Senior DevOps Engineer – Application Delivery and Load Balancing

The University of Texas at Austin; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 95,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading university is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to manage application delivery and load balancing. This role involves working closely with various stakeholders to optimize performance and ensure robust application delivery across on-premises and cloud environments. The position offers flexible work arrangements and a comprehensive benefits package, including competitive health benefits and tuition assistance.

Benefits

Competitive health benefits

Paid vacation and sick leave

Tuition assistance

Flexible spending account options

Training and conference opportunities

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in large enterprise environments.
• Expert in Load Balancing and related concepts.

Responsibilities

• Administer, configure, and monitor F5 BIG-IP for load balancing.
• Support and enhance DevOps practices for application delivery.
• Oversee SSL certificate management and DNS record maintenance.

Skills

Load Balancing

Network Security

Scripting

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

F5 BIG-IP

Ansible

Linux

Job description

Job Posting Title:

Senior DevOps Engineer – Application Delivery and Load Balancing

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Hiring Department:

Enterprise Technology - Campus Solutions

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Position Open To:

All Applicants

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Weekly Scheduled Hours:

40

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FLSA Status:

Exempt

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Earliest Start Date:

Immediately

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Position Duration:

Expected to Continue

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Location:

AUSTIN, TX

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Job Details:

General Notes

Flexible work arrangements are available for this position, including the ability to work remotely (90%). Remote work for individuals who reside outside Texas but within the United States and its territories will be considered and requires Central Office approval.

This position provides life/work balance with typically a 40-hour work week and travel limited to training (e.g., conferences/courses).

Enterprise Technology is dedicated to supporting the mission of the University of Texas at Austin of unlocking potential and preparing future leaders of the state.

Your skills will make a difference.

You’ll be working for a university that is internationally recognized for research and the work you do will make a difference in the lives of our students, faculty and staff. If you’re the type of person that wants to know your work has meaning and impact, you’ll like working for our campus.

The University of Texas at Austin and Enterprise Technology provide an outstanding benefits package to our staff. Those benefits include:

• Competitive health benefits (Employee premiums covered at 100%, family premiums at 50%)
• Vision, Dental, Life, and Disability insurance options
• Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
• Teachers Retirement System of Texas (a defined benefit retirement plan)
• Additional Voluntary Retirement Programs: Tax Sheltered Annuity 403(b) and a Deferred Compensation program 457(b)
• Flexible spending account options for medical and childcare expenses
• Training and conference opportunities
• Tuition assistance
• Athletic ticket discounts
• Access to UT Austin's libraries and museums
• Free rides on all UT Shuttle and Capital metro buses with staff ID card

For more details, please see: https://hr.utexas.edu/prospective/benefits and https://hr.utexas.edu/current/services/my-total-rewards

Must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis for any employer without sponsorship.

This position requires you to maintain internet service and a mobile phone with voice and data plans to be used when required for work.

Purpose

Work closely with a variety of university stakeholders to deliver centralized, scalable load balancing and application delivery solutions across on-premises and cloud environments. As lead of the Application Delivery Controller service, the Sr. DevOps Engineer will leverage expertise in F5 architecture within complex enterprise networks. They will configure, maintain, and optimize F5 ADCs, automating deployments and enhancing infrastructure resilience. This role involves developing automated configuration management, technical documentation, and technical designs. The Sr. DevOps Engineer will collaborate with application, network, and security teams to optimize performance, improve security posture, provide production support, and troubleshoot connectivity and operational issues to ensure robust application delivery and service reliability.

Responsibilities

• F5 BIG-IP Administration and Configuration: Administer, configure, and monitor F5 BIG-IP for load balancing and application security including provisioning, deployment, monitoring, reporting, and backup/recovery. Lead the F5 virtual operations team of the Application Delivery Controller Service, handling planning, designing, implementing, and enhancing service configurations and architecture. Provide advanced troubleshooting, capacity planning, performance analysis, and root cause analysis.
• DevOps/Automation & Infrastructure Projects: Support and enhance DevOps practices for application delivery in on-premises virtual and cloud-based Linux environments, focusing on continuous improvement, automation, and large-scale infrastructure projects.
• SSL and DNS Management: Oversee SSL certificate management and DNS record maintenance.
• Other related functions as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent experience (HS diploma + relevant experience and certifications will be considered)
• 5+ years of professional experience in large enterprise environments (500+ systems)
• Extensive experience working in structured change management processes for highly available enterprise networks
• Expert in Load Balancing and related concepts, must have deployment, integration, configuration, administration experience, and possess a solid Network background including an understanding of DNS, switch, network routing, and access control methods (ACLs, firewalls, security policies).
• 7+ years of hands-on experience with F5 BIG-IP core features and related concepts:
  o Expert understanding of Local Traffic Manager (LTM), with proficiency in various load balancing methods (e.g., ratio, round robin, priority groups, least connections).
  o Creation, deployment, and troubleshooting of SSL certificates, including knowledge of cipher suites.
  o Development and management of new and existing iRules and policies.
  o Configuration and deployment of SNAT and pool configurations.
  o Experience with F5 as a gateway, including source IP retention methods.
  o Proficiency with virtualization and multi-tenant architecture, including deploying, configuring, and maintaining F5 tenants and partitions.
• Experience with DNS, DHCP, and IPAM on solutions such as Infoblox
• Ability to perform TCP/IP Network traces/packet captures with solid experience interpreting results as it pertains to packet inspection and network / application flows
• Demonstrable proficiency with scripting for automation and configuration management, using tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef to streamline deployment, migration, and ongoing system management.
• Understanding and practical application of BIG-IP and BIG-IQ deployment and management using Application Services 3 (AS3) declarative onboarding
• 3+ years of experience with Linux/Unix and other open source software.
• Strong understanding of application communication methodologies.
• Experience migrating existing applications and services with minimal disruption.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and strong commitment to technical documentation
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and implement solutions
• Experience and interest in coaching and mentoring early career staff.

Equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on experience with advanced F5 concepts (AS3, WAF, GTM, ASM, APM, AFM) or advanced network firewalls, access security and policy managers, application firewalls and advanced threat protection tools.
• Familiarity with the next generation F5 BIG-IP Next modern application delivery.
• F5 Certified Administrator (F5-CA)
• 3+ years of experience with advanced automation frameworks (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, Chef, Puppet, CloudFormation) for large-scale configuration management and infrastructure as code in hybrid environments.
• 5+ years of experience with Linux/Unix
• Experience with Software Defined Networking
• Experience with advanced troubleshooting tools (e.g., Splunk)
• VMWare/Avi Networks experience (vSphere, VSAN, NSXT, vRealize/Aria and/or Tanzu)
• Experience with AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ALB, NLB), VPC networking, Route 53, and Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Traffic Manager, and Virtual Networks (VNet)
• Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Proficiency in scripting languages such as Ruby, BASH, PHP and Python
• Experience with Git version control systems and branching strategies
• Working knowledge of ITIL processes, specifically Incident Management, Change Management, Problem Management

Salary Range

$95,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• May work around standard office conditions
• Repetitive use of a keyboard at a workstation
• Use of manual dexterity
• Work performed on concurrent multiple projects under pressure of rigid deadlines or time limitations

Work Shift

• Monday – Friday, flexible between 7am-6pm; Occasional nights or weekends required on a pre-determined schedule

Required Materials

• Resume/CV
• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor
• Letter of Interest

Importantfor applicants who are NOT current university employees or contingent workers:You will be prompted to submit your resume the first time you apply, then you will be provided an option to upload a new Resume for subsequent applications. Any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) will be uploaded in the Application Questions section; you will be able to multi-select additional files. Before submitting your online job application, ensure thatALLRequired Materials have been uploaded. Once your job application has been submitted, you cannot make changes.

Important for Current university employees and contingent workers:As a current university employee or contingent worker, you MUST apply within Workday by searching for Find UT Jobs. If you are a current University employee, log-in to Workday, navigate to your Worker Profile, click the Career link in the left hand navigation menu and then update the sections in your Professional Profile before you apply. This information will be pulled in to your application. The application is one page and you will be prompted to upload your resume. In addition, you must respond to the application questionspresented to upload any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) that were noted above.

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Employment Eligibility:

Regular staff who have been employed in their current position for the last six continuous months are eligible for openings being recruited for through University-Wide or Open Recruiting, to include both promotional opportunities and lateral transfers. Staff who are promotion/transfer eligible may apply for positions without supervisor approval.

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Retirement Plan Eligibility:

The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to the position being at least 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length.

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Background Checks:

A criminal history background check will be required for finalist(s) under consideration for this position.

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Equal Opportunity Employer:

The University of Texas at Austin, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer,complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

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Pay Transparency:

The University of Texas at Austin will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.

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Employment Eligibility Verification:

If hired, you will be required to complete the federal Employment Eligibility Verification I-9 form. You will be required to present acceptable and original documents to prove your identity and authorization to work in the United States. Documents need to be presented no later than the third day of employment. Failure to do so will result in loss of employment at the university.

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E-Verify:

The University of Texas at Austin use E-Verify to check the work authorization of all new hires effective May 2015. The university’s company ID number for purposes of E-Verify is 854197. For more information about E-Verify, please see the following:

• E-Verify Poster (English) [PDF]
• E-Verify Poster (Spanish) [PDF]
• Right To Work Poster (English) [PDF]
• Right To Work Poster (Spanish) [PDF]

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Compliance:

Employees may be required to report violations of law under Title IX and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). If this position is identified a Campus Security Authority (Clery Act), you will be notified and provided resources for reporting. Responsible employees under Title IX are defined and outlined in HOP-3031.

The Clery Act requires all prospective employees be notified of the availability of the Annual Security and Fire Safety report. You may access the most recent report here or obtain a copy at University Compliance Services, 1616 Guadalupe Street, UTA 2.206, Austin, Texas 78701.