Principal DevOps Architect

MKS Inc.; City of Rochester (NY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

6 weeks parental leave

Paid holidays and vacation

Job summary

MKS is seeking a Principal DevOps Architect, Engineering Services in Rochester, NY to shape the enterprise DevOps strategy. You will partner with engineering, IT, and Security to architect and modernize DevOps platforms, deliver reusable CI/CD patterns, and drive reliability and security across teams.

The role blends strategic vision with hands-on problem solving, with two days per week in the office. You will lead the DevOps Center of Excellence and influence practices across sites and products.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in Computer Science, Engineering, IT, MIS, or related field.
• 8+ years in DevOps/DevSecOps/platform engineering roles handling enterprise-scale environments.
• 5+ years architecting and modernizing enterprise CI/CD and DevOps platforms across multiple teams/sites.
• Deep understanding of CI/CD architectures, SDLC, source control, branching, build/test automation, release engineering, and reliability.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical vision and architecture for the enterprise DevOps capability (source control, CI/CD, artifact management, release automation, DevSecOps, reliability, governance).
• Modernize and simplify a complex DevOps ecosystem spanning GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab, Jenkins, CloudBees CI, Nexus, Perforce, Bitbucket, and related platforms.
• Architect reusable CI/CD solutions including templates, shared libraries, automated testing, quality gates, artifact promotion, and repeatable release patterns.
• Identify friction, debt, reliability gaps, and opportunities for automation and standardization to reduce developer friction and improve consistency at scale.
• Partner with Security and IT to embed security into workflows: identity, secrets mgmt, least privilege, vulnerability scanning, auditability, and supply chain controls.
• Lead DevOps Center of Excellence with standards, reference architectures, docs, training, mentoring, and a strong community of practice.
• Serve as principal-level technical advisor to engineering teams for CI/CD, platform, reliability, release, and DevSecOps challenges.
• Improve long-term reliability and supportability through automation, ownership, documentation, observability, and operational practices.

Skills

DevOps

DevSecOps

Platform engineering

CI/CD tooling

GitHub Enterprise

Azure DevOps

GitLab CI/CD

Jenkins

Nexus Repository

Perforce

Bitbucket

Security compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent

Tools

GitHub Enterprise

Azure DevOps

GitLab CI/CD

Jenkins

CloudBees CI

Perforce

Bitbucket

Nexus Repository

Jira

Confluence

Job description

A Day in Your Life at MKS:

As a Principal DevOps Architect, Engineering Services at MKS, you will help shape how engineering teams across the company build, test, secure, and deliver software.

This is a high-impact technical role for someone who enjoys both the strategic and technical.

You will solve complex DevOps challenges at enterprise scale. You will partner directly with engineering teams, IT, and Security to architect and modernize our DevOps ecosystem, simplify a diverse tool landscape, create reusable engineering solutions, and establish platforms that teams can rely on. Approximately 20% of your time will be assisting with the administration of tools such as GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab, Jenkins.

You will have the opportunity to influence the future direction of DevOps at MKS, from CI/CD architecture and developer workflows to DevSecOps, automation, reliability, and software delivery standards. You will report to the Manager, Engineering Services.

This is a hybrid role with two days per week in the office.

You Will Make an Impact By:

• Own the technical vision and architecture for MKS's enterprise DevOps capability, including source control, CI/CD, artifact management, release automation, DevSecOps, reliability, and platform governance.
• Modernize and simplify a complex DevOps ecosystem spanning GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab, Jenkins, CloudBees CI, Nexus, Perforce, Bitbucket, and related engineering platforms.
• Architect reusable CI/CD solutions including pipeline templates, shared libraries, automated testing, quality gates, artifact promotion, and repeatable release patterns that engineering teams can adopt at scale.
• Solve challenging platform and developer-experience problems by identifying friction, technical debt, reliability gaps, and opportunities for automation and standardization.
• Partner with Security and IT to build security into engineering workflows through identity management, secrets management, least-privilege access, vulnerability scanning, auditability, and software supply chain controls.
• Set technical direction and influence engineering practices across teams and sites, while providing enough flexibility to support different products and engineering environments.
• Establish and lead the DevOps Center of Excellence, creating practical standards, reference architectures, documentation, training, mentoring, and a strong engineering community of practice.
• Serve as a principal-level technical advisor to engineering teams, helping teams solve difficult CI/CD, platform, reliability, release, and DevSecOps challenges.
• Improve the long-term reliability and supportability of engineering platforms through better automation, ownership, documentation, observability, and operational practices.

