Principal DevOps Engineer _Level 3This position supports the Modeling and Simulation Vistas - Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV-TASD) program and will split time between a Northrop Grumman facility in Colorado Springs and Schriever Space Force Base, CO.
This role requires candidates to be onsite daily, with limited remote/hybrid work available.
Position OverviewAs a DevOps Engineer (Level 3), you will work in a collaborative environment to understand system requirements and design, implement, and maintain DevOps solutions using tools such as Jenkins, GitLab Runner, Bamboo, Docker, Podman, SonarQube, Gherkin, Cucumber, and others to enable efficient, secure, and repeatable software development and delivery. You will leverage containerization technologies and secure credential and identity management solutions to support our distributed modeling and simulation environments.
Essential Functions- Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to support frequent, reliable software delivery
- Automate infrastructure deployment, scaling, and management using configuration management and scripting tools
- Implement and manage containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Podman), including rootless vs. rootful configurations where appropriate
- Collaborate closely with development and test teams to improve build, integration, and deployment processes
- Integrate automated testing and quality/security tools (e.g., static analysis, code quality, coverage) into CI/CD pipelines
- Monitor system and pipeline performance and implement improvements to ensure reliability and availability
- Ensure security, compliance, and configuration baselines are implemented and maintained across environments
- Work with identity and credential management tools (e.g., credential managers, service accounts) to support secure automation and access control
Basic Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline from an accredited institution and 5 years of related experience; OR a Master's degree in a STEM discipline and 3 years of related experience; OR a PhD in a STEM discipline and 1 year of related experience
- Current, active, in-scope U.S. Government Secret security clearance at the time of application (required to start)
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 10% to support business needs
- Experience with containerization and container runtime technologies (Docker, Podman, or similar)
- Experience with automated testing and software development pipelines/factories (e.g., unit, integration, or acceptance tests in CI/CD)
- Experience deploying applications in containerized environments
- Experience with CI/CD and related tools such as the Atlassian tool suite, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, SonarQube, Checkmarx, Coverity, or Jenkins
- Hands-on experience with Unix/Linux operating systems
Preferred Qualifications- Strong experience with Linux administration, shell scripting, and operations in production-like environments
- Experience implementing and maintaining automated software testing and analysis within CI/CD pipelines
- Familiarity with hypervisors, virtualized medium- and high-trust environments (e.g., experience working with hypervisors on medium trust environments)
- Experience working with credential and identity management solutions (e.g., credential managers, service accounts, Keycloak or similar technologies) to securely manage non-interactive access
- Exposure to Kubernetes or infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible) is a plus
- Experience developing software in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment
- Experience with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and tools such as Gherkin and Cucumber for automated acceptance testing
