Automation Engineer (Ansible) – Contract
Location: Remote (Memphis or Nashville welcomed)
Type: Contract (flexible hours, to be determined)
Company Description
Silex Data Solutions, a high-growth, privately owned systems integrator based in Tennessee, operates at the cutting edge of IT innovation. Our team of seasoned IT veterans takes a holistic approach to technology, with a strong focus on business processes and IT automation. We invest heavily in research and development to deliver efficient, cost-effective solutions that maximize ROI for our clients and prioritize education and empowerment as part of every engagement.
Role Overview
We are looking for an Automation Engineer with strong Ansible experience to join our Automation team on a contract basis. The ideal candidate pairs deep hands-on automation skills with solid systems administration experience and the ability to work directly with customers on best practices (especially Git and CI/CD). This role blends technical delivery, enablement, and long-term partnership with our clients.
Ideal candidates are:
- Strong in Ansible (Engine / Ansible Automation Platform)
- Strong in one or more of the following:
- Linux and/or Windows systems administration (e.g., RHEL, Windows Server)
- Network administration
- Storage administration
Key Responsibilities
- Design, build, and maintain Ansible automation for infrastructure components such as servers, operating systems, and key platform services (on-prem and cloud).
- Develop and maintain integrations between Ansible Automation Platform and existing infrastructure management and CI/CD tools (e.g., OpenShift, Argo, Jenkins/Tekton, monitoring platforms).
- Implement and improve infrastructure-as-code and configuration-as-code patterns for repeatable provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management across environments.
- Create clear, reusable documentation for playbooks, roles, workflows, and operational runbooks for both internal teams and clients.
- Work alongside Silex teammates on other customer projects, ensuring consistent patterns, standards, and governance in automation delivery.
- Stay current on DevOps and GitOps tooling and methodologies, bringing forward ideas that improve reliability, security, and speed of delivery for our clients.
- Work closely with customers to understand their environments, translate requirements into automation designs, and align work with their long-term automation roadmap.
- Educate and guide clients on Git and workflow best practices, helping them adopt scalable and maintainable automation patterns.
- Contribute to a culture of innovation and continuous improvement on the Silex Automation team.
Required Qualifications
- 3+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and maintaining automation with Ansible (playbooks, roles, inventories, collections; Ansible Automation Platform job templates, projects, workflows).
- 3+ years of systems administration experience (e.g., RHEL, Windows Server, Networking, Storage), including installation, configuration, patching, and troubleshooting.
- Experience implementing and supporting Ansible Automation Platform in production (RBAC, projects, inventories, execution environments).
- Strong understanding of infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD concepts and how automation fits into modern delivery pipelines.
- Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows (branching strategies, code review, pull requests).
- Demonstrated customer-facing experience: requirements gathering, solution walkthroughs, and enablement sessions.
- Excellent problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal skills; able to build rapport and work effectively within distributed teams.
Preferred Experience
Experience with one or more of the following is highly desirable (OpenShift and Terraform experience are strongly preferred and will be a differentiator):
- OpenShift and container platforms (design, deployment, and automation with Ansible).
- Terraform for infrastructure provisioning and infrastructure-as-code across cloud and on-prem environments.
- AWS and/or Azure infrastructure automation (IaaS, networking, IAM/AD, and related services).
- Argo and GitOps workflows for Kubernetes / OpenShift.
- Jenkins / Tekton pipelines and CI/CD automation for application and infrastructure delivery.
- Experience with additional automation tools and languages (e.g., Bash, Python, PowerShell).
- Background in consulting, professional services, or customer enablement (“teach to fish” style automation engagements).
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
Why Join Silex Data Solutions?
Silex offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial, and other benefits that support your total well-being, with eligibility varying based on employment status.
We emphasize:
- Learning and development: extensive training, education programs, reimbursement for relevant conferences, and a culture of continuous growth.
- Work–life balance: flexible working hours and remote work options.
- Equity and ownership: options grants that let employees share in the company’s success.
- Community engagement: active contribution to the broader automation, cloud, and cybersecurity communities through content and education.
Additional Details
- Job Category: Information Technology – Software / Automation Engineering
- Job Location: US (remote)
- We are not considering corp-to-corp or offshore arrangements for this role at this time.
If you are passionate about automation, enjoy solving real infrastructure problems with Ansible, and want to help clients build durable automation practices, we’d love to hear from you.
Job Type: Contract
Pay: From $75.00 per hour
Expected hours: 20 – 25 per week
Work Location: Remote