Skills You Bring:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Management Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in DevOps, DevSecOps, platform engineering, software engineering, cloud engineering, infrastructure engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience architecting, building, administering, or modernizing enterprise CI/CD and DevOps platforms supporting multiple engineering teams, sites, or business units.
• Deep understanding of CI/CD architecture, software development lifecycle practices, source control, branching and pull-request models, build and test automation, artifact management, release engineering, and platform reliability.
• Hands-on experience with several of the following: GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, CloudBees CI, Perforce, Bitbucket, Nexus Repository, Jira, and Confluence.
• Experience creating reusable automation, pipelines, templates, frameworks, or platform capabilities that reduce developer friction and improve consistency at scale.
• Strong understanding of DevSecOps and secure software delivery practices, including identity, secrets, vulnerability management, access controls, and auditability, and software supply chain security.
• Ability to move between architecture and hands-on technical problem solving, while influencing engineering teams and technical leaders without direct authority.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to translate complex technical decisions into practical solutions for engineers, IT, Security, vendors, and business leaders.
• Travel is less than 15%.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience integrating Source Code Management, CI/CD Pipelines, DevSecOps tooling, secure artifact management, software supply‑chain controls, and AI-assisted development capabilities into enterprise engineering workflows.
• Experience supporting firmware, embedded software, FPGA, robotics, IoT, operational technology, hardware validation, lab connected testing, or other physical-product engineering environments.
• Experience establishing or participating in a DevOps Center of Excellence, platform engineering function, or enterprise architecture governance model.

In addition to the above responsibilities, the following are considered material job duties of the position:

• Ability to take and follow directions and instructions.
• Ability to interact with other employees, customers, suppliers, vendors, or the public, in a safe, professional, and respectful manner.
• Access to sensitive and confidential business systems and software, personally identifying information, the company's financial information, and/or the ability to maintain physical security and safety.
• Because this position involves the above material job duties, trustworthiness, reliability, and good judgment also are material job duties.

Physical Demands and Working Conditions:

• Work is primarily performed in a professional office or remote office environment.
• Regularly operates a computer and standard office productivity equipment and may sit, stand, or type for extended periods.
• Collaborates across global time zones depending on stakeholder, vendor, and engineering-team locations.
• May occasionally participate in urgent incidents, platform-support, or escalation discussions involving critical DevOps services and may occasionally travel for stakeholder workshops or platform reviews based on business needs.

We are interested in a qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we will not be sponsoring work visas for this position, at this time.

MKS is an equal opportunity employer, including disability, veteran status and all categories protected by law.

Please review our EOE statements for additional details.

MKS is generally only hiring candidates who reside in states where we are registered to do business.

MKS will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act and the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers.

Compensation and Benefits:

Salary Pay Range: $140,000 to $185,000 per year. This range is a good faith estimate of the expected salary range for this position, based on a wide range of factors including qualifications, experience and training, operational and business needs and other considerations permitted by law. At MKS, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for the role.

Bonus: This position is eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, in an amount to be determined by MKS [or as applicable].

Benefits: MKS offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance coverage (medical, dental and vision), 401(k) with company match, life and disability insurance, 12 paid holidays, sick time, 15 paid vacation days, [6 weeks fully paid] parental leave, adoption assistance and tuition reimbursement [and for participation in any stock programs, signing bonus, etc.].