Red Hat OpenShift Cloud Engineer SME

ECS Corporate Services; Springfield (VA); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Everforth ECS seeks a Red Hat OpenShift Cloud Engineer SME to lead architecture, deployment, and operation of OpenShift across hybrid infrastructure in the Fairfax/Springfield, VA area. The role demands hands-on ownership of production clusters and mentoring other engineers, with a focus on security, performance, and scalability.

The successful candidate will coordinate across cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and program teams, supporting DoD programs in multiple environments including AWS

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent directly relevant experience.
• Active TS security clearance or eligibility to obtain SCI access and CI polygraph.
• 7+ years in infrastructure/platform engineering with hands-on Kubernetes/OpenShift.
• Experience designing, deploying, administering, upgrading and troubleshooting OpenShift clusters in production.
• Experience operating OpenShift across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
• Strong Linux systems administration with RHEL/RHEL CoreOS.
• Knowledge of IAM, security hardening, vulnerability remediation in DoD environments.

Responsibilities

• Architect, deploy, administer, upgrade, and sustain Red Hat OpenShift environments across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid infrastructure.
• Own OpenShift cluster lifecycle: installation, configuration, upgrades, patching, backup/restore, certificates, operators, security.
• Provide senior escalation for production OpenShift failures and perform root-cause analysis.
• Mentor engineers, establish platform standards, and communicate risks and tradeoffs to leadership.
• Integrate OpenShift with CI/CD pipelines, registries, artifact repos, and GitOps workflows.
• Ensure compliance, remediation, patching, and POA&M activities for applicable authorizations.

Skills

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Red Hat Linux

Infrastructure as Code

GitOps

Helm

Security hardening

Cloud integration (AWS/Azure)

Production support

Troubleshooting

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Helm

GitOps

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Everforth ECS is seeking a Red Hat OpenShift Cloud Engineer Subject Matter Expert (SME) to work Hybrid remote/onsite supporting Fairfax, VA and/or Springfield, VA customer locations. Regular SCIF/onsite support is expected approximately 3-4 days per week, with additional onsite support as required for critical deployments, maintenance, or operational issues.

Note: This position is contingent upon additional funding. Everforth ECS is seeking a Red Hat OpenShift Cloud Engineer Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support a large DoD program operating across AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, classified cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. The SME will serve as a technical authority for the architecture, deployment, administration, optimization, security, sustainment, and troubleshooting of Red Hat OpenShift environments across multiple classification levels.

The successful candidate will coordinate with cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, Program and Project Management, Customer, and Partner teams. This is a hands-on SME role for an engineer capable of owning production OpenShift clusters, resolving complex platform failures, establishing technical standards, mentoring other engineers, and advising leadership on architecture, risk, and technical tradeoffs.

Responsibilities include:

Architect, plan, deploy, administer, upgrade, optimize, and sustain Red Hat OpenShift environments across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid infrastructure and applicable DoD impact/classification levels. Own OpenShift cluster lifecycle activities including installation, configuration, upgrades, patching, backup/restore, certificate management, operators, security, networking, storage, performance, and capacity management. Serve as the senior escalation point for production OpenShift failures and perform root cause analysis across control plane and worker nodes, operators, networking, storage, ingress, DNS, authentication/RBAC, certificates, registries, workload, resource constraints, and cluster health/performance. Support onboarding of customer and partner/vendor teams and coordinate with Program/Project Management and engineering teams to ensure appropriate resources, dependencies, and operational support. Implement and troubleshoot OpenShift/Kubernetes networking to include Services, Routes/Ingress, DNS, network policies, load balancing, and integration with enterprise networking and firewalls. Integrate and troubleshoot persistent storage using Storage Classes, Persistent Volumes/Claims, and enterprise/cloud storage platforms. Automate OpenShift/Kubernetes infrastructure and application configuration using Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, Helm, and GitOps methodologies. Integrate OpenShift with enterprise CI/CD pipelines, container registries, artifact repositories, security scanning, and GitOps workflows. Maintain security compliance and execute remediation, patching, vulnerability management, and POA&M activities required to sustain applicable ATOs. Develop architecture, configuration, operating, troubleshooting, and knowledge transfer documentation; cross train engineers and establish repeatable platform standards and procedures. Advise Government customers, project management, engineering teams, and leadership on OpenShift architecture, migrations, platform operations, technical risks, tradeoffs, and recommended solutions. Support OpenShift platforms hosting AI/ML, data intensive, and other mission requirements/lines of effort as required. Track relevant platform and industry developments and contribute to solutioning, capture, and proposal activities as needed.

Required Skills:

Bachelor of Science degree or equivalent directly relevant experience , subject contractual labor category requirements. Must posses an active TS security clearance and be eligible and willing to obtain SCI access and a CI polygraph 7+ years of responsible and relevant infrastructure/platform engineering experience, including substantial hands on Kubernetes experiences and at least 3+ years of hands on production Red Hat OpenShift engineering/administration experience. Expertise designing, deploying, administering, upgrading, and troubleshooting Red Hat OpenShift clusters in production environments. Demonstrated experience operating OpenShift across enterprise cloud, on-premises, and/or hybrid infrastructure environments. Expertise with Kubernetes architecture, deployment, administration, workload management, and troubleshooting. Strong Linux systems administration experience with RHEL and Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS). Hands on experience with OpenShift/Kubernetes environments using Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, Helm, and/or GitOps methodologies. Experience implementing security hardening, vulnerability remediation, patching, and configuration compliance in regulated or DoD environments. Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure and experience deploying or operating OpenShift/Kubernetes within AWS, Azure, or comparable enterprise cloud environmetns. Demonstrated ability to independently troubleshoot complex production platform issues, perform root cause analysis, and develop actional technical recommendations. Demonstrated ability to serve as a technical escalation point person, mentor engineers, establish platform standards, and communicate technical risks and tradeoffs to customers and leadership. Strong customer focus and strong written, verbal, analytical and problem solving skills. DOD 8570-01M certification: IAM Level I or better (e.g., Security+).

Salary:

Salary: $175,000-210,000