Job Description & Details
The demand for big data engineers continues to surge as companies race to harness massive datasets. As a Hadoop Administrator, you'll be at the heart of data pipelines, ensuring reliability and performance. This 11‑month contract in Austin offers a chance to showcase your L2 expertise while working on‑site three days a week.
Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced Hadoop Administrator to provide Level‑2 support for our Hadoop ecosystem. The role involves managing clusters, troubleshooting issues, performing performance tuning, and ensuring security and compliance across HDFS, YARN, and related services. The candidate will work on‑site three days a week in Austin, collaborating with data engineering teams to maintain high availability.
Top 3 Critical Skills Table
| Skill | Why it's critical | Mastery Level |
|---|---|---|
| Hadoop Administration | Core responsibility for cluster health, data integrity, and service uptime | Senior |
| Linux System Administration | Underpins all Hadoop operations; essential for scripting, monitoring, and troubleshooting | Senior |
| Performance Tuning & Optimization | Direct impact on job throughput, resource utilization, and cost efficiency | Senior |
Interview Preparation
- Explain the process of adding a new node to an existing Hadoop cluster.
What the interviewer is looking for: Understanding of configuration files, replication factor, rebalancing, and impact on HDFS/YARN. - How do you troubleshoot a failing MapReduce job that shows
Container killed by the ApplicationMaster?
What the interviewer is looking for: Ability to examine logs, check resource allocation, memory settings, and identify bottlenecks. - Describe the steps you would take to secure HDFS data at rest and in transit.
What the interviewer is looking for: Knowledge of Kerberos, encryption zones, TLS/SSL, and permission management. - What monitoring tools have you used for Hadoop clusters, and how do you set up alerts for node failures?
What the interviewer is looking for: Experience with Ambari, Cloudera Manager, Grafana, Nagios, and custom scripts. - Can you discuss a time you performed performance tuning on a Hadoop cluster? Which metrics did you focus on?
What the interviewer is looking for: Real‑world examples, metrics such as CPU, memory, HDFS block size, YARN scheduler settings, and results achieved.
Resume Optimization
- Hadoop Administration
- L2 Support
- HDFS
- YARN
- MapReduce
- Linux System Administration
- Shell Scripting
- Performance Tuning
- Cluster Monitoring (Ambari/Cloudera Manager)
- Security (Kerberos, Encryption)
Application Strategy
When reaching out to the recruiter, send a concise email greeting, attach your updated resume, and clearly highlight your top skills that match the role. Make sure to mention related skills you possess, such as Hadoop Administration, Linux System Administration, and Performance Tuning, and reference any relevant projects where you delivered L2 support or optimized cluster performance.
Career Roadmap
| Current Role | Typical Experience | Core Focus | Next Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hadoop Administrator (L2) | 5‑8 years | Cluster operations, troubleshooting, security | Senior Hadoop Administrator |
| Senior Hadoop Administrator | 8‑12 years | Architecture guidance, capacity planning, large‑scale tuning | Hadoop Platform Architect |
| Hadoop Platform Architect | 12+ years | End‑to‑end data platform strategy, cross‑technology integration | Data Platform Director |