2nd Line System Administrator/Engineer (Scality RING/Linux) in Cheltenham

At Forfusion, we take pride in delivering world-class managed services and secure, large-scale infrastructure solutions to our growing client base. We are looking for a positive, enthusiastic and highly capable individual to join our Engineering Team as a Scality RING Engineer. You will bring strong experience in Linux OS and application support, having worked in a Server Administrator or 2nd/3rd line support position where reacting to incidents, resolving tickets within tight SLAs, and supporting complex infrastructure environments comes naturally. Operating within a highly secure environment, you will play a key role in maintaining, supporting and optimising distributed storage platforms for our customers.

Due to the sensitive nature of the systems involved, the successful candidate must already hold, or be eligible to obtain, UK Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance.

What’s Involved In This Role

• Responsible for the operational management, stability and performance of Scality RING clusters.
• Carrying out daily checks across nodes, services, disks, metadata, replication and overall platform integrity.
• Acting as the first point of escalation for RING-related incidents, diagnosing issues across storage, network, OS and application layers.
• Working closely with Scality support on raised cases.
• Applying patches, firmware updates and version upgrades.
• Managing cluster expansion activities and maintaining integrations with VMware, Hyper-V, Cisco Hyperflex, Cisco UCS and Microsoft services.
• Using PowerShell and Python to automate health checks, reporting and maintenance tasks.
• Producing documentation, runbooks and capacity forecasts.
• Collaboration with infrastructure, network and project teams, engaging with customers to support solution design and ensure high-quality service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitoring the health, performance, and capacity utilisation of Scality RING clusters.
• Performing daily checks on node status, services, disks, metadata, replication status, and cluster integrity.
• Managing and validating data protection policies, erasure coding behaviours, and platform resilience.
• Diagnosing issues at the storage, network, OS, or application integration layers.
• Applying patches, firmware updates and version upgrades across Scality RING nodes.
• Managing RING expansion activities adding nodes, validating stability.
• Maintaining integrations with VMware, Hyper-V, Cisco Hyperflex, Cisco UCS, and Microsoft services.
• Using PowerShell and Python to automate health checks, reporting, and maintenance activities.
• Producing operational documentation, capacity forecasts, runbooks, and architectural material.
• Keeping records of maintenance activities, changes, and improvements.
• Supporting wider customer project teams during RING-related solution design and implementation.
• Engaging with customers regarding storage-related requirements.
• Working closely with infrastructure and network engineers.

Requirements

• Excellent spoken and written English, able to clearly articulate ideas, issues and updates to customers and peers.
• Well organised, able to prioritise multiple work streams whilst maintaining the common sense to escalate when workloads may pose a risk to customer delivery and SLAs.
• Able to work well under pressure, with a clear understanding of their own abilities.
• Customer-service oriented with a strong problem-solving attitude, alongside strong analytical skills and excellent conflict management skills.
• Able to think independently and effectively challenge both colleagues and customers when required.
• Good understanding of the technology industry, including current and emerging digital strategies, solutions, and trends.
• Understanding the importance of customer SLA/KPIs and striving diligently to ensure these are met.
• Possessing situational awareness to adapt and solve challenges from both business and technology perspectives.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with pragmatic operational execution and delivery.
• Show empathy, curiosity, and a desire to challenge and constantly improve.

Experience

• To be eligible for this role, you will have one or more of the following qualifications or equivalent skills: Linux Administrator/Redhat Administrator.
• Strong understanding of Linux Operating System architecture (minimum of 5 years of experience operating Linux platforms).
• In-depth, hands-on UNIX/Linux system administration skills and experience in managing large-scale distributed environments.
• Significant understanding of hardware, especially x86 platforms, including RAID architecture and file systems.
• Exposure to storage environment protocols (NAS, SAN, RAID, distributed file system, object storage, Restful API, Amazon S3) is advantageous.
• Solid networking knowledge: low-level networking concepts, bridging, routing, VLAN, TCP/IP etc.
• Knowledge of High Availability environments (distributed system, load balancing, cloud platforms) and container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge with Web Servers, Backups, Email, Package Management, Monitoring in a large-scale production environment.
• Scripting skills (Python, Perl, Shell), Automation (Saltstack, Ansible).
• Development skills in C/Java is beneficial.
• Knowledge of ITIL Problem and Change management processes.
• Knowledge of Atlassian stack (Jira, Confluence).

Benefits

• Sick pay insurance
• Life insurance
• Private medical insurance
• Matched pension contribution to 8%
• Gym membership