Senior Automation Engineer (Chef & Ansible)
Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced and highly skilled Senior Automation Engineer to design, build, and maintain our next-generation infrastructure automation frameworks. In this role, you will act as an engineer for our Infrastructure as Code (IaC) strategy, driving efficiency, reliability, and consistency across our environments. The ideal candidate is an expert in configuration management, possessing deep hands-on experience with both Chef and Ansible, and a passion for eliminating manual operational overhead.
Key Responsibilities
Infrastructure as Code & Configuration Management
- Maintain Automation Frameworks: Design, develop, and optimize enterprise-scale infrastructure automation utilizing Chef (cookbooks, recipes, attributes) and Ansible (playbooks, roles, collections).
- Drift Management & Idempotency: Write high-quality, reusable, and idempotent code to enforce desired system states, ensure compliance, and rapidly detect/remediate configuration drift.
- Platform Evolution: Support and evolve the enterprise Ansible Automation Platform (Tower/AWX) and Chef Infra architectures, including lifecycle management, scalability planning, and role-based access control (RBAC).
Pipeline Integration & DevOps Culture
- CI/CD Integration: Embed infrastructure automation seamlessly into modern CI/CD workflows utilizing tools such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins.
- Testing & Quality Assurance: Implement rigorous testing frameworks for infrastructure code (e.g., Test Kitchen, Cookstyle, Ansible-lint) to ensure stable and safe deployments.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Cloud, Security, Development, and SRE teams to drive automation maturity and bridge operational gaps.
Scripting, Cloud, & Systems Optimization
- Custom Tooling: Leverage scripting languages (Python, Bash, or Ruby) to build custom integration tools and extend existing automation capabilities.
- Hybrid/Cloud Ecosystems: Integrate configuration management workflows with cloud providers (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and on-premises virtualization infrastructure.
- System Administration: Provide deep technical expertise in Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu) system administration, performance tuning, and troubleshooting.
Qualifications & Skills
Experience
- 5–10+ years of professional experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Systems Engineering, or Platform Engineering.
- Proven track record of managing large-scale server fleets (thousands of nodes) using centralized automation tools.
Technical Skills
- Configuration Management (Expert Level): Mastery of Ansible (writing advanced playbooks, managing dynamic inventories) and deep hands-on production experience with Chef.
- Scripting & Development: Strong coding proficiency in Python and Bash. Knowledge of Ruby (for Chef customization) is highly preferred.
- Operating Systems: Advanced Linux systems administration background (package management, storage, networking, security hardening).
- Modern Infrastructure: Familiarity with provisioning tools like Terraform, as well as containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Enterprise Integrations: Experience connecting automation frameworks with ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow API integrations) is a major plus.
Soft Skills
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a laser focus on root-cause analysis.
- Excellent technical communication skills and document complex architectures clearly.
Bonus Experience
