STEM OPT Linux System Administrator Jobs
Linux System Administrator roles qualify for STEM OPT if your degree is in computer science, information technology, or a related CIP-code-eligible field. Your employer must be enrolled in E-Verify to hire you, and the 24-month extension gives you up to 36 months total to build experience in systems infrastructure, network administration, and enterprise Linux environments.
Find STEM OPT Linux System Administrator JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 17+ Linux System Administrator jobs
See all Linux System Administrator Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Linux System Administrator roles.
Get Access To All JobsCompany Description
About AbbVie
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology, and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Job Description
Information Research at AbbVie partners with pharmaceutical R&D scientists to deliver technical solutions for complex scientific needs. This role offers the opportunity to work alongside scientists and technology professionals, solve everyday challenges, and help advance the digital transformation of drug discovery teams.
We are seeking a collaborative, curious early-career engineer who enjoys learning and applying practical technology to meaningful business problems. Working collaboratively with senior engineers, you will support scientific and Linux technology teams across the business-system life cycle—from identifying needs and defining requirements through implementation, testing, operational support, and change—while contributing ideas and developing within a diverse, energetic, and innovative Linux team.
Responsibilities
- Support Linux engineering activities in enterprise environments, including operations, maintenance, health checks, monitoring, configuration, access and file-system management, and issue resolution, with guidance from senior engineers.
- Assist with operating-system patching, software installs and updates, certificate management, and configuration changes under approved procedures, change controls, maintenance schedules, security requirements, and senior guidance.
- Learn and apply Linux, infrastructure services, automation, and enterprise standards to support secure, reliable, reproducible, and timely outcomes.
- Use Ansible and configuration-management tools to support standardized configurations, repeatable automation, and the maintenance of scripts and workflows; contribute ideas for automation and AI-enabled automation.
- Assist with troubleshooting Linux systems, applications, infrastructure services, and automation workflows using logs, system behavior, performance indicators, and operational results; document findings and escalate significant or recurring issues.
- Contribute to the testing, documentation, implementation, and verification of infrastructure changes and deployments across on-premises, virtualized, and cloud environments.
- Develop and maintain clear technical documentation with guidance, including procedures, runbooks, configuration, and automation records, troubleshooting guides, and support hand-off materials.
- Work closely with senior engineers and infrastructure, cybersecurity, application, platform, and service partners to coordinate maintenance, resolve issues, support projects, and learn practices that improve Linux reliability and security.
- Learn and follow corporate and divisional standards, policies, and procedures for conduct, safety, GxP compliance, data integrity, cybersecurity, access and change control, incident management, and the software development lifecycle.
Qualifications
Required:
- Bachelor’s Degree with 2 years of relevant experience; OR Master’s Degree with no additional experience.
- Foundational experience or coursework with Ubuntu, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or other enterprise Linux distributions.
- Foundational theoretical and practical knowledge of Linux operating systems and standard administration practices, with interest in continuing to develop these skills.
- Exposure to routine Linux administration, including patching, software installs and updates, service management, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
- Basic understanding of enterprise infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking, virtualization, cloud, authentication, access controls, and system dependencies.
- Ability to review logs, command output, monitoring data, and incident details to help identify issues and contribute to root-cause analysis under guidance.
- Familiarity with security and operational practices, including vulnerability remediation, certificate management, least-privilege access, backups, change control, and system hardening.
- Ability to create clear, accurate technical documentation and operational records with appropriate review.
- Effective communication, collaboration, organization, problem-solving, and teamwork skills; able to work constructively with senior engineers and cross-functional partners.
- Curiosity and willingness to learn and apply new technologies, tools, methods, and procedures as business and technology needs evolve; openness to sharing ideas and learning from feedback.
Preferred:
- Exposure to Ansible Tower/AWX or similar platforms, including playbook execution, troubleshooting, and basic development or maintenance.
- Familiarity with Bash, Python, JavaScript, .NET, Shell scripting, or similar technologies, with interest in developing automation skills.
- Exposure / Familiarity with Git or other source-control tools.
- Exposure to public or private cloud environments; AWS experience is a plus.
- Familiarity with enterprise monitoring, logging, vulnerability-management, or IT service-management tools.
