Senior DevOps Engineer

The Josef Group; Sterling (VA); On-site; USD 203,000 - 248,000; Full time

Job summary

The Josef Group in Sterling, VA is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer with 10+ years of experience to design and maintain scalable CI/CD and infrastructure. The role emphasizes hands-on Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, and Python automation in a mission-critical environment.

Ideal candidates will support automated build, test, release, and deployment workflows, while collaborating with software, security, and systems teams to improve reliability and scalability.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional experience in DevOps, software engineering, systems engineering, or a related field.
• Bachelor's degree in STEM or equivalent technical education/experience.
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes.
• Strong experience with Ansible and Terraform.
• Experience developing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and/or GitLab.
• Strong Python scripting and automation experience.
• Deep understanding of CI/CD principles and DevOps methodologies.
• Experience with Git-based source control and modern software development workflows.
• Strong troubleshooting, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly technical, collaborative environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable DevOps and CI/CD infrastructure.
• Build and manage Kubernetes environments supporting containerized applications.
• Develop infrastructure-as-code solutions using Terraform and Ansible.
• Design, maintain, and optimize CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and GitLab.
• Automate infrastructure, application deployments, testing, and operational processes using Python and other scripting languages.
• Implement and maintain automated build, test, release, and deployment workflows.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, applications, networking, and deployment pipelines.
• Collaborate closely with software developers, systems engineers, and security teams to improve development and deployment processes.
• Establish and maintain DevOps best practices around automation, configuration management, source control, and continuous integration.
• Monitor system performance, reliability, and availability and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Contribute to architecture and technical design decisions for highly available and scalable environments.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and provide technical guidance across the team.

Skills

Kubernetes

Ansible

Terraform

Jenkins

GitLab

Python scripting

CI/CD

DevOps methodologies

Git-based workflows

Cloud platforms

Education

Bachelor's degree in STEM

Tools

Kubernetes

Ansible

Terraform

Jenkins

GitLab

Docker

Job description

Location: Sterling, VA
Experience: 10+ years
Clearance: TS/SCI CI Poly
Salary: $225K

We are seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer with 10+ years of experience to support a mission-critical development and infrastructure environment in Sterling, VA. The ideal candidate will have strong hands‑on experience building and maintaining automated CI/CD pipelines, cloud-native infrastructure, and containerized environments.

This is a highly technical role for an engineer who enjoys solving complex infrastructure challenges, automating processes, and improving the reliability and scalability of development and deployment environments.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain scalable DevOps and CI/CD infrastructure.

Build and manage Kubernetes environments supporting containerized applications.

Develop infrastructure-as-code solutions using Terraform and Ansible.

Design, maintain, and optimize CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and GitLab.

Automate infrastructure, application deployments, testing, and operational processes using Python and other scripting languages.

Implement and maintain automated build, test, release, and deployment workflows.

Troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, applications, networking, and deployment pipelines.

Collaborate closely with software developers, systems engineers, and security teams to improve development and deployment processes.

Establish and maintain DevOps best practices around automation, configuration management, source control, and continuous integration.

Monitor system performance, reliability, and availability and identify opportunities for improvement.

Contribute to architecture and technical design decisions for highly available and scalable environments.

Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and provide technical guidance across the team.

Required Qualifications

10+ years of professional experience in DevOps, software engineering, systems engineering, or a related field.

Bachelor's degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) or equivalent technical education/experience.

Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes.

Strong experience with Ansible and Terraform.

Experience developing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and/or GitLab.

Strong Python scripting and automation experience.

Deep understanding of CI/CD principles and DevOps methodologies.

Experience with Git-based source control and modern software development workflows.

Strong troubleshooting, problem‑solving, and communication skills.

Ability to work effectively in a highly technical, collaborative environment.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience supporting U.S. Government or national security programs.

Experience with cloud platforms and cloud-native architectures.

Experience with Docker and containerized application environments.

Experience implementing infrastructure-as-code at scale.

Familiarity with automated security, testing, and compliance within CI/CD pipelines.

Experience with GitLab CI/CD and advanced Jenkins pipeline development.