Contract Role: Linux Engineer Ansible Automation Specialist Location: London (Hybrid – 3 days a week onsite) Rate: £600–£700 per day (Inside IR35) Length: 6-month contract A leading organisation is seeking an experienced Ansible Automation Specialist to join their Enterprise Technology team. This hands-on role will focus on uplifting Ansible usage, enhancing automation workflows, and improving infrastructure security and reliability across a Linux environment. Key Responsibilities: • Refactor and optimise Ansible playbooks and roles for maintainability, security, and robustness • Improve pre-checks, conditional logic, error handling, and reporting • Integrate with secret management systems such as CyberArk and Ansible Vault • Enhance Ansible inventory management and automation scheduling • Build reusable templates for ad-hoc tasks and remediation • Develop automation for CIS compliance and reporting • Contribute to Molecule testing environments for Ansible roles • Collaborate with Linux, Infrastructure, and InfoSec teams Essential Skills & Experience: • Expert-level understanding of Ansible Core and CLI • Strong background in Linux systems engineering and automation • Proven track record of writing secure, idempotent, and testable playbooks • Experience with secret management tools (e.g. CyberArk, Ansible Vault) • Knowledge of Linux patch management, system hardening, and CIS compliance • Strong problem-solving, documentation, and communication skills Desirable: • Experience with Molecule testing for Ansible roles • Familiarity with Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) • Understanding of SSH key management and privilege separation