Senior Specialist, Linux Platform Engineer

Job Description:

Job Title: Senior Linux Platform Engineer – Red Hat, IPA Vault and Kubernetes

Department : Security Engineering

Reports To: Manager

Location: Bangalore, India

About the Team/Department:

The Infrastructure and Security Engineering team is responsible for building, securing, automating, and

supporting enterprise Linux platforms and cloud-native infrastructure. The team manages Red Hat

Enterprise Linux and other Linux distributions, identity and access services using IPA/FreeIPA, secrets

and certificate management through IPA Vault, and Kubernetes-based platforms supporting production

workloads.

Position Summary

We are looking for an experienced Linux Platform Engineer with strong hands-on expertise in Red Hat

Enterprise Linux, all major Linux distributions, IPA/FreeIPA, IPA Vault, and Kubernetes. The resource

will be responsible for Linux platform administration, identity and access integration, secrets and

certificate lifecycle support, automation, troubleshooting, hardening, and operational support for

business-critical infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

Administer, maintain, patch, upgrade, and troubleshoot Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other

Linux server environments.

Manage Linux services, storage, networking, LVM, filesystems, systemd, kernel parameters,

SSH, DNS, NTP, and performance tuning.

Implement Linux security hardening, access controls, patch compliance, vulnerability

remediation, and audit readiness.

Configure and support IPA/FreeIPA services including users, groups, hosts, HBAC rules, sudo

rules, Kerberos, LDAP, certificates, and access policies.

Support IPA Vault usage for secure storage, retrieval, sharing, and lifecycle management of

secrets, keys, passwords, and certificates.

Administer Kubernetes environments including cluster health, namespaces, workloads, RBAC,

secrets, config maps, storage, networking, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

Automate repetitive administration tasks using shell scripting, Ansible, Python, or equivalent

automation tools.

Participate in incident response, root cause analysis, change implementation, operational

documentation, and 24x7 support as required.

Required Qualifications

6+ years of hands-on Linux administration experience in enterprise production environments.

Strong experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux administration, patching, troubleshooting,

performance tuning, and system hardening.

Working knowledge of multiple Linux distributions such as Red Hat, CentOS, Rocky Linux,

AlmaLinux, Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, or Oracle Linux.

Hands-on experience with IPA/FreeIPA identity management, Kerberos, LDAP, DNS,

certificates, sudo rules, and host enrollment.

Practical understanding of IPA Vault or equivalent secrets management for passwords, keys, and

certificates.

Experience administering Kubernetes clusters, workloads, RBAC, secrets, storage, networking,

and troubleshooting application or infrastructure issues.

Strong scripting and automation skills using Bash, Ansible, Python, or similar tools.

Good understanding of TCP/IP, DNS, SSH, TLS certificates, firewalls, load balancers,

monitoring, logging, and ITIL/ITSM processes.

Preferred Qualifications

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE),

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), or equivalent certification.

Experience with Red Hat Satellite, OpenShift, HashiCorp Vault, Helm, container runtimes,

CI/CD pipelines, and GitOps practices.

Experience integrating Linux platforms with enterprise IAM, PAM, LDAP, SSO, certificate

authorities, and centralized logging solutions.

Knowledge of monitoring and observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana,

ELK/OpenSearch, Loki, or similar platforms.

Experience working in cloud or hybrid infrastructure environments such as AWS, Azure, GCP,

VMware, or OpenStack.

Core Competencies

Deep technical troubleshooting and analytical problem-solving across Red Hat Enterprise Linux,

Linux services, Kubernetes platforms, and identity infrastructure.

Strong ownership mindset for production stability, security compliance, platform availability,

and operational excellence.

Hands-on execution capability with system administration, incident response, root cause

analysis, patching, hardening, upgrades, and change implementation.

Security-first approach to access management, secrets handling, certificate lifecycle

management, privileged access, and audit readiness.

Automation and standardization mindset with ability to reduce manual effort using scripting,

Ansible, repeatable runbooks, and reusable operational procedures.

Strong understanding of identity, authentication, authorization, Kerberos, LDAP, DNS, TLS,

RBAC, and Linux access control models.

Cloud-native operational awareness for Kubernetes workloads, namespaces, secrets, storage,

networking, monitoring, and platform resilience.

Ability to document architecture standards, SOPs, troubleshooting guides, change plans, and

production support runbooks clearly.

Effective communication and collaboration with security, infrastructure, application, vendor,

operations, and leadership stakeholders.

Ability to work independently, prioritize incidents and service requests, manage multiple

technical priorities, and support high-pressure production situations.

Continuous improvement mindset aligned with automation, reliability engineering, secure-by-

design practices, cost optimization, and service quality improvement.

Customer-oriented approach with focus on responsiveness, clear updates, service reliability, and

stakeholder satisfaction.

RAKUTEN SHUGI PRINCIPLES:

Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviours that make Rakuten unique and united across

the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve, always advance. Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen.

Be passionately professional. Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to

be the best.

Hypothesize - Practice - Validate - Shikumika. Use the Rakuten Cycle to success in unknown territory.

Maximize Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see

their customers smile.

Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your

team.