Linux Systems Engineer with Automation and Cloud Expertise

ANDLEEB ALAM

Linux Systems Engineer

*******.*******@*****.*** 732-***-****

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

A results-driven and passionate Linux Systems Engineer with over 7 years of dedicated experience in effectively managing and optimizing Linux systems. Strong experience in building, operating, and improving Linux-based platforms across mixed on-prem, cloud and physical environments running systems. Expert in supporting reliable server operations, storage management, and virtualization. Experienced in AWS infrastructure, Linux networking, and system hardening, with a focus on maintaining secure and stable environments. Proficient in automation and configuration management using Ansible, source control with Git, and managing containerized workloads through Docker and Kubernetes. Bringing a proactive, detail-oriented approach to infrastructure operations, ensuring efficient system management and continuous improvement of Linux environments.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Dish Network - Roseland, NJ Sep 2023 - Present

Linux Systems Engineer

Designing and maintaining Linux operating standards across multi-distro fleets, keeping configurations consistent and production-ready through controlled change practices.

Executing OS and kernel patch cycles, coordinating maintenance windows, staging updates, validating dependencies, and completing post-update verification to ensure stability.

Demonstrating expertise in orchestrating and optimizing Linux-based server environments, with focus on performance tuning and enhanced security measures.

Deploying. Configuring, and managing VMware ESXi, vSphere, and vCenter, deploying VMs using golden template, taking snapshot, cloning instances and implementing high availability and DRS.

Built scalable automation using Ansible, authoring reusable roles/playbooks for baseline configuration, patch execution, service rollout, and environment alignment.

Managed automation execution through Ansible Tower, using inventories, job templates, RBAC, and auditing to enforce governance and repeatability.

Managing Ansible Tower to create projects, creating job templates by pulling code from Git Lab, and deploy the configuration across the Linux environment

Established GitLab as the control point for infrastructure code, using merge requests, branching discipline, and version tagging to track and promote changes safely.

Operated Linux workloads on VMware vCenter/ESXi, handling VM lifecycle tasks, template usage, snapshot governance, and resource balancing across clusters.

Provisioned and supported Linux systems on AWS, working with EC2, VPC, IAM, S3, EBS/EFS, and implementing operational monitoring via CloudWatch.

Strengthened AWS security posture by tightening IAM roles/policies and validating security group rules to align with least-privilege access.

Built and maintained Docker images (Dockerfiles, tagging strategy, registry usage), troubleshooting runtime and storage issues affecting containerized services.

Administered Kubernetes workloads by managing deployments, services, scaling behavior, and rollout strategies to maintain availability during updates.

Implemented monitoring and alerting using Prometheus and Grafana, creating dashboards and alerts to surface early performance degradation and capacity risks.

Utilizing Dynatrace to conduct in-depth analysis of application behavior, identifying bottlenecks and optimizing system performance in both Infra and full stack monitoring.

Resolved network connectivity issues, managing critical system services, and ensuring high application availability by efficiently responding to alerts generated by Splunk.

Led RHEL 7 to RHEL 8/9 upgrade initiatives using Leapp, conducting pre-upgrade assessments, resolving package dependencies, validating application compatibility, and executing controlled production rollouts with minimal service disruption.

Performed daily backup monitoring, job validation, and issue troubleshooting in Rubrik to ensure successful data protection and SLA compliance.

Performed server restores, including file system-level recovery and snapshot-based restores using Rubrik.

Integrated Linux servers with Active Directory using Centrify(LDAP), enabling centralized authentication, enforcing sudo policies, and maintaining secure domain membership aligned with enterprise access controls.

Utilized Terraform in lab environments to provision and manage basic cloud infrastructure components, strengthening understanding of Infrastructure as Code workflows and state management.

Supported CI/CD-style deployments across Linux and AWS environments using GitLab, Ansible, and Ansible Tower to automate and promote controlled infrastructure changes.

Performed deployment validation, post-change checks, and troubleshooting during CI/CD release activities to help ensure stable and repeatable production deployments.

CLS Bank International - Iselin, NJ Aug 2020 – Jul 2023

Linux Systems Administrator II

Delivered migration work streams moving legacy Linux workloads to VMware virtual machines, including planning, validation, and post-migration stabilization.

Built VMware hypervisor capability on HPE ProLiant ML-class servers, hosting Oracle Linux 8.9 virtual machines and ensuring proper compute/network/storage readiness.

Assisted with hardware-to-virtual transitions into ESX/ESXi (vSphere 4.x/4.1-era environments), validating VM performance and application functionality after conversion.

