technical, acquisition, operations, maintenance, and sustainment support, throughout the lifecycle of NATO Communications and Information Systems (CIS).

We are looking for a driven and enthusiastic Linux Systems Engineer who will take on the following roles and responsibilities:

• Perform scheduled checks of the NCSC enterprise Linux environments, including health checks and auditing of system logs as needed to ensure the performance and availability of NCSC Services are meeting established service levels on the Linux environment;
• Improve environments with IaC (Infrastructure as Code) with existing and suggested tools;
• Support the Engineering team on the software deployment;
• Perform daily work on SSH, Ansible, GIT, Packaging, Python, BASH scripts to operate the NCSC physical and virtual environments (deploy, consolidate, migrate).

For a full list of duties, please review the job description on the NCI Agency career site.

About you:

The valuable knowledge and experience that you bring to this role are:

• Higher vocational training in a relevant discipline with 3 years post-related experience. Or a secondary educational qualification with 5 years post-related experience of system administration on Linux platforms;
• Experience with Linux server administration, including installation, packaging, configuration, and maintenance of servers especially on RHEL and Ubuntu;
• Software engineering skills including programming and/or scripting knowledge, Python, Bash/Shell scripting;
• Strong experience with configuration management tools like Ansible for managing infrastructure as code;
• Strong understanding of Red Hat Satellite or similar application;
• Familiarity with virtualization technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, and virtual machines (VMs);
• Proven ability to understand and design how different system layers (Application, Container, Network and Infra) work together and interact;
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken.

Please note that internally the job title is Principal Technician (Infrastructure). 

What we offer:

• Genuinely meaningful work as part of the most successful alliance in history;
• 3 year contract with competitive tax-free salary and household and children’s allowances;
• Privileges for expatriate staff including expatriation and education allowances (where appropriate) and additional home leave;
• Excellent private health insurance scheme;
• Generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays;
• NATO Pension Scheme;
• Development programs such as professional training, wellbeing, and more.

To learn more about NCI Agency and our work, please visit our website. 

The NCI Agency prides itself on being an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment of mutual respect and value uniqueness and differences in gender, gender identity, race, ethnic or cultural origin, age, religion, sexual orientation and physical or neurocognitive ability. 

Additional details on the conditions of application can be found via the NCI Agency career site.