DevOps Engineer - Intern

COGNNA; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 17,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

COGNNA, a leader in AI-powered cybersecurity, invites a DevOps Engineer Intern to join our multi-cloud ops team in Riyadh. You will learn by provisioning cloud resources, maintaining Kubernetes clusters, and enabling GitOps pipelines under senior guidance.

You will gain hands-on experience with GCP, Alibaba Cloud, Terraform, and ArgoCD/GitHub Actions while contributing to security, automation, and reliability of our Nexus platform used by customers across regions.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing, or recently completed, a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity or a related field.
• Basic understanding of cloud computing concepts (GCP, AWS or Alibaba Cloud).
• Comfort with the Linux command line and basic scripting (Bash or Python).
• Foundational knowledge of containers and Docker.
• A grasp of core networking: IP subnets, DNS, HTTP/S, firewalls and VPNs.
• Eagerness to learn GitOps, Kubernetes and Terraform.

Responsibilities

• Cloud operations across GCP & Alibaba Cloud, provisioning resources and cost controls.
• Maintain Kubernetes environments and support containerized workloads.
• Onboard services to GitOps workflows with ArgoCD/GitHub Actions.
• Develop Infrastructure as Code with Terraform modules.
• Support security, access controls and auditing in cloud environments.
• Create monitoring dashboards and automate repetitive tasks with scripts.

Skills

Cloud computing basics

Linux command line

Containers & Docker basics

Networking fundamentals

GitOps & Terraform interest

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering / Cybersecurity or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitHub Actions

GCP & Alibaba Cloud

Job description

COGNNA is redefining modern cybersecurity with Nexus, our Agentic AI SOC platform, and our Smart MDR services. We help organizations across the region and around the world cut alert noise, respond to incidents faster and stay compliant with frameworks such as SAMA, NCA, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS.

Behind it all: AI-driven triage, deep automation and our elite 24/7 Guardians Team, delivering unified visibility and rapid threat containment across endpoint, cloud and network.

As our DevOps Engineer Intern, you will learn by doing. You'll work alongside senior engineers to provision multi-cloud infrastructure, keep Kubernetes environments healthy, configure GitOps pipelines and support cloud security operations.

This is not a shadow-only internship. From your first weeks, your automation, documentation and troubleshooting will directly improve the reliability of the platform our customers rely on.

Responsibilities

1. Cloud operations (GCP & Alibaba Cloud)

• Provision infrastructure: help provision and maintain cloud resources following cost-efficiency and security best practices.
• Keep IAM clean: review access requests, update role definitions and manage service-account hygiene under guidance.
• Watch costs: track utilization, spot unused or over-provisioned resources, filter logs and set up budget alerts.
• Learn the network: navigate VPCs, firewall rules and private connectivity; support routine security patching and Vanta compliance tasks.

2. Kubernetes & containers (GKE)

• Monitor cluster health: track status, resource usage and reliability metrics across development and staging clusters.
• Troubleshoot: help investigate pod scheduling issues, container crashes and resource bottlenecks.
• Partner with developers: learn and share containerization best practices, from Dockerfiles to multi-stage builds.
• Shadow upgrades: join senior engineers during Kubernetes upgrades and maintenance windows.

3. CI/CD (ArgoCD & GitHub Actions)

• Onboard services to GitOps: draft ArgoCD Application manifests, sync policies and environment configurations.
• Catch drift: monitor ArgoCD for out-of-sync applications and flag them to the team.
• Improve pipelines: integrate security scanners, linters and tests into GitHub Actions workflows.

4. Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)

• Shadow migrations: learn how complex manual infrastructure is moved into code.
• Write modules: build and maintain modular Terraform that brings unmanaged resources under version control.

5. Security & access operations

• Manage access: handle developer SSH access, VPN profiles and environment credentials with full audit logging.
• Harden the baseline: apply infrastructure hardening guidelines with our Security Engineers and join security reviews.
• Support the Guardians: provide infrastructure logs and environment details during security investigations.

6. Monitoring, alerting & automation

• Build dashboards: create and update Grafana and Cloud Monitoring dashboards for real-time visibility.
• Write runbooks: draft and maintain runbooks and SOPs for common operational tasks, with mentor feedback.
• Automate the toil: spot repetitive manual work and replace it with Bash or Python scripts and automated workflows.

You don't need to know it all yet. You need solid foundations and a real appetite to learn.

• Currently pursuing, or recently completed, a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity or a related field.
• A basic understanding of cloud computing concepts (GCP, AWS or Alibaba Cloud).
• Comfort on the Linux command line and basic scripting in Bash or Python.
• Foundational knowledge of containers and Docker.
• A grasp of core networking: IP subnets, DNS, HTTP/S, firewalls and VPNs.
• Eagerness to learn GitOps, Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code with Terraform.

Bonus points

• Exposure to Kubernetes, even through local tools like Minikube, Kind or k3s.
• Some familiarity with CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or Jenkins.
• Early experience with Terraform or infrastructure scripting.
• Hands-on work from university projects, open-source contributions or a personal home lab.

• Accelerated learning: work hands-on in production multi-cloud environments (GCP and Alibaba Cloud), GKE, ArgoCD and modern GitOps workflows.
• Direct mentorship: learn side by side with experienced engineers committed to your growth.
• Cutting-edge security tech: see firsthand how infrastructure powers Cognna Nexus, our flagship AI SOC platform.
• Collaborative culture: join a team that values curiosity, proactive problem-solving and continuous improvement.