Senior Installation Package Development & Validation Engineer (Contract role)

Focus Areas: MSI InstallShield (Windows) & Linux/Unix InstallAnywhere Automation

Role Type: Contractor – 6 months

Primary Focus: Installer Engineering, Packaging & Release Validation

InstallShield (MSI), InstallAnywhere, VBScript / Custom Actions, Java / JDBC, Gradle (Kotlin DSL), GitHub Actions, Active Directory / gMSA, Docker

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Installation Package Specialist to own, modernize, and automate the multi-platform installer ecosystem. In this critical role, you will be responsible for end-to-end packaging engineering from developing Windows InstallShield (.msi) and Linux/Unix InstallAnywhere (.iap_xml) installer payloads to orchestrating custom build tasks in Gradle, automating database provisioning via JDBC, and ensuring seamless enterprise upgrades across thousands of mission-critical customer environments.

You will collaborate closely with Core Engineering, Security, and Quality Engineering teams to eliminate installation roadblocks, enhance silent/unattended rollout capabilities, support modern enterprise security standards (gMSA, CyberArk PAM), and maintain zero-downtime upgrade integrity.

Key Responsibilities

1. Dual-Platform Installer Development & Maintenance

• Windows Packaging (InstallShield MSI): Maintain and enhance InstallShield project files (.ism) for flagship Windows products.
• Linux/Unix Packaging (InstallAnywhere): Develop and configure Revenera InstallAnywhere (.iap_xml) project files for Unix based repo installers.
• Custom Action Engineering: Design, write, and maintain:
• Windows VBScript / JScript Custom Actions: Develop Immediate and Deferred custom actions (with elevated privilege handling and rollback logic) for configuration gathering, service registration, and file manipulation.
• Java Custom Actions: Develop compiled Java classes for InstallAnywhere runtime execution to handle cross-platform setup logic.

1. Enterprise Security & Silent Deployment Logic

• Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA): Maintain and validate installer logic for running core services under Windows gMSA credentials in both UI and Silent Response File modes.
• Property File Retention & Upgrade Reliability: Fix complex upgrade bugs to ensure property files (master.props, db.props) are safely backed up, migrated, and never overwritten or deleted during reinstalls/upgrades.
• Version String Comparison Logic: Implement precise multi-digit semantic version comparison logic (e.g., 4-digit releases like 2026.3.4.19) to prevent upgrade blockage or false "newer version already installed" errors.

1. Database Provisioning & Schema Orchestration

• JDBC Engine Integration: Work with the shared DB assistant Java CLI tool to orchestrate database connectivity validation and schema deployment.
• Multi-Dialect DDL Alignment: Ensure installer schema execution scripts correctly apply to repository tables, supporting emerging DB topologies such as Oracle Pluggable Databases (PDB), Azure SQL, and PostgreSQL.

1. Build System & CI/CD Automation

• Gradle Multi-Module Pipeline: Maintain shared custom Gradle build-logic tasks
• Mutagen Staging Workflow: Manage local macOS/Linux staging builds that sync VM-layout payload ZIPs to Windows and Unix packaging build VMs via Mutagen.
• GitHub Actions & Automated Testing: Build and maintain CI/CD workflows and integrate pre-initialized Docker containers (MSSQL/PostgreSQL) for automated integration testing.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Experience: 5+ years of hands-on experience in enterprise software packaging, installation engineering, and installer validation across Windows and Linux environments.
• InstallShield Expertise: Advanced knowledge of Revenera InstallShield, Windows Installer (MSI) technology, MSI tables, sequence tables, custom action execution contexts (Immediate vs. Deferred in System Context), and rollback execution.
• InstallAnywhere Expertise: Hands-on experience developing Linux/Unix installers using Revenera InstallAnywhere, including Java custom actions, panel rules, and response file handling.
• Scripting Languages: Strong proficiency in VBScript, PowerShell, Bash and/or Python.
• Java & JDBC: Solid understanding of Java runtime configuration, JAR packaging, and JDBC database connectivity.
• Database Fundamentals: Practical working knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and Oracle Database (DDL execution, user/role permissions, tablespaces/PDBs).
• Enterprise Security: In-depth understanding of Windows Service logons, active directory user rights gMSA (Group Managed Service Accounts), and ACL permissions.
• Build Tools & CI/CD: Experience with Gradle (Kotlin or Groovy DSL), Git, and CI/CD platforms like GitHub Actions or Jenkins.

Desirable Plus Qualifications

• Experience with CyberArk PAM, OAuth2, or PKI certificate management for enterprise service credentials.
• Experience with Docker for running pre-initialized integration testing database containers.