Senior DevOps Engineer (NOAA badge required)

Element 84; Alexandria, Northern (VA, KY); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Parental leave

Flexible schedules

Paid time off

Job summary

Element 84 is seeking a highly experienced Senior DevOps Engineer to architect reliable, scalable cloud systems and drive infrastructure-as-code across AWS and Azure. You will lead design, implementation, and operation of cloud-native solutions for complex projects, collaborating with teams and customers.

The ideal candidate brings deep cloud experience, strong IaC discipline, and the ability to document architectures clearly.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in software development with 3+ years in Cloud Technologies.
• Hands-on IaC experience with complex cloud configurations.
• Proficiency in Python, Bash, or JavaScript.
• Experience deploying and managing on major cloud platforms.
• Ability to document architectures and present concepts clearly.
• US Person with NOAA CAC badge and eligible to work in the US.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of robust, scalable cloud-native solutions on AWS.
• Collaborate with security to translate requirements into compliant cloud implementations.
• Develop and maintain infrastructure-as-code across Azure and AWS accounts.
• Maintain and optimize CI/CD automation pipelines for reliable deployments.
• Craft automation scripts in Python, Bash, JavaScript, and related languages.
• Support Generative AI infrastructure on domain-specific datasets.
• Automate creation and management of front and back-end apps, pipelines, and security tooling.
• Define and advocate best practices for DevOps across Element 84 and customers.

Skills

Cloud Technologies

IaC

Python

Bash

JavaScript

Linux

AWS

Azure

Tools

Terraform

CI/CD

Kubernetes

CloudWatch

OpenTelemetry

Job description

This is a contingent position, and employment is dependent upon Element 84 receiving the contract award and the candidate successfully obtaining a NOAA badge. We anticipate hiring multiple people for this position.

About Element 84

Element 84 is a woman-owned small business that works with public, private, and non-profit sector clients to develop geospatial data processing pipelines & build software that helps answer big questions about our health, our infrastructure, and our changing planet. We solve challenging problems across a wide range of industries, but our super power is cloud-based geospatial data processing, remote sensing, and Earth science systems. Our headquarters is located in Alexandria, VA and we have a satellite office in Philadelphia, PA. Element 84 also supports a large remote workforce from a variety of other states.

A Few Other Things You Should Know

1. Element 84's values are: We Invest in Each Other, We are Reliable, and Our Work Benefits our World.

2. Element 84 works on meaningful projects that are challenging—from a technical, people, and team perspective. We make an impact on large projects through our leadership and expertise, both formal and informal.

3. Element 84 values life outside of work. We offer parental leave for everyone and support each other through family challenges like medical problems, adoptions, and new babies.

4. Element 84 has had a flexible work schedule since our founding in 2010.

5. Element 84 is committed to fostering a culture of curiosity and respect for all individuals as we constantly strive to create a work environment where everyone feels welcome and supported.

About You

You are curious about the world, are constantly learning, driven to lead (formally or informally), and have a strong work ethic. You're interested in solving impactful problems in science, medicine, and other projects that have a societal good. You can work independently or with a team, prioritize your projects, and be effective without micromanagement.

You'll care about writing. Our team is remote and written communication is essential. In addition to caring about a well-crafted email and a succinct conference abstract, you understand that good writing is good design and engineering.

About the Role

Element 84 is seeking a highly experienced and motivated Senior DevOps Engineer with a strong background in architecting reliable, scalable cloud systems and a proven record of utilizing infrastructure as code in complex deployments to support our innovative projects.

In this role, you'll be instrumental in leading the design, implementation, and operation of cloud-native solutions for complex operational systems, collaborating closely with technical teams and customers.

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in designing, deploying, and supporting enterprise-grade software within cloud environments, with a strong emphasis on infrastructure as code principles. While direct experience with geospatial applications isn't required, a curiosity and aptitude for working in this domain will be beneficial.

What You'll Be Working On

• Leading the design and implementation of robust, scalable, and secure cloud-native solutions on AWS.

• Collaborating with security experts to translate organizational security requirements into secure and compliant cloud implementations.

• Developing and maintaining infrastructure-as-code to manage and provision infrastructure across numerous Azure and AWS accounts, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

• Maintaining and optimizing CI/CD automation pipelines to facilitate rapid and reliable software deployments.

• Crafting automation scripts in Python, Bash, JavaScript, and other relevant languages to streamline operational workflows.

• Contributing to the development and maintenance of infrastructure supporting Generative AI applications on domain-specific datasets.

