Senior IT Architect - Linux

Job Posting Title:
Senior IT Architect - Linux
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Hiring Department:
Enterprise Technology - Customer Support
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Position Open To:
All Applicants
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Weekly Scheduled Hours:
40
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FLSA Status:
Exempt from FLSA
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Earliest Start Date:
Jan 04, 2027
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Position Duration:
Expected to Continue Until Dec 31, 2029
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Location:
AUSTIN, TX
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Job Details:
General Notes
This fixed-term position is funded for two years from the employee’s start date and may be extended.
Flexible work arrangements are available for this position, including the ability to work remotely within the United States. Remote work for individuals who reside outside Texas but within the United States and its territories will be considered and requires Central Office approval. May require occasional travel to Austin Main Campus.
This position provides life/work balance with typically a 40-hour work week and travel limited to training (e.g., conferences/courses).
Enterprise Technology is dedicated to supporting the mission of the University of Texas at Austin of unlocking potential and preparing future leaders of the state.
Your skills will make a difference.
You’ll be working for a university that is internationally recognized for research and the work you do will make a difference in the lives of our students, faculty and staff. If you’re the type of person that wants to know your work has meaning and impact, you’ll like working for our campus.
The University of Texas at Austin and Enterprise Technology provide an outstanding benefits package to our staff. Those benefits include:
Competitive health benefits (Employee premiums covered at 100%, family premiums at 50%)
Vision, Dental, Life, and Disability insurance options
Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
Teachers Retirement System of Texas (a defined benefit retirement plan)
Additional Voluntary Retirement Programs: Tax Sheltered Annuity 403(b) and a Deferred Compensation program 457(b)
Flexible spending account options for medical and childcare expenses
Training and conference opportunities
Tuition assistance
Athletic ticket discounts
Access to UT Austin's libraries and museums
Free rides on all UT Shuttle and Capital metro buses with staff ID card
For more details, please see: https://hr.utexas.edu/prospective/benefits and https://hr.utexas.edu/current/services/my-total-rewards
Must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis for any employer without sponsorship.
This position requires you to maintain internet service and a mobile phone with voice and data plans to be used when required for work.
Purpose
The Enterprise Linux Management Program requires a dedicated Senior Technology Architect to provide strategic leadership for the design, governance, and implementation of the university's Linux endpoint management platform. The position will ensure alignment across stakeholders, guide complex technical decisions, and provide the leadership needed to transition from fragmented Linux management practices to a sustainable enterprise service.
Responsibilities
Enterprise Linux Platform Architecture
Lead the design, build, and continuous improvement of a central Linux management platform supporting diverse research, academic, and administrative environments.
Develop platform architecture for configuration management, software deployment, patching, compliance, and reporting.
Evaluate and implement enterprise Linux management platforms such as Tanium, RHEL, or comparable platforms.
Create platform standards that are scalable, secure, and effective across heterogeneous Linux distributions.
Distributed IT Onboarding and Adoption
Work directly with distributed IT teams to assess existing Linux environments, operational maturity, management gaps, and onboarding readiness.
Develop onboarding plans to help departments transition Linux systems into a central platform.
Create guides, onboarding checklists and documentation for campus IT teams.
Consult with system administrators, endpoint teams, cloud teams, and application owners on platform adoption and service integration.
Identify opportunities to consolidate redundant tooling, reduce operational fragmentation, and improve consistency across departmental Linux management practices.
Automation, Configuration, and Compliance
Design and maintain automation frameworks for provisioning, configuration enforcement, policy compliance, patching, reporting, and system lifecycle activities.
Develop reusable scripts, modules, playbooks, policies, or configuration baselines using Bash, Python, or comparable technologies.
Implement practices that support drift detection, remediation workflows, auditable change, and repeatable operations.
Partner with information security teams to align Linux management with institutional security requirements, vulnerability management, and compliance objectives.
Linux Platform Operations and Engineering
Provide advanced Linux engineering guidance across RHEL, Ubuntu, or comparable enterprise distributions.
Support platform operations across physical, virtual, containerized, and cloud-hosted Linux systems.
Develop operational standards for patching, software distribution, access control, monitoring, logging, and service health.
Troubleshoot complex technical issues involving Linux systems, automation frameworks, management agents, network dependencies, storage, identity, or cloud integrations.
Reporting, Metrics, and Service Visibility
Design reporting that provide visibility into Linux inventory, platform adoption, compliance posture, vulnerability exposure, and platform health.
Develop executive and operational dashboards that communicate service value, onboarding progress, risk reduction, and platform maturity.
Define measures and key performance indicators for platform adoption, service quality, compliance, and operational effectiveness.
Use metrics to identify improvement opportunities, prioritize remediation efforts, and guide long-term Linux service strategy.
Cloud and Hybrid Infrastructure Alignment
Support a Linux platform across on-premises and hybrid infrastructure environments.
Develop management patterns for cloud-hosted Linux servers, container platforms, and infrastructure-as-code workflows.
Provide guidance on operational consistency, logging, patching, and compliance, across cloud and campus-hosted systems.
Partner with infrastructure teams to align Linux platform services with enterprise cloud architecture standards.
Strategic Service Leadership
Participate in technology roadmaps, service design, and long-term infrastructure planning.
Mentor technical staff and provide leadership on Linux management, automation, reporting, and operational best practices.
Communicate technical recommendations clearly to technical staff, managers, service owners, and institutional stakeholders.
Help build an adoption-focused service model that encourages participation from distributed IT organizations and demonstrates measurable institutional value.
Perform other related functions as assigned.
Required QualificationsTechnical Expertise
Advanced expertise with Linux operating systems including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux, or comparable distributions.
Experience with enterprise Linux management, configuration management, endpoint manageme