Unix Administrator / Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Unix Administrator or Engineer installs, configures, and maintains UNIX operating systems operating within a business. Analyzes and resolves problems associated with the operating system's servers, hardware, applications, and software. Detects, diagnoses, and reports UNIX related problems on servers.
Job Outlook
There were 307 Unix Administrator / Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 12849 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Network / Systems Administrator industry, which includes the Unix Administrator / Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Unix Administrator / Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $120,313.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $115,206.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Unix Administrator / Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $108,066.
Education and Experience
Posted Unix Administrator / Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 58.21% |
| Master's Degree | 12.42% |
| Doctoral Degree | 2.61% |
| Other | 5.35% |
Posted Unix Administrator / Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 8.86% |
| 3 to 5 years | 42.91% |
| 6 to 8 years | 24.09% |
| 9+ years | 24.14% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Unix Administrator / Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (52.35%)
- Communication (35.54%)
- Management (33.63%)
- Operations (28.41%)
- Problem Solving (27.45%)
- Information Technology (20.21%)
- Planning (14.38%)
- Leadership (9.92%)
- Research (8.61%)
- Detail Oriented (7.97%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Scripting (36.79%)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (31.29%)
- Ansible (34.32%)
- Python (Programming Language) (42.17%)
- Linux Kernel (7.65%)
- Linux Administration (20.3%)
- Linux Servers (19.54%)
- Linux On Embedded Systems (5.42%)
- Debian Linux (7.93%)
- Linux (92.53%)
- Operating Systems (40.95%)
- Computer Science (32.24%)
- CentOS (10.15%)
- Unix (21.88%)
- Ubuntu (Operating System) (18.5%)
- Automation (37.63%)
- Bash (Scripting Language) (28.24%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Technical Issues (7.47%)
- CI/CD (8.92%)
- Terraform (8.13%)
- Splunk (7.35%)
- Docker (Software) (17.25%)
- Jenkins (6.94%)
- Internet Of Things (IoT) (5.01%)
- Kubernetes (18.08%)
- Hardening (11.85%)
- Virtualization (14.99%)
- Vulnerability (0.17%)
- TCP/IP (10.47%)
- Software Engineering (13.92%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (4.88%)
- Shell Script (11.25%)
- Windows PowerShell (8.71%)
- Performance Tuning (8.14%)
- Windows Servers (8.55%)
- MySQL (5.39%)
- Project Management (5.74%)
- Lightweight Directory Access Protocols (9.53%)
- PostgreSQL (3.65%)
- Scalability (7.01%)
- Firewall (10.57%)
- Perl (Programming Language) (12.07%)
- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) (8.55%)
- Debugging (12.91%)
- System Administration (30.44%)
- DevOps (9.58%)
- Disaster Recovery (7.93%)
- File Systems (8.81%)
- Cyber Security (8.36%)
- Change Management (4.3%)
- Configuration Management (16.95%)
- Version Control (5.92%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (10.58%)
- Containerization (7.83%)
- Microsoft Azure (12.86%)
- Backup Devices (8.18%)
- Amazon Web Services (18.08%)
- Software Development (11.48%)
- Technical Support (6.59%)
- Systems Engineering (19.08%)
- Auditing (7.28%)
- Active Directory (9.54%)
- Agile Methodology (7.11%)
- C (Programming Language) (12.03%)
- Java (Programming Language) (6.88%)
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) (5.07%)
- Go (Programming Language) (5.02%)
- Git (Version Control System) (11.3%)
- Puppet (Configuration Management Tool) (12.74%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Rhel7 (3.62%)
- SUSE Linux (2.55%)
- Solaris (Operating System) (3.97%)
- Reduced Instruction Set Computing (3.51%)
- Nagios (3.88%)
- Network File Systems (7.16%)
- Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (4.94%)
- Linux Distribution (5.06%)
- Boot Loaders (2.4%)
- IBM AIX (4.19%)
- Red Hat Satellite (3.63%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Red Hat Satellite (7.4%)
- Bash (Scripting Language) (57.52%)
- Unix (44.56%)
- Nagios (7.91%)
- Reduced Instruction Set Computing (7.14%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Unix Administrator / Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Linux System Administrator
- Linux Administrator
- Linux Engineer
- Linux Systems Engineer
- Linux Windows Systems Administrator
- Linux Kernel Engineer
- Linux Software Engineer
- Embedded Linux Software Engineer
- Red Hat Linux Administrator
- Embedded Linux Engineer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Systems Administrator
- Middleware Administrator
- Systems Engineer
- VMware Engineer / Administrator
- DevOps Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Unix Administrator / Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Canonical Group (1236)
- GovCIO (481)
- Raytheon Technologies (270)
- Leidos (212)
- Lockheed Martin (185)
- Insight Global (182)
- Northrop Grumman (175)
- General Dynamics (155)
- SAIC (123)
- CACI International (115)
North Carolina
- Canonical Group (42)
- GovCIO (9)
- CompQsoft (9)
- Allegis Group (9)
- Akkodis (9)
- Schneider Electric (8)
- Genesis10 (8)
- Red Hat (7)
- TEKsystems (6)
- ASGN (6)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.