- Exposure to regulated, validated, or GxP environments.
- Foundational knowledge of TLS/SSL certificates, public key infrastructure, DNS, LDAP, Active Directory, and related services.
- Relevant Linux, cloud, automation, or cybersecurity certification or interest in pursuing one.
- Strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, with an approachable and collaborative working style.
Additional Information
Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:
- The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
- We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
- This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs.
Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.
AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.
US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html
US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:
https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html
Company Description
About AbbVie
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology, and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Job Description
Information Research at AbbVie partners with pharmaceutical R&D scientists to deliver technical solutions for complex scientific needs. This role offers the opportunity to work alongside scientists and technology professionals, solve everyday challenges, and help advance the digital transformation of drug discovery teams.
We are seeking a collaborative, curious early-career engineer who enjoys learning and applying practical technology to meaningful business problems. Working collaboratively with senior engineers, you will support scientific and Linux technology teams across the business-system life cycle—from identifying needs and defining requirements through implementation, testing, operational support, and change—while contributing ideas and developing within a diverse, energetic, and innovative Linux team.
Responsibilities
- Support Linux engineering activities in enterprise environments, including operations, maintenance, health checks, monitoring, configuration, access and file-system management, and issue resolution, with guidance from senior engineers.
- Assist with operating-system patching, software installs and updates, certificate management, and configuration changes under approved procedures, change controls, maintenance schedules, security requirements, and senior guidance.
- Learn and apply Linux, infrastructure services, automation, and enterprise standards to support secure, reliable, reproducible, and timely outcomes.
- Use Ansible and configuration-management tools to support standardized configurations, repeatable automation, and the maintenance of scripts and workflows; contribute ideas for automation and AI-enabled automation.
- Assist with troubleshooting Linux systems, applications, infrastructure services, and automation workflows using logs, system behavior, performance indicators, and operational results; document findings and escalate significant or recurring issues.
- Contribute to the testing, documentation, implementation, and verification of infrastructure changes and deployments across on-premises, virtualized, and cloud environments.
- Develop and maintain clear technical documentation with guidance, including procedures, runbooks, configuration, and automation records, troubleshooting guides, and support hand-off materials.
- Work closely with senior engineers and infrastructure, cybersecurity, application, platform, and service partners to coordinate maintenance, resolve issues, support projects, and learn practices that improve Linux reliability and security.
- Learn and follow corporate and divisional standards, policies, and procedures for conduct, safety, GxP compliance, data integrity, cybersecurity, access and change control, incident management, and the software development lifecycle.
Qualifications
Required:
- Bachelor’s Degree with 2 years of relevant experience; OR Master’s Degree with no additional experience.
- Foundational experience or coursework with Ubuntu, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or other enterprise Linux distributions.
- Foundational theoretical and practical knowledge of Linux operating systems and standard administration practices, with interest in continuing to develop these skills.
- Exposure to routine Linux administration, including patching, software installs and updates, service management, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
- Basic understanding of enterprise infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking, virtualization, cloud, authentication, access controls, and system dependencies.
- Ability to review logs, command output, monitoring data, and incident details to help identify issues and contribute to root-cause analysis under guidance.
- Familiarity with security and operational practices, including vulnerability remediation, certificate management, least-privilege access, backups, change control, and system hardening.
- Ability to create clear, accurate technical documentation and operational records with appropriate review.
- Effective communication, collaboration, organization, problem-solving, and teamwork skills; able to work constructively with senior engineers and cross-functional partners.
- Curiosity and willingness to learn and apply new technologies, tools, methods, and procedures as business and technology needs evolve; openness to sharing ideas and learning from feedback.
Preferred:
- Exposure to Ansible Tower/AWX or similar platforms, including playbook execution, troubleshooting, and basic development or maintenance.
- Familiarity with Bash, Python, JavaScript, .NET, Shell scripting, or similar technologies, with interest in developing automation skills.
- Exposure / Familiarity with Git or other source-control tools.
- Exposure to public or private cloud environments; AWS experience is a plus.
- Familiarity with enterprise monitoring, logging, vulnerability-management, or IT service-management tools.
- Exposure to regulated, validated, or GxP environments.
