Senior Automation Engineer (Chef & Ansible)

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 Responsibilitie sInfrastructure as Code & Configuration Managemen tMaintain Automation Frameworks : Design, develop, and optimize enterprise-scale infrastructure automation utilizing Che f (cookbooks, recipes, attributes) and Ansibl e (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 Cultur eCI/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 Optimizatio nCustom Tooling : Leverage scripting languages (Pytho n, 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 & Skil lsExperien ce5–10+ yea rs of professional experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Systems Engineering, or Platform Engineerin g.Proven track record of managing large-scale server fleets (thousands of nodes) using centralized automation tool s.Technical Skil lsConfiguration Management (Expert Level ): Mastery o f Ansib le (writing advanced playbooks, managing dynamic inventories) and deep hands-on production experience wit h Ch e f.Scripting & Developmen t: Strong coding proficiency i n Pyth on and Bash. Knowledge of Ruby (for Chef customization) is highly preferre d.Operating System s: Advanced Linux systems administration background (package management, storage, networking, security hardening ).Modern Infrastructur e: Familiarity with provisioning tools lik e Terrafo rm, as well as containerization technologies (Dock er , Kubernet es ).Enterprise Integration s: Experience connecting automation frameworks with ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow API integrations) is a major plu s.Soft Skil lsStrong analytical and problem-solving skills with a laser focus on root-cause analysi s.Excellent technical communication skills and document complex architectures clearl y.Bonus Experien ceControl-M and ServiceN ow