Platform Engineer

Modern Government Solutions (MGS); McLean (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Modern Government Solutions (MGS) is seeking a Platform Engineer to design, deploy, maintain, and secure the infrastructure for AI workloads. You will join a team building enterprise-grade platform reliability and security, collaborating across the organization to meet the highest standards.

Responsibilities include managing Kubernetes clusters (EKS/AKS/GKE/OpenShift), implementing GitOps CI/CD pipelines, and provisioning IaC with Terraform/ Pulumi/ CloudFormation.

Qualifications

• Active DoD TS/SCI with CI Poly required.
• 5+ years of Kubernetes-based infrastructure design and operations.
• Current IAM Level II certification (IAT) to satisfy DoD requirements.
• Strong knowledge of Kubernetes networking, including Calico/Cilium, service meshes, and DNS.
• Hands-on CI/CD and GitOps experience with industry-standard tools.
• Proficiency with IaC (Terraform/Pulumi/CF) and packaging tools (Helm/Kustomize).
• Linux/Unix administration and solid networking fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, secure, and maintain scalable Kubernetes environments.
• Build automated CI/CD pipelines with GitOps practices.
• Manage IaC and Kubernetes deployments with Helm and Kustomize.
• Secure Kubernetes with RBAC, admission controllers, vulnerability scanning, and secret management.
• Implement monitoring, logging, alerting, and tracing across the stack.
• Write automation scripts in Python/Go/Bash and mentor junior engineers.
• Travel up to 20% for on-site installations.

Skills

Kubernetes

CI/CD

GitOps

Terraform

Linux/Unix

Python

Go

Bash

Education

DoD Level II IAM certification (IAT)

Tools

Jenkins

GitLab CI/CD

GitHub Actions

Tekton

Argo CD

Argo Workflows

Helm

Kustomize

Terraform

Pulumi

Job description

Modern Government Solutions (MGS) is seeking a Platform Engineer to design, deploy, maintain, and secure the infrastructure supporting our Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads. You will join a team of platform engineers building and securing enterprise-grade infrastructure and development pipelines, collaborating across the organization to deliver the highest standards in platform reliability and security.

RESPONSIBILITIES (not limited to):

• Design, deploy, secure, and maintain highly available, scalable Kubernetes clusters (EKS, AKS, GKE, OpenShift, or self-managed), including control plane and worker node architecture.
• Build and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Tekton, or Argo Workflows) following GitOps practices with tools such as Argo CD.
• Provision infrastructure as code using Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation, and manage Kubernetes deployments with Helm and Kustomize.
• Secure Kubernetes environments through RBAC, admission controllers, vulnerability scanning, and secret management tools such as Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.
• Implement monitoring, logging, alerting, and distributed tracing (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch, Datadog, or Splunk) and troubleshoot issues across the full stack.
• Write automation scripts and custom tooling in Python, Go, or Bash; mentor junior engineers and lead technical initiatives.
• Travel up to 20% of the time for on-site installations, maintenance, and troubleshooting at customer sites or data centers.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Must possess an active DoD TS/SCI with CI Poly security clearance.
• 5+ years of professional experience designing, deploying, securing, and maintaining Kubernetes-based infrastructure.
• Current IAM Level II certification to satisfy DOD 8570 IAT requirements.
• Strong knowledge of Kubernetes networking, including CNI plugins (Calico, Cilium), network policies, service meshes (Istio, Linkerd), and DNS.
• Hands-on CI/CD and GitOps experience with industry-standard tools.
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation) and Kubernetes packaging tools (Helm, Kustomize).
• Strong Linux/Unix administration skills and solid grasp of core networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, load balancing).
• Scripting ability in Python, Go, or Bash, and expert-level Git and collaborative development workflows.
• Deep understanding of DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, with strong problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Relevant certifications (CKA, CKAD, CKS, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, or Azure DevOps Engineer Expert).
• Experience with Kubernetes operators, custom resource definitions (CRDs), or building internal developer platforms (IDPs).

*Applicants selected will be United States citizens and may be subject to a government security investigation for access to classified information.*

ABOUT US

At MGS, we believe a people-first culture corresponds to organizational success through a commitment to excellence, integrity, inclusion, and an attitude that welcomes challenges meets demands, sustains growth, and drives innovation. We provide expert mission-first technical and programmatic services and solutions for the US intelligence community, the US Department of Defense, and other governmental agencies. We create people-first organizational cultures where employees feel needed in the system, not a system that needs employees. We provide you with long-term career opportunities centrally focused on our core value system: inclusion, integrity, and a commitment to excellence.

MGS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.