- Foundational knowledge of TLS/SSL certificates, public key infrastructure, DNS, LDAP, Active Directory, and related services.
- Relevant Linux, cloud, automation, or cybersecurity certification or interest in pursuing one.
- Strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, with an approachable and collaborative working style.
Additional Information
Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:
- The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
- We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
- This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs.
Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.
AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.
US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html
US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:
https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html
See all STEM OPT Linux System Administrator Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new STEM OPT Linux System Administrator Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Linux System Administrator
Verify your CIP code before applying
Cross-reference your degree's Classification of Instructional Programs code against the DHS STEM OPT designated degree list. Computer science, information systems, and network engineering programs typically qualify, but degree titles vary by institution and some borderline fields get denied.
Check E-Verify enrollment before accepting offers
Before signing an offer, confirm the employer is actively enrolled in E-Verify, not just registered. Ask HR for their E-Verify company ID or look up the employer on the E-Verify employer search tool to avoid accepting a role that disqualifies your extension.
Use O*NET to anchor your I-983 training plan
Pull the Linux System Administrator occupational profile from O*NET and use its listed knowledge areas and tasks to draft the learning objectives section of your I-983. DSOs flag training plans that are too vague, and O*NET gives you defensible, role-specific language.
Target employers with active LCA filings in IT infrastructure
Employers who have filed Labor Condition Applications for systems administrator or network engineer roles under DOL have already cleared the prevailing-wage and E-Verify requirements. Use Migrate Mate to filter for employers with verified LCA filing history in these occupation categories.
Negotiate your start date around DSO processing time
Your DSO needs time to issue a STEM OPT-endorsed I-20 after you submit the I-765, and USCIS processing adds additional weeks. Build at least 90 days between your offer acceptance and your intended start date so your EAD arrives before your initial OPT expires.
Align your job duties to STEM OPT practical training criteria
The role must directly relate to your STEM degree. For a Linux sysadmin position, document how responsibilities like kernel configuration, scripting automation, or systems security tie to coursework. Misalignment between your job duties and degree field is the most common I-983 rejection trigger.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Linux System Administrator role qualify for STEM OPT?
Yes, if your degree is in a STEM-designated field such as computer science, information technology, or computer engineering and the role's core duties directly relate to that field. Linux system administration involves applied computer science through OS configuration, scripting, and infrastructure management, which typically satisfies USCIS's practical training requirement. Confirm your degree's CIP code appears on the DHS STEM designated degree list before applying.
Does my employer need to be enrolled in E-Verify to hire me on STEM OPT?
Yes. E-Verify enrollment is a federal requirement for all STEM OPT employers, not a preference. Your employer must be enrolled before your STEM OPT extension is approved. If you receive a job offer from an employer who isn't enrolled, they'll need to complete E-Verify registration before USCIS will authorize your extension. Use the E-Verify employer search to confirm enrollment status before your I-983 is signed.
What goes into the I-983 training plan for a sysadmin position?
The I-983 requires your employer to describe specific learning objectives that connect the role to your STEM degree. For a Linux System Administrator, that means documenting tasks like shell scripting, system performance monitoring, access control management, and network configuration, then mapping each to coursework or competencies from your degree program. Vague entries like 'general IT support' are routinely flagged by DSOs. Use the O*NET occupation profile for Linux administrators to pull precise, defensible task language.
How does cap-gap protection work if my H-1B is selected during my STEM OPT period?
If you're on STEM OPT and your H-1B visa petition is selected in the lottery and filed before your EAD expires, cap-gap automatically extends your work authorization through September 30 of that fiscal year. You don't need to file anything additional. Your employer should continue your employment without interruption as long as your H-1B was timely filed and your STEM OPT was still valid at the time of filing, per USCIS guidance.
Where can I find Linux System Administrator jobs where employers are already set up for STEM OPT hiring?
Migrate Mate filters job listings by employers who have filed Labor Condition Applications with DOL, which confirms E-Verify enrollment and prevailing-wage compliance. Searching on Migrate Mate lets you focus on Linux System Administrator openings at companies that have already cleared the foundational STEM OPT employer requirements, rather than discovering eligibility gaps after an offer is made.