At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead Linux system improvements and mentor junior team members in a dynamic retail environment.
- Company: Join JD Sports, a leading UK retailer with a focus on innovation and growth.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, training opportunities, and a supportive work culture.
- Other info: Be part of a collaborative team that values creativity and continuous improvement.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by modernising systems and driving technical excellence.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in IT support, strong Linux skills, and experience with automation tools.
The predicted salary is between 46800 - 65000 £ per year.
Organisation / Team: JD Sports Fashion Plc, IT Department
Reporting to: Linux Team Lead
Location: Bury Head Office
Level: 5
Approx # of Direct Reports: 0 (with informal technical mentoring responsibility)
Business Environment
JD Sports Fashion Plc is the leading UK specialised retailer of fashionable branded and own-brand sports and casual wear. The group operates over 3,000 stores globally across multiple fascias and continues to grow. We invest in our people and provide the knowledge and training needed to fulfil challenging and rewarding careers. Our workforce is built on motivated self-starters and we encourage our people to constantly seek ways to improve our business.
Operational Environment
Reporting to the IT Linux Team Lead, the Senior Linux System Administrator acts as the senior technical member of the Linux System Administration team. They provide an escalation point for more junior team members and for the IT Service Desk, and act as the primary technical reference point for automation, scripting, and infrastructure standards. In addition to performing routine maintenance, 3rd-line technical support, and project work, the postholder will play a key role in the Linux estate’s ongoing modernisation: leading OS lifecycle projects, driving Ansible adoption across managed servers, reducing technical debt in scripting and automation, and providing informal day-to-day technical mentorship to junior members of the team.
Role Description
Reporting to the Linux Team Lead, the Senior Linux System Administrator will be responsible for providing 3rd-line IT support to the JD business – including detection, recording, analysis, and resolution of incidents received via phone, email, and intranet, both from 1st and 2nd line teams and directly from the wider business. They will lead technical improvement initiatives within the Linux estate, including OS migration from legacy distributions to AlmaLinux 9, expanding configuration-management coverage through Ansible, and systematically reducing inherited technical debt across scripts, packages, and infrastructure. They will provide informal technical mentorship to junior members of the team and act as a technical authority on scripting standards and automation practices. They will guide the Linux System Administration team on, and themselves perform, server installation, script and automation development, RPM packaging, testing, and patching, under the direction of the Linux Team Lead.
Responsibilities
- Support and Escalation
- Own customer issues and drive through to resolution
- Act as an escalation point for technical queries from the rest of the team and provide training as required
- Respond to support enquiries from the business and help resolve hardware and/or software problems
- Maintain a high degree of customer service for all queries and adhere to all service management principles
- Liaise and work with other JD technical teams as required
- Liaise with third-party technical support teams when necessary
- Deputise for the IT Linux Team Lead at meetings when the need arises
- Modernisation and Improvement
- Lead OS lifecycle projects: plan, test, and execute major version upgrades across the estate (CentOS / RHEL → AlmaLinux 9)
- Identify, prioritise, and drive technical debt eradication within scripts, packaging, and configuration
- Expand and maintain Ansible playbooks across the estate, establishing standards for configuration management
- Peer review automation scripts, Ansible roles, and RPM packaging work from junior team members
- Provide informal technical mentorship and day-to-day guidance to junior Linux administrators
- Proactively identify areas for improvement and drive through to implementation
- Lead development in continual service improvement, project work, and support tooling
- Infrastructure and Security
- Manage Linux VM provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle in vSphere/VMware
- Administer and extend Zabbix monitoring; contribute to Grafana dashboards and alerting
- Lead and assist with implementation of internal security processes
- Lead and assist with internal patch management processes
- Monitor Change Requests presented to the IT CAB and highlight any Linux-related concerns
- Maintain awareness of container tooling (Docker/Podman) for test and tooling environments
- Process and Governance
- Establish and maintain effective relationships with business users and group IT teams
- Document working procedures and store within the knowledge management database
- Assist ITIL managers in the development and maintenance of IT support processes
- Provide input into root cause analysis documents (RCA)
- Input into weekly team reports; complete weekly management reports when the Linux Team Lead is unavailable
Experience and Knowledge
Essential
- 5+ years working in a service support environment with exposure to ITIL processes
- Production server administration experience with RHEL 8/9 and AlmaLinux 9, including experience leading major OS version migrations
- Python scripting – primary language for new automation development
- Perl – reading and maintaining legacy scripts in a production environment
- Ansible – authoring and maintaining playbooks and roles in a production environment
- Subversion (SVN) – day-to-day version control, branching, and patch management
- RPM packaging – build, version, and deploy custom packages
- vSphere/VMware – VM provisioning, lifecycle management, and troubleshooting
- Zabbix – monitoring configuration, alerting, and maintenance in a production environment
- Bash scripting and associated tools such as sed, awk, sort, uniq
- Experience of working in an ITIL environment, understanding how end-to-end processes work across the organisation
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to effectively identify issues, log, and communicate to other personnel
- Ability to work well under pressure, ensuring a structured approach is maintained at all times
Preferable
- Git – working knowledge; experience contributing to SVN-to-Git migrations a plus
- Docker or Podman – image build, container runtime troubleshooting
- Grafana – dashboard creation and alerting configuration
- Privileged access management tooling – CyberArk or equivalent (training provided internally)
- Experience mentoring or providing informal technical leadership to junior team members
- Experience in a retail environment
- Experience of application support teams (1st, 2nd, and 3rd line)
- Ability to demonstrate both business and IT benefits where appropriate
Skills / Behaviours
Essential
- Incident diagnosis and problem solving within an IT environment
- Excellent interpersonal, communication, and negotiation skills, both verbal and written
- Ability to plan, coordinate, and prioritise different activities
- Ability to liaise with and relate to a broad spectrum of individuals
- Strong customer service ethos with a can-do mentality
- Good understanding of networking
- Comfortable playing a key role within a team environment
- Flexible approach to the provision of support services to a dynamic, growing business
- Ansible configuration management – can write, review, and maintain production playbooks and roles
- Systematic approach to technical debt: can identify, prioritise, and safely reduce it without breaking existing behaviour
- Peer review and constructive feedback – can critique scripts and automation to a defined standard
- Monitoring and observability mindset – treats visibility as a first-class concern
- Strong desire to learn new skills and keep pace with a modernising estate
Preferable
- Familiarity with container tooling (Docker/Podman)
- Experience with AI-assisted tooling in an operational or automation context
- Understanding of business drivers and ability to frame technical work in terms of tangible and intangible benefits
Senior Linux System Administrator in Bury employer: Naylor's Equestrian Llp
JD Sports Fashion Plc is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment at our Bury Head Office where innovation and collaboration thrive. We prioritise employee development through comprehensive training and mentorship opportunities, ensuring that our team members can grow their careers while contributing to the ongoing modernisation of our IT infrastructure. With a strong focus on creativity and problem-solving, we empower our staff to make impactful changes and drive the business forward in the fast-paced retail sector.
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We think you need these skills to ace Senior Linux System Administrator in Bury
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✨Brush Up on Your Technical Skills
For an IT consulting role, be ready to demonstrate your technical prowess. You might face questions on systems integration, cloud technologies, or even troubleshooting specific software. If you have experience with tools like AWS, Azure, or even specific programming languages, make sure you can talk about them fluently.
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