Senior Systems Engineer II

Jobtailor; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor in Washington, DC, seeks an experienced Infrastructure Engineer to own and optimize Kubernetes platforms in a mission-critical, onsite setting. You’ll lead health checks, automate deployments, and collaborate with cybersecurity, networking, and storage teams to raise reliability and security across the stack.

Responsibilities include building and maintaining Kubernetes, Rancher, Docker, VMware, and Linux environments, implementing CI/CD pipelines with DevSecOps, and producing runbooks

Qualifications

• 6+ years in systems, platform, DevOps, infrastructure engineering, or systems administration.
• 3+ years of hands-on Kubernetes/container experience.
• Strong experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, and Rancher or OpenShift.
• Experience supporting on-prem, mission-critical infrastructure.
• Hands-on VMware and Linux administration experience.
• Infrastructure automation/IaC experience with Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, or similar.
• Experience building or supporting CI/CD pipelines in a DevSecOps environment.
• Strong production troubleshooting across compute, storage, networking, OS, and application layers.
• Experience with system hardening, vulnerability remediation, security baselines, and secure configurations.
• Ability to document technical environments and communicate technical risks/recommendations.
• Ability to work onsite in the Washington, D.C. area and support occasional on-call/nonstandard hours.
• Ability to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Assess and improve health, performance, security, and reliability of infrastructure and Kubernetes platforms.
• Build, configure, and maintain Kubernetes, Rancher, Helm, Docker, VMware, and Linux environments.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and deployments using IaC and CI/CD practices.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across containers, compute, storage, networking, and application-hosting environments.
• Improve monitoring, logging, alerting, dashboards, and overall platform observability.
• Identify technical risks, recurring failures, and technical debt, and develop remediation plans.
• Apply security hardening, vulnerability remediation, least privilege, and DevSecOps best practices.
• Test, validate, and implement production changes through approved change-management processes.
• Collaborate across engineering, cybersecurity, networking, storage, database, and application teams.
• Maintain architecture diagrams, runbooks, SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and recovery documentation.
• Support knowledge transfer, platform improvements, and occasional after-hours/on-call activities.
• Support continuity of operations as essential personnel, including during government shutdowns, emergencies, or other critical situations.

Skills

Kubernetes Administration

Infrastructure Automation

DevSecOps Practices

Production Troubleshooting

Active Top Secret Clearance

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Helm

Rancher

Terraform

Ansible

PowerShell

Python

VMware

Linux

Job description

• Assess and improve the health, performance, security, and reliability of infrastructure and Kubernetes platforms.
• Build, configure, and maintain Kubernetes, Rancher, Helm, Docker, VMware, and Linux environments.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and deployments using IaC and CI/CD practices.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across containers, compute, storage, networking, and application-hosting environments.
• Improve monitoring, logging, alerting, dashboards, and overall platform observability.
• Identify technical risks, recurring failures, and technical debt, and develop remediation plans.
• Apply security hardening, vulnerability remediation, least privilege, and DevSecOps best practices.
• Test, validate, and implement production changes through approved change-management processes.
• Collaborate across engineering, cybersecurity, networking, storage, database, and application teams.
• Maintain architecture diagrams, runbooks, SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and recovery documentation.
• Support knowledge transfer, platform improvements, and occasional after-hours/on-call activities.
• Support continuity of operations as essential personnel, including during government shutdowns, emergencies, or other critical situations.

Requirements

• Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility
• 6+ years in systems, platform, DevOps, infrastructure engineering, or systems administration
• 3+ years of hands-on Kubernetes/container experience
• Strong experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, and Rancher or OpenShift
• Experience supporting on-prem, mission-critical infrastructure
• Hands-on VMware and Linux administration experience
• Infrastructure automation/IaC experience with Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, or similar
• Experience building or supporting CI/CD pipelines in a DevSecOps environment
• Strong production troubleshooting across compute, storage, networking, OS, and application layers
• Experience with system hardening, vulnerability remediation, security baselines, and secure configurations
• Ability to document technical environments and communicate technical risks/recommendations
• Ability to work primarily onsite in the Washington, D.C. area and support occasional on-call/nonstandard hours
• Ability to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States

Core Competencies

Demonstrates expertise in Kubernetes, Docker, and infrastructure automation, with a strong focus on security hardening and DevSecOps practices. Proven ability to troubleshoot complex systems and collaborate across multiple technical teams to enhance platform performance and reliability.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• Kubernetes Administration
• Infrastructure Automation
• DevSecOps Practices
• Production Troubleshooting
• Active Top Secret Clearance

ATS Optimization Keywords

Hard Skills

• Kubernetes
• Docker
• Helm
• Rancher
• Terraform
• Ansible
• PowerShell
• Python
• VMware
• Linux

Soft Skills

• Technical Documentation
• Communication

Industry Keywords

• Infrastructure Engineering
• Systems Administration
• Security Hardening
• Vulnerability Remediation
• Change Management

Tools & Technologies

• CI/CD Pipelines
• Monitoring Tools
• Logging Tools
• Alerting Systems