JOB DESCRIPTION
AIX Principal Engineer
Location: Remote
Duration: 12+ months contract
Work Expectations
Participate in weekend on-call support as required for urgent escalations and critical production issues.
Remain flexible to work any shift, including day, evening, night, or rotational shifts, according to business and client requirements.
Take ownership of critical technical escalations through resolution and communicate progress clearly to clients and management.
Experience :15+ years is a suggested target for this principal-level position.
Position OverviewWe are seeking an experienced AIX Principal Engineer to lead the design, implementation, administration, optimization, and support of enterprise-scale IBM AIX/UNIX environments. The ideal candidate will bring strong hands-on expertise in IBM Power Systems, AIX administration, PowerHA/HACMP, Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), LPAR/DLPAR, PowerVM virtualization, storage, disaster recovery, and high-availability solutions. This role combines deep technical expertise with project management, team leadership, client communication, and ownership of critical escalations in mission-critical infrastructure environments.
Key ResponsibilitiesLead the architecture, implementation, administration, and support of IBM AIX/UNIX environments across enterprise datacenters and cloud platforms.
Design, configure, and manage IBM Power Systems, including PowerVM, LPAR/DLPAR, VIOS, NPIV, virtual SCSI, and Live Partition Mobility (LPM).
Implement, administer, and troubleshoot high-availability and disaster recovery solutions using PowerHA/HACMP.
Manage AIX installation, configuration, upgrades, patching, firmware updates, performance tuning, capacity planning, and troubleshooting.
Lead datacenter consolidation, server migration, and infrastructure modernization initiatives, including on-premises-to-cloud migrations.
Configure and manage enterprise storage solutions, including SAN, zoning, masking, multipathing, replication, backup, and recovery.
Manage enterprise virtualization environments using IBM PowerVC, HMC, VMware vSphere, and related technologies.
Implement security hardening, vulnerability remediation, access controls, audit requirements, and controlled change-management procedures.
Troubleshoot complex system, network, storage, and performance issues in mission-critical production environments and lead root cause analysis.
Develop and maintain automation scripts using Shell, Bash, Python, or other relevant scripting languages.
Collaborate with application, database, middleware, network, security, storage, and infrastructure teams to deliver reliable enterprise solutions.
Lead infrastructure projects from initiation through completion, including planning, timelines, resource coordination, risk management, status reporting, and delivery.
Lead, mentor, and coordinate technical teams; assign responsibilities, monitor progress, support knowledge sharing, and ensure timely completion of project deliverables.
Communicate directly with clients, stakeholders, and senior management regarding project status, technical issues, risks, incident impact, and resolution plans.
Serve as the final technical escalation point for critical AIX/UNIX infrastructure issues, major production incidents, and complex system failures; drive resolution and keep stakeholders informed.
Coordinate cross-functional teams during critical incidents to minimize business impact and restore services within agreed timelines.
Prepare and maintain architecture documents, operational procedures, project plans, incident reports, root cause analyses, and knowledge-transfer materials.
Provide on-call support during weekends when urgent escalations, critical incidents, or production issues occur.
Be flexible and comfortable working in any shift, including day, evening, night, or rotational shifts, based on business requirements.
Required Technical Skills
Extensive experience in IBM AIX administration, preferably AIX 6.x and 7.x.
Strong knowledge of IBM Power Systems and PowerVM virtualization.
Hands-on experience with LPAR/DLPAR, VIOS, NPIV, virtual SCSI, and Live Partition Mobility.
Expertise in PowerHA/HACMP configuration, administration, and troubleshooting.
Strong knowledge of Linux/UNIX operating systems and enterprise server administration.
Experience with IBM PowerVC, Hardware Management Console (HMC), and IBM Power infrastructure.
Knowledge of SAN storage, zoning, masking, replication, multipathing, backup, and disaster recovery.
Experience with enterprise backup solutions such as IBM Spectrum Protect/TSM, Commvault, or Veritas NetBackup.
Strong troubleshooting, performance tuning, capacity planning, and root cause analysis skills.
Experience with Shell scripting, Bash, or Python automation.
Knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, NFS, SAN, and enterprise networking fundamentals.
Experience with security hardening, vulnerability remediation, monitoring, audit compliance, incident management, and change management.
Strong project coordination, team leadership, client communication, documentation, and stakeholder-management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with large-scale enterprise datacenter environments and infrastructure consolidation.
Exposure to IBM Cloud, AWS, or Azure infrastructure and migration projects.
Experience with VMware ESXi and vCenter.
Knowledge of enterprise monitoring tools such as Splunk, Zabbix, IBM Cloud Monitoring, or Xymon.
Familiarity with ITIL processes and tools such as ServiceNow.
Relevant IBM AIX, Power Systems, cloud, or infrastructure certifications.
Experience supporting mission-critical banking, financial services, healthcare, or government environments.
Education
Bachelor s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.