DevOps Development Lead - DevOps Engineer - Level 4

Job Title: REQ 8872-OL DevOps Development Lead - DevOps Engineer - Level 4

Location (On-site, Remote, or Hybrid?): Fort Meade, MD (Onsite)

Contract Duration: Contract until 05/30/2031

Position Overview

The DevOps Engineer (Development Lead) provides a reliable, highly available platform that orchestrates the microservices of a modernized operational system using cutting-edge technologies. The contractor leads sprint planning and team tasking, drives infrastructure technical direction, and owns CI/CD pipeline management and cloud infrastructure cost optimization. This is a senior individual-contributor and team-lead role requiring strong Agile execution discipline, AWS architecture depth, and the ability to communicate and collaborate across engineering and program stakeholder communities.

Key Responsibilities

AWS Infrastructure Architecture and IaC

Architect, build, and maintain AWS infrastructure including EC2, Lambda, S3, SNS, SQS, Event Bridge, Athena, and Step Functions using Terraform with auto-scaling

Develop Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and scripting to automate tasks, provision managed services, and build internal tooling using Python, Ansible, and Terraform

Apply AWS networking principles including VPCs, NAT gateways, and IP gateways to design secure, segmented environments

Evaluate infrastructure costs iteratively; recommend and implement cost-savings measures to reduce AWS service spend and maintenance burden

Containerization and Orchestration Install, configure, performance-tune, and operate Kubernetes environments with focus on EKS, ECS, and/or Fargate

Manage containerized workloads using Docker and Docker Compose across the microservices architecture

Troubleshoot infrastructure issues and ensure system uptime and availability for mission-critical operational systems

Collaborate with development teams to optimize application performance and reliability in containerized environments

CI/CD Pipeline Management Develop and manage GitLab CI/CD pipelines to automate build, test, and deployment processes

Implement and maintain Argo CD for GitOps-based continuous delivery workflows

Track ticket execution and drive technical direction of infrastructure to align with program and product needs

Perform high-level functional systems analysis, design, integration, documentation, cost analysis, and complex issue resolution

Agile Team Leadership and Sprint Execution Decompose sprint priorities and generate tickets aligned with internal team priorities and program objectives

Manage team tasking and sprint workloads; keep the team on task and executing in an orchestrated manner

Participate in all Agile ceremonies: sprint planning, stand-ups, refinement, reviews, and retrospectives

Communicate and collaborate with engineers, product owners, and program stakeholders across the program

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college in a related discipline, or equivalent combined education and experience (12 or more years of professional experience; or 10 years with a related Master's degree).

Must Have (Required): Active TS/SCI clearance with Full Scope Polygraph (FSP) - must be active prior to start

CI Polygraph within the last 7 years - must be active prior to start

Current DoD 8140 (CWIP) certification - must be active prior to start

Extensive experience architecting and managing AWS infrastructure using Terraform and IaC practices

Strong background in containerization and orchestration: Kubernetes (EKS, ECS, Fargate), Docker, Docker Compose

Experience developing and managing GitLab CI/CD pipelines and Argo CD GitOps workflows

Proficiency in DevOps scripting languages: Python, Ansible, Terraform

Experience performing high-level systems analysis, design, integration, documentation, and cost analysis

Experience managing sprint workloads and driving team technical direction in an Agile environment

Strong communication and collaboration skills with engineers, product owners, and program stakeholders

Nice to Have (2 or more of the following): AWS services depth: EC2, Lambda, S3, SNS, SQS, Event Bridge, Athena, Step Functions with auto-scaling

AWS networking: VPCs, NAT gateways, IP gateways, and network segmentation design

GitLab CI/CD pipeline design and deployment automation

Application performance and reliability optimization in collaboration with development teams

Infrastructure troubleshooting and system uptime management for mission-critical environments

Kubernetes advanced operations with EKS, ECS, and/or Fargate focus

Cloud infrastructure cost optimization and AWS spend reduction strategies