• Automating the creation and management of front and back-end applications, pipelines, security tooling, etc.

• Defining and advocating for best practices and standards for DevOps success across Element 84 and our customer organizations.

Required Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in software development, with 3+ years specifically focused on Cloud Technologies.

• Strong, hands-on experience with IaC is a must, including writing, maintaining, and troubleshooting complex configurations for cloud environments.

• Strong experience developing in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, Bash, JavaScript).

• Demonstrable experience designing, deploying, and managing infrastructure and services on a major cloud platform.

• Ability to clearly document and communicate intricate architectural concepts at various levels, including delivering presentations, creating visual representations of architectures, and writing white papers.

• Demonstrated experience in negotiating tradeoffs between critical factors such as security, performance, maintainability, and cost.

• Proven ability to multitask and effectively prioritize work across competing demands and multiple customers.

• Extensive experience working within an Agile Development software team.

• Solid experience with Linux environments.

• Deep understanding of cloud architecture patterns and tradeoffs (e.g., serverless vs. provisioned, managed services vs. self-hosting).

• Expertise with build and deployment automation tools.

• Proficiency with infrastructure monitoring tools (e.g., CloudWatch, AWS Config, Kibana, Splunk, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Honeycomb, etc.)

• Experience with data storage and data engineering tools and technologies (e.g., ElasticSearch, SQL, NoSQL, DynamoDB, Redshift, Athena, Glue, etc.).

• Experience with networking tools and technologies and troubleshooting issues (CloudFront, Route53, Load Balancers, API Gateway, VPCs, NACLs, etc.).

• Technical cloud certification (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect Associate/Professional, AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert) or willingness to obtain one.

• Active NOAA CAC badge.

• This position requires that applicants be a US Person (US citizen or legal permanent resident) and authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS Solutions Architect, AWS DevOps, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, and/or Certified Kubernetes Administrator certifications.

• B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field (equivalent professional experience will be considered in lieu of a degree).

• Experience with Generative AI technologies.

• Experience working in regulated contexts (e.g., NIST 800-53, PCI, HIPAA).

• Experience with authentication and authorization technologies (e.g., SAML, SSO, AWS Cognito, JWT, OAuth, OPA, Ranger).

• Demonstrated ability to proactively learn and integrate new technologies into existing workflows.

• Familiarity with geospatial data processing, analysis, or visualization tools and concepts.

• Experience using containerized workloads for local development and enterprise deployments (e.g. docker, EKS, EKS-automode, minikube, podman)

• Experience with data warehousing or data lakehouses (e.g. Databricks or Snowflake)

Additional Information

Paying attention to who we are as a company–people, family members, friends, and colleagues–is our primary focus at Element 84. There are lots of ways to run a company, and, for us, we prioritize wanting to come to work, being around people we enjoy, taking on big things with people you trust, and sharing our achievements as a team.

• You’ll get credit when things go right and we’ll have your back when things go wrong.

• We only take on work that is challenging and right for us. There are projects we will turn down and the team has a say.

• We may be a small company, but we have big company benefits meant to support the idea that we're here for the long term and happiness comes from much more than where you work.

• We have an extraordinary retention rate because we hire extraordinary people. We hope that’s you.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary Range: $145,000 – $180,000 / year (Full-time, Salaried)

• Bonus Potential: Eligible for performance- and company profit-based bonuses.

• Total Rewards: Base pay is just one part of the Element 84 compensation package. Final offers are tailored based on your technical skillset, relevant experience, domain knowledge, certifications, and location.

• Comprehensive Benefits: Full coverage details, retirement matching, and perks are listed below.

Location & Remote Work

Remote candidates are encouraged, but only in states/localities where E84 is already set up for business. Applications will only be considered if candidate is located in one of the following states: AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, IL (excluding Chicago), IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, MT, NH, NJ, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TX, VA, or VT.

Benefits Offered

• Competitive medical, dental and vision benefits

• Life Insurance, Short & Long Term disability insurance

• Voluntary Accident, Critical Illness & Hospital Insurance

• 401(k) and Roth 401(k) retirement plans with a fixed 3% of salary employer contributions (paid regardless of employee participation)

• Health savings account with a company contribution

• Flexible spending accounts (medical, dependent care and transportation)

• Company-paid parental leave after one year of employment

• Flexible work schedules

• Paid employee assistance program

• Paid sick leave

• 6 paid floating holidays per year

• 4 weeks + 1 day Paid Vacation per calendar year

• Cell phone stipend

Element 84 is an equal opportunity employer.