Automation Solution Consultant - Senior

Automation Solution Consultant - Senior 

Must Haves:

• 7+ years of hands-on Ansible automation experience in production environments.
• 7+ years Windows Server 2012, 2019 and 2022
• 7+ years PowerShell (Windows automation)
• 7+ years Bash or shell scripting (Linux automation)
• 7+ years Enterprise Linux distributions (RHEL, Ubuntu, or equivalent)

Location: Remote – 4 p.m. and 12:00 am shift (preference) or 4:00 am to 12:00 pm shift

Public Sector Experience: Nice to Have

Description

We are seeking a Senior Ansible Automation Engineer to lead automation initiatives within a large enterprise IT operations environment. This role is responsible for designing and implementing automation solutions that improve consistency, security, and operational efficiency across enterprise Windows and Linux server infrastructure.

The successful candidate will combine deep Ansible automation expertise with advanced systems administration experience across Windows Server (2019/2022) and enterprise Linux platforms, supporting large-scale operational environments with strong governance, reliability, and compliance requirements.

This is a hands-on technical role focused on reducing manual operational work through automation while ensuring stability, security, and scalability of production systems.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Automation & Standardization

• Design, develop, and maintain enterprise-grade automation using Ansible across Windows and Linux environments.
• Build reusable Ansible roles, playbooks, inventories, and automation frameworks aligned with enterprise standards.
• Establish automation governance, coding standards, and reusable automation patterns, while maintaining source-controlled automation repositories and documentation.
• Automate provisioning, configuration management, compliance enforcement, and operational workflows, reducing manual administration across the enterprise.
• Lead the transition from manual administration to automation-first operations.
• Design and implement phased patch deployment strategies (Dev Test UAT Production) ensuring environment promotion discipline.
• Automate end-to-end patch lifecycle management using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager APIs, PowerShell modules, WSUS integration, and ADR (Automatic Deployment Rules).
• Automate maintenance window execution, change sequencing, pre- and post-deployment validation, rollback procedures, and compliance verification aligned with enterprise ITIL processes.
• Build approval-gated promotion pipelines with reporting dashboards to ensure auditability, production stability, and compliance adherence.
• Optimize patch baselines, supersedence management, deployment scheduling, and automated remediation workflows for large-scale server environments.

Key Responsibilities

Monitoring & Event Management

• Design and implement event-driven automation workflows triggered by enterprise monitoring platforms (e.g., Micro Focus Operations Bridge or equivalent).
• Integrate monitoring systems with automation frameworks and ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow) using REST APIs and webhooks.
• Develop automated remediation runbooks for threshold-based and binary alerts to reduce manual NOC intervention.
• Implement closed-loop automation, including automated ticket creation, status updates, and event resolution feedback.
• Define alert correlation, suppression logic, and escalation workflows aligned with enterprise operational standards.
• Continuously optimize event noise reduction and improve mean time to resolution (MTTR) through intelligent automation.

Windows Server Infrastructure Administration

• Provide senior-level administration and support for Windows Server 2019 and 2022 environments.
• Manage server lifecycle activities including provisioning, configuration, patching, upgrades, and decommissioning.
• Administer and troubleshoot:
• Active Directory and Group Policy
• DNS, DHCP, and core enterprise services
• File and application services
• Implement OS hardening aligned with enterprise security standards.
• Support backup, disaster recovery, and high availability solutions.

Linux Systems Administration

• Administer enterprise Linux environments (e.g., Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, or equivalent).
• Perform installation, configuration, patch management, and system upgrades.
• Manage system services, package management, and OS security configurations.
• Implement automation for configuration enforcement and system compliance.
• Troubleshoot performance, networking, and system-level issues.
• Support enterprise authentication integrations (LDAP/AD integration preferred).

Operational Excellence

• Automate routine operational tasks including patching, configuration validation, and remediation.
• Reduce configuration drift through automated compliance enforcement.
• Develop operational runbooks and automated recovery procedures.
• Participate in incident response, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Partner with Security, Architecture, and Infrastructure teams to align automation with enterprise policies and standards.

Collaboration & Technical Leadership

• Act as a technical lead for infrastructure automation initiatives.
• Mentor systems administrators and operations teams in automation practices.
• Promote automation adoption across infrastructure teams.
• Work within enterprise change management and release processes.
• Provide strategic input into automation tooling and infrastructure standards.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of enterprise IT infrastructure or systems administration experience.
• 7+ years of hands-on Ansible automation experience in production environments.
• Advanced administration experience with:
• Windows Server 2012, 2019 and 2022
• Enterprise Linux distributions (RHEL, Ubuntu, or equivalent)
• Strong scripting experience:
• PowerShell (Windows automation)
• Bash or shell scripting (Linux automation)
• Experience automating Windows systems using WinRM and Ansible Windows modules.
• Solid Linux administration skills including package management, services, permissions, and networking.
• Deep knowledge of enterprise infrastructure services:
• Active Directory
• DNS and networking fundamentals
• Experience operating within structured enterprise or ITIL-based environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Ansible Automation Platform, AWX, or Ansible Tower.
• Experience managing environments with hundreds or thousands of servers.
• Hybrid or cloud infrastructure experience (Microsoft Azure preferred).
• Experience with security baselines, CIS hardening, or compliance automation.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code and DevOps practices within enterprise operations.
• Virtualization experience (VMware, Hyper-V, or similar).

Technical Skills

• Ansible automation (roles, playbooks, collections)
• SCCM API / PowerShell automation
• WSUS integration
• ADR (Automatic Deployment Rules)
• Patch compliance reporting
• PowerShell and Bash scripting
• Windows Server administration
• Linux systems administration
• Git version control
• YAML and automation design principles
• Patch automation and configuration enforcement
• Enterprise monitoring and logging platforms

Soft Skills

• Strong operational mindset focused on reliability and stability.
• Ability to translate manual operational processes into scalable automation.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting abilities.
• Collaborative approach across infrastructure, security, and application teams.

Education & Certifications (Preferred)

• Degree or diploma in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.
• Microsoft Windows Server or Azure certifications.
• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) or equivalent Linux certification.
• Red Hat Ansible Automation certification.
• ITIL Foundation certification or equivalent.

Success Measures

• Reduction in manual server administration effort.
• Increased automation adoption across Windows and Linux platforms.
• Improved configuration consistency and compliance.
• Reduced operational incidents through automated remediation.

Deliverables

Automated patching

rectifying existing automation (Snapshots)

Enhancing, updating and creating runbooks for alert response (disk, CPU, memory, synthetic checks etc.)