DevOps Engineer

Linuxconfig; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 107,300 - 119,598; Full time

Job summary

NPR is seeking a DevOps Engineer to join their team in Washington, D.C. This position focuses on building and maintaining the products and tools that power the NPR Network, helping millions of public media consumers daily.

The ideal candidate will have 2-3 years of experience in relevant fields, proficiency in Linux/Unix administration, and strong scripting skills. The role permits hybrid work, requiring some time on-site.

The salary range for this position is $107,300.24 - $119,597.71 plus benefits.

Qualifications

• 2 to 3 years of professional experience in a DevOps or related role.
• Hands-on proficiency in Linux/Unix system administration.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code principles.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure deployment workflows.
• Administer and troubleshoot Linux/Unix-based systems.
• Support, deploy, and scale workloads within cloud environments.

Skills

Linux/Unix system administration

Automation scripting (Python, Bash)

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Cloud orchestration technologies

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

AWS

Containerization technologies

Virtualization technologies

Job description

Washington, District of Columbia, United States

OVERVIEW: A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. The NPR audience values information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility – and our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide.

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

NPR is seeking a DevOps Engineer to join our cross-discipline technical product team. In this role, you will build and maintain the products, services, and tools that power the NPR Network, serving millions of public media consumers daily.

We are looking for an adaptable, curious systems professional who has deep technical knowledge of cloud-based administration, strong scripting skills, and a passion for automation and cloud orchestration. Working closely with developers and product managers, you will ensure our systems are scalable, robust, and highly performant.

This is a union-represented role covered under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement with NABET-CWA DMU.

Responsibilities

• Infrastructure Automation: Build, maintain, and optimize robust CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure deployment workflows using automated orchestration tools and scripting languages.
• System Administration: Administer, monitor, and troubleshoot Linux/Unix-based compute instances across on‑premises and multi‑cloud environments.
• Cloud & Platform Engineering: Support, deploy, and scale workloads within cloud environments, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.
• Scalability & Performance: Investigate, analyze, and optimize application performance and infrastructure scaling limits to support peak traffic events.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Standardize environments and maintain reproducible state models by developing clean, modular Infrastructure as Code.
• Database & Storage Management: Monitor, configure, and troubleshoot relational databases and storage architectures to ensure optimal data flow and integrity.
• Content Delivery & Edge Routing: Configure and manage Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to optimize media delivery and caching strategies.
• Documentation & Knowledge Sharing: Write and maintain detailed, clear system documentation and architectural diagrams to support team alignment and operational resilience.
• On‑Call & System Reliability: Participate in a shared engineering on‑call rotation to quickly diagnose, mitigate, and resolve production system incidents.

Minimum Qualifications

• 2 to 3 years of professional experience in a DevOps (AWS), Systems Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) role.
• Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field may be substituted for 1–2 years of experience.
• Strong hands‑on proficiency in Linux/Unix system administration.
• Hands‑on experience writing automation scripts using languages like Python, Bash, or similar administrative scripting tools.
• Practical experience utilizing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles and cloud orchestration technologies.
• Experience with virtualization technologies and containerization.
• Basic understanding of relational database administration, storage technologies, and CDN concepts.
• Active willingness and eligibility to participate in a scheduled on‑call support rotation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience integrating, configuring, and tuning infrastructure monitoring and application performance management (APM) tools.
• Experience participating in large‑scale application migration projects from on‑premises environments to cloud platforms.
• Automation‑First Mindset: Ability to identify repetitive manual operational tasks and replace them with reliable, automated code‑driven workflows.
• Systems Troubleshooting: Diagnostic capabilities to isolate and resolve performance bottlenecks across networking, databases, and server configurations.
• Architectural Documentation: Ability to clearly document architecture, workflows, and infrastructure changes (including system diagrams).
• Collaborative Communication: Strong interpersonal skills to work as an integrated member of a cross‑functional technical product team.

Education Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical work experience.

Work Location & Requirements

• Hybrid Permitted: This role is hybrid‑permitted. Some duties require being at an NPR facility. Employees must be in the Washington, D.C. office at least 10 days per year and reside in an NPR‑supported location based on on‑site days chosen.

Job Type

• Full‑time, exempt position.

Compensation

Salary Range: The U.S.-based anticipated salary range for this opportunity is $107,300.24 - $119,597.71 plus benefits.

NPR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. NPR is committed to being an inclusive workplace that welcomes diverse and unique perspectives, all working toward the same goal – to create a more informed public. Qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, age, religion, religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, lactation, and reproductive health decisions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, transgender status, gender non‑conforming status, intersex status, sexual stereotypes, nationality, citizenship status, personal appearance, marital status, family status, family responsibilities, military status, veteran status, mental and physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, genetic characteristics of yourself or a family member, political views and affiliation, unemployment status, protective order status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, or any other basis prohibited under applicable law.