Senior DevOps Engineer

Applied Research Solutions; Littleton (CO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Applied Research Solutions is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to design, implement, and maintain automation, tooling, and infrastructure that supports high‑quality software delivery for a cutting‑edge NGA program.

You will enable development teams to deploy applications reliably, securely, and at scale using cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure‑as‑code, while mentoring junior engineers and improving system resilience.

Qualifications

• Must be a US citizen.
• Active Top Secret clearance to start (TS/SCI w/Poly possible).

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to support rapid, reliable software delivery across environments.
• Design and manage automated infrastructure provisioning using infrastructure-as-code tools.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting systems to ensure performance, reliability, and security.
• Collaborate with development, QA, security, and operations to streamline build, test, and deployment workflows.
• Manage and optimize cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) for scalability, cost, and security.

Skills

CI/CD pipelines

Cloud platforms

Containerization

Scripting

Linux

Security DevSecOps

Team collaboration

Problem solving

Tools

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Terraform

Ansible

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Description

Applied Research Solutions is seeking Senior DevOps Engineers to support a cutting‑edge program supporting the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The Senior DevOps Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the automation, tooling, and infrastructure that supports high‑quality software delivery. This role focuses on enabling development teams to deploy applications reliably, securely, and at scale through modern DevOps practices, cloud technologies, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure‑as‑code. The ideal candidate is a proactive engineer with strong problem‑solving skills, deep experience with cloud environments, and a passion for automation and continuous improvement.

Why Work with us?

Applied Research Solutions (ARS) is respected as a world‑class provider of technically integrated solutions as we deliver premier talent and technology across our focused markets for unparalleled, continuous mission support. Awarded a Best Places to Work nominee since 2020, ARS recognizes that without our career‑driven, loyal professionals, we would not be able to deliver state‑of‑the‑art results for our mission partners. We firmly believe that prioritizing our employees is of the upmost importance. We provide a culture where our employees are challenged to meet their career goals and aspirations, while still obtaining a work/life balance. ARS employees are motivated through our industry competitive benefits package, our awards and recognition program, and personalized attention from ARS Senior Managers.

Responsibilities include:

• Architect, build, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to support rapid, reliable, and repeatable software delivery across multiple environments.

• Design and manage automated infrastructure provisioning using infrastructure‑as‑code tools.

• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting systems to ensure application performance, reliability, and security.

• Collaborate closely with development, QA, security, and operations teams to streamline build, test, and deployment workflows.

• Manage and optimize cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) with an emphasis on scalability, cost efficiency, and security best practices.

• Automate operational processes, including environment creation, deployments, configuration management, and system maintenance.

• Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve issues across the full stack—from application code to infrastructure layers.

• Maintain strong security practices across CI/CD pipelines, cloud resources, and deployment processes.

• Guide and mentor developers and junior DevOps engineers in DevOps methodologies, cloud architecture, and automation tooling.

• Lead efforts to improve reliability, performance, and resilience through system design, chaos testing, capacity planning, and root cause analysis.

• Support containerization and orchestration platforms (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) to deliver scalable microservices architectures.

• Develop and maintain documentation for environments, automation scripts, procedures, and system designs.

• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications/ Technical Experience Requirements:

• Must be a US citizen

• Active Top Secret clearance needed to start with the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Poly

• Knowledge and experience developing multi‑tiered or microservice applications.

• Experience with at least one cloud platform. i.e.. AWS, Azure, Google.

• Containerization experience (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).

• Proficiency in CI/CD tools (GitLab CI, Jenkins).

• Strong scripting experience.

• Linux experience.

• SDLC: Understanding the full Software Development Life Cycle.

• Networking: Basic networking, security, & firewall concepts.

• Security: DevSecOps principles, identity & access management

• Automation: Scripting & building automated pipelines.

• Strong problem solving skills.

• Ability to work effectively in a team‑oriented environment

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting US government agencies.

• Experience using Amazon Web Services.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with tools such as Ansible and Terraform).

• Deploying and maintain Kubernetes distributions.

• Familiarity with GitOps (GitLab, ArgoCD).

• Monitoring & Logging experience (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, ELK Stack).

• Knowledge of ESXL

The expected annual salary range: $180k - $220k. Salary is dependent upon the role and associated responsibilities, candidate's experience, and qualifications to include education/training, and key skills.

All positions at Applied Research Solutions are subject to background investigations. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background investigation including criminal history and identity check.

This contractor and subcontractor shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-741.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of disability, and requires affirmative action by covered prime contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.

This contractor and subcontractor shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a). This regulation prohibits discrimination against qualified protected veterans, and requires affirmative action by covered contractors and subcontractors to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.