Lead DevOps Engineer

SAIC is seeking a Lead DevOps Engineer to join our mission driven team. As part of the mission, you will help manage the stability, security, and scalability of systems powering complex data transformation workflows and a widely used web-based user interface. Embedded within a broader engineering organization of 25+ developers, you will lead a small, agile DevOps/SysAdmin team responsible for end-to-end infrastructure, from bare-metal and AWS environments to Kubernetes deployments.
 

In this role, you will collaborate across software teams to help architect robust systems, support development processes, maintain metrics and oversight to track up time and performance of systems. You will mentor other team members in modern automation tools using Ansible, Terraform, and Podman, as well as testing and deployment strategies. This Project is known for its technical stability, team cohesion, and deep integration into mission-critical systems, offering you the opportunity to make meaningful contributions in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead, direct and mentor the daily tasks of two system administrators.
• Collaborate with and support the larger team of 25+ software engineers.
• Provide guidance, advice, and assistance for overall system design and setup, working closely with software engineering teams.
• Facilitate low-to-high development lifecycles, ensuring smooth progression and deployment across secure environments.
• Maintain system platforms and the health of all servers (EC2, MASH, bare metal), production systems, and development environments.
• Facilitate the migration of Apache NiFi installations and other services from a MASH environment to an AWS cloud-based architecture.
• Architect cloud environments utilizing a broad suite of AWS tools, including EKS, ECS, Lambdas, and Secrets Manager.
• Manage containerized environments utilizing Kubernetes deployments and Podman.
• Oversee network configuration and performance utilizing Cisco networking solutions.
• Oversee system maintenance, security protocols, Cyber Network Operations (CNO) standards, and System Security Plan (SSP) accreditations.
• Ensure complete observability of the system, including automation, monitoring, alerting, backup, and disaster recovery strategies using the Elastic Stack (Logstash, Filebeat, etc.).
• Maintain and optimize the deployment automation processes and CI/CD pipelines within GitLab.
• Perform database administration and optimization for NoSQL and specialized data stores, including Elasticsearch, MongoDB, Redis, and graph databases (e.g., DGraph).

Qualifications

• Bachelors and fourteen (14) years or more experience; Masters and twelve (12) years or more experience; PhD or JD and nine (9) years or more experience.
• TS/SCI with polygraph.
• Deep knowledge of AWS (EC2, EKS, ECS, Lambda, Secrets Manager) alongside bare-metal and MASH environments.
• Proficient with Kubernetes, Podman, Ansible, and Terraform.
• Hands-on expertise managing and maintaining GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Solid understanding of the Elastic Stack (Logstash, Filebeat, Elasticsearch), MongoDB, Redis, and Graph databases (e.g., DGraph).
• Experience with Cisco networking, CNO concepts, and completing SSP accreditations.
• Data Pipelines: Experience with Apache NiFi installations and migrations.

SAIC® is a premier mission integrator focused on advancing the power of technology and innovation to serve and protect our world. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, intelligence, and civilian markets includes secure high-end solutions in mission IT, enterprise IT, engineering services, and professional services. We integrate emerging technology, rapidly and securely, into mission critical operations that modernize and enable critical national imperatives.