DevOps Engineer – Level 3

Northrop Grumman; Colorado Springs (CO); On-site; USD 104,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Savings plan

Company holidays

PTO

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Principal DevOps Engineer – Level 3 in Colorado Springs to design and maintain CI/CD pipelines, automate infrastructure, and manage containerized deployments. This onsite role requires a Secret clearance and travel up to 10%.

You will work with tools like Jenkins, GitLab, Docker/Podman, SonarQube, and Atlassian/Jira to secure automation and enable reliable software delivery across the Modeling and Simulation environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM with 5+ years related experience OR Master’s degree in STEM with 3+ years OR PhD with 1+ year.
• Active U.S. government Secret clearance required to start.
• Willingness to travel up to 10%.
• Experience with containerization and container runtimes (Docker/Podman).
• Experience with automated testing and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience deploying apps in containerized environments.
• Experience with CI/CD tools (Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, SonarQube, Checkmarx, Coverity).
• Hands-on experience with Unix/Linux.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines for frequent software delivery.
• Automate infrastructure deployment, scaling, and management.
• Manage containerization (Docker/Podman) and rootless/rootful configurations.
• Collaborate with development and test teams to improve build and deployment processes.
• Integrate automated testing and quality/security tools into CI/CD pipelines.
• Monitor performance and improve reliability and availability of systems.
• Ensure security, compliance, and configuration baselines across environments.
• Work with credential management tools to support secure automation.

Skills

CI/CD pipelines

Containerization

Unix/Linux

Security best practices

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

PhD in STEM

Tools

Jenkins

GitHub

GitLab

Docker

Podman

SonarQube

Checkmarx

Coverity

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people’s lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation’s history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work - and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they’re making history.

Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Multi-Domain Operations, and Missile Defense Integration Business Unit (BU) has an exciting career opportunity for a Principal DevOps Engineer – Level 3 to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals. Our domain provides rewarding work that contributes to the latest advancements being made in the industry. This 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 very limited remote/hybrid work available.

Position Overview:

As 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 issued 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

Primary Level Salary Range: $103,600.00 – $155,400.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate’s experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.

Job Category: Engineering