Senior Installation Package Development & Validation Engineer (Contract)

<p><strong>Senior Installation Package Development & Validation Engineer (Contract role)</strong></p> <p><strong>Focus Areas</strong>: MSI InstallShield (Windows) & Linux/Unix InstallAnywhere Automation</p> <p><strong>Role Type: </strong>Contractor – 6 months</p> <p><strong>Primary Focus: </strong>Installer Engineering, Packaging & Release Validation</p> <p>InstallShield (MSI), InstallAnywhere, VBScript / Custom Actions, Java / JDBC, Gradle (Kotlin DSL), GitHub Actions, Active Directory / gMSA, Docker</p> <p><strong>Role Overview</strong></p> <p>We are seeking a <strong>Senior Installation Package Specialist</strong> 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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong></p> <ol> <li><strong> Dual-Platform Installer Development & Maintenance</strong></li> </ol> <ul> <li><strong>Windows Packaging (InstallShield MSI):</strong> Maintain and enhance InstallShield project files (.ism) for flagship Windows products.</li> <li><strong>Linux/Unix Packaging (InstallAnywhere):</strong> Develop and configure Revenera InstallAnywhere (.iap_xml) project files for Unix based<strong> </strong>repo installers.</li> <li><strong>Custom Action Engineering:</strong> Design, write, and maintain:</li> <ul> <li><em>Windows VBScript / JScript Custom Actions:</em> Develop Immediate and Deferred custom actions (with elevated privilege handling and rollback logic) for configuration gathering, service registration, and file manipulation.</li> <li><em>Java Custom Actions:</em> Develop compiled Java classes for InstallAnywhere runtime execution to handle cross-platform setup logic.</li> </ul> </ul> <ol> <li><strong> Enterprise Security & Silent Deployment Logic</strong></li> </ol> <ul> <li><strong>Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA):</strong> Maintain and validate installer logic for running core services under Windows gMSA credentials in both UI and <strong>Silent Response File</strong> modes.</li> <li><strong>Property File Retention & Upgrade Reliability:</strong> 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.</li> <li><strong>Version String Comparison Logic:</strong> 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.</li> </ul> <ol> <li><strong> Database Provisioning & Schema Orchestration</strong></li> </ol> <ul> <li><strong>JDBC Engine Integration:</strong> Work with the shared DB assistant Java CLI tool to orchestrate database connectivity validation and schema deployment.</li> <li><strong>Multi-Dialect DDL Alignment:</strong> Ensure installer schema execution scripts correctly apply to repository tables, supporting emerging DB topologies such as <strong>Oracle Pluggable Databases (PDB)</strong>, <strong>Azure SQL</strong>, and <strong>PostgreSQL</strong>.</li> </ul> <ol> <li><strong> Build System & CI/CD Automation</strong></li> </ol> <ul> <li><strong>Gradle Multi-Module Pipeline:</strong> Maintain shared custom Gradle build-logic tasks</li> <li><strong>Mutagen Staging Workflow:</strong> Manage local macOS/Linux staging builds that sync VM-layout payload ZIPs to Windows and Unix packaging build VMs via Mutagen.</li> <li><strong>GitHub Actions & Automated Testing:</strong> Build and maintain CI/CD workflows and integrate pre-initialized Docker containers (MSSQL/PostgreSQL) for automated integration testing.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Required Qualifications & Experience</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Experience:</strong> 5+ years of hands-on experience in enterprise software packaging, installation engineering, and installer validation across Windows and Linux environments.</li> <li><strong>InstallShield Expertise:</strong> 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.</li> <li><strong>InstallAnywhere Expertise:</strong> Hands-on experience developing Linux/Unix installers using Revenera InstallAnywhere, including Java custom actions, pa