Principal DevOps Engineer

Qualis LLC; Colorado Springs (CO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Qualis LLC is seeking a Principal DevOps Engineer (Level 3) to join our team, split time between a Northrop Grumman facility in Colorado Springs and Schriever Space Force Base, CO. The role requires onsite presence daily with limited remote/hybrid options.

You will design, implement, and maintain DevOps pipelines, automate infrastructure, and manage containerized environments to enable secure, repeatable software delivery.

Qualifications

• Requires STEM degree with 5+ years related experience, or higher degrees with reduced experience.
• Active U.S. Government Secret clearance at start is required.
• Experience with containerization and CI/CD pipelines in production environments.
• Strong knowledge of security, compliance, and configuration baselines across environments.
• Willingness to travel up to 10% to support business needs.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to support frequent, reliable software delivery.
• Automate infrastructure deployment, scaling, and management using configuration tools.
• Manage containerization technologies (Docker, Podman) including rootless configurations.
• Collaborate with development and test teams to improve build, integration, and deployment processes.
• Integrate automated testing and quality/security tools into CI/CD pipelines.
• Monitor system and pipeline performance and implement improvements for reliability and availability.
• Ensure security, compliance, and configuration baselines across environments.

Skills

DevOps

CI/CD

Linux

Containerization

Security compliance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

PhD in STEM

Tools

Docker

Podman

Jenkins

GitHub

GitLab

SonarQube

Checkmarx

Coverity

Jira

Job description

Qualis LLC is seeking 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 limited remote/hybrid work available.

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.

• 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

Required 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
• Must have active, in-scope U.S. Government 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

Qualis LLC is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse and talented workforce who can contribute to the mission and vision of the Company. Our employees are our greatest asset and we promote a positive work environment, teamwork, professional growth, innovation, community involvement, flexible scheduling and a family‑friendly work environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer/M/F/Vet/Disabled and a Participant in E‑Verify