Implemented secure access controls using sudo policy management and hardened SSH configurations, supporting audit requirements and reducing unauthorized access risks.

Configured and maintained Linux application services including Apache HTTPD and NFS, supporting application teams with environment customization and connectivity needs.

Tuned network and storage resiliency by implementing NIC bonding and SAN multipathing (multipathd), improving throughput and fail-over behavior.

Maintained operational readiness of disaster recovery capabilities by supporting DR site configuration, participating in test exercises, and verifying recovery procedures.

Administered Veritas NetBackup, validating backup policies and schedules, reviewing job results, and ensuring daily incremental and database backup completion.

Performed structured operational housekeeping using cron, implementing scheduled tasks and cleanup routines to reduce noise and maintain healthy server states.

Assisted with application upgrade rollouts by collecting system logs, validating service dependencies, and providing OS-level troubleshooting support to engineering teams.

Reviewed and validated Bash scripts used on test/speed-measurement devices, recommending hardening and logic improvements to reduce operational and security risks.

Captured and analyzed packet traces using tcpdump, supporting troubleshooting efforts for the QA/testing team during network-related investigations.

Conducted routine system health checks (CPU, memory, disk utilization, connectivity, and logs), tracking trends to support forecasting and early issue detection.

Tuned Linux performance using sysctl, scheduler and memory optimizations, and I/O adjustments to improve responsiveness and reduce resource contention.

Engineered storage configurations using LVM and RAID, performing volume expansion, filesystem maintenance (e.g., XFS/EXT4), and resilience planning.

Investigated complex incidents through log and metrics correlation (journalctl, system logs, performance signals), applying fixes that prevent repeat failures.

Assisted with data protection tasks, helping verify backup jobs and confirming successful completion to support recovery readiness.

Assisted in maintaining system security by supporting the rollout of approved updates and fixes, ensuring endpoints remained protected against known issues.

Engaged in Root Cause Analysis (RCA) accompanied by thorough documentation, supported in effective reduction in the risk of future incidents.

Proficient in configuring and managing ILO for HP servers and IDRAC for Dell servers.

Monitored and managed backup jobs in EMC Networker, resolving failures and ensuring timely backup and recovery operations.

Executed server and file system restores, including snapshot-based recovery using EMC Networker.

Worked closely with the Information Security team to remediate OS and application-level vulnerabilities identified through enterprise scanning tools, coordinating patch deployments, validating remediation results, and ensuring compliance with security standards.

GetFelix, Berkeley Heights, NJ Oct 2018 – Jun 2020

Linux Analyst

Supported daily operations of Linux systems by assisting with initial setup, basic configuration checks, and routine upkeep across multiple Linux distributions.

Responded to user-reported issues by performing first-level diagnostics, identifying common problems related to access, applications, or system responsiveness.

Helped validate network functionality on Linux systems by checking service availability and connectivity, escalating complex issues when required.

Processed user access requests by assisting with account setup, access changes, and verification tasks according to defined security procedures.

Reviewed logs and matrices to check performance and any degradation.

Reviewed system activity and resource usage, flagging abnormal behavior or warning signs for further investigation by senior team members.

Contributed to operational continuity by recording configuration details, observations, and troubleshooting notes in internal documentation systems.

Collaborated with the backup team on a daily basis, managed the health and monitoring of Backup servers.

SKILLS & COMPETENCE:

Automation and Configuration Management:

Operating Systems:

Ansible Tower

RedHat Enterprise Linux

Ansible

CentOS, Ubuntu

Ansible Playbook

Virtualization:

Scripting and Version Control:

Vcenter, Vsphere, Vconverter

Bash Scripting

ESXI, Vmotion

Git, Gitlab

Networking:

Containerization and Orchestration:

TCP/IP, UDP, NTP, SSH, DHCP, HTTP

Docker

Storage Management:

Kubernetes

RAID, LVM, NFS, SAN, NAS

Tracking Ticket and Monitoring:

Cloud Utilities:

Nagios, Splunk

Amazon Web Services

Jira, Service Now

EC2, ELB, EBS, IAM, S3, CloudWatch

Backup:

Hardware & Security:

Rubrick, Networker

Dell,HP,M3000,M4000,HP ProLiant DL 350,480 G4,G3,G6 & G7,HP C6000 & C7000,Cisco UCS,Firewall,TCP/IP Wrapper,SSH,SCP

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS:

Master in English 2012

University of Sargodha Pakistan

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)

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