Sr. Elastic Engineer

ECS; Fort Meade (MD); On-site; USD 180,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

ECS is seeking a Sr. Elastic Engineer to join our Managed Security Services team in Fort Meade, MD. Ideal candidates will have strong experience with Elastic Stack and be capable of designing, coding, and deploying complex systems. You will collaborate with teams to deliver high-performance solutions while ensuring system resilience. The role requires hands-on expertise, strong scripting skills, and a minimum of a Secret Clearance. Salary ranges from $180,000 to $205,000, depending on experience.

Qualifications

• Deep, hands-on expertise with Elastic Stack.
• Strong scripting and automation skills.
• Solid understanding of observability and distributed systems.
• Experience with Elastic environment design and deployment.
• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain Elastic Stack environments.
• Build and optimize ingestion pipelines and automation workflows.
• Write scripts for operational efficiency.
• Deploy across various platforms including cloud.
• Monitor system health and resolve performance issues.

Skills

Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, Fleet)

Scripting and automation (Python, PowerShell, Bash)

Observability, logging, metrics, distributed systems

Production-scale Elastic environments

Linux/Unix, networking, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Mentoring teams on Elastic best practices

Communication skills

Secret Clearance

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

CI/CD pipelines

Kubernetes

Docker

OpenShift

Job description

Sr. Elastic Engineer

Location: Ft. Meade, MD or Quantico, VA (Office)

This position is contingent upon additional funding.

We are seeking a Sr. Elastic Engineer to join our Managed Security Services (MSSP) team. The ideal candidate has hands‑on experience with Elastic Stack and enjoys designing, coding, and deploying complex systems. You will collaborate with engineering, DevOps, cloud, and client teams to deliver resilient, high‑performance Elastic solutions while maintaining visibility into system health and operational workflows.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain Elastic Stack environments, including Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, and Fleet.
• Build and optimize ingestion pipelines, index strategies, search queries, dashboards, and automation workflows.
• Write scripts, automation, and integrations (Python, PowerShell, Bash, etc.) to streamline operations, data processing, and monitoring.
• Deploy Elastic across platforms, including on‑premises, public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), GovCloud, and containerized environments (Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift).
• Leverage automation and orchestration tools such as Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD pipelines, and Docker to manage deployments and operational tasks.
• Integrate Elastic with enterprise tools such as SIEMs, Splunk, CrowdStrike, and other telemetry sources.
• Monitor system health, troubleshoot performance issues, and optimize for reliability and scalability.
• Lead design reviews, provide guidance on Elastic best practices, and support knowledge sharing across teams.
• Maintain documentation for architectures, deployment patterns, runbooks, and operational best practices.
• Stay current with Elastic features, certifications, and emerging platform capabilities.

Salary Range: $180,000 – $205,000

Required Skills

• Deep, hands‑on expertise with Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, Fleet).
• Strong scripting and automation skills (Python, PowerShell, Bash, etc.).
• Solid understanding of observability, logging, metrics, and distributed systems.
• Experience designing, deploying, and optimizing production‑scale Elastic environments.
• Strong Linux/Unix, networking, and cloud platform knowledge (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Ability to mentor, guide, and influence engineering teams on Elastic best practices.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
• Willingness and ability to support domestic or international on‑site engagements.
• U.S. Passport required.
• Must have a Secret Clearance, at minimum.
• Must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Security Clearance.

Desired Skills

• Familiarity with SIEM concepts, Elastic Security, or other SIEM/EDR platforms.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift).
• Experience with automation/orchestration tools (Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD pipelines).
• Familiarity integrating Elastic with endpoint telemetry or cloud‑native tools.
• Certifications (preferred) – Elastic Certified Engineer, Elastic Security Engineer, Elastic Observability Engineer; AWS Certified Solutions Architect or equivalent; Docker Certified Associate (DCA); Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA); HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate; Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation.
• Prior experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, or cloud platform roles is a plus.
• Experience designing dashboards, observability frameworks, and large‑scale workflows.
• Experience with the below:
• Platforms: On‑premises, Public Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), GovCloud, hybrid deployments.
• Containerization: Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift.
• Automation: Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD pipelines, Docker.
• Integrations: SIEMs (Splunk, Elastic Security), endpoint/security telemetry (CrowdStrike), cloud‑native services.
• Competing Technologies: Splunk, OpenSearch, Solr, Lucene, Graylog, Datadog, Elastic Cloud alternatives.

ECS is an equal‑opportunity employer and does not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of any characteristic protected by law. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local jurisdiction law.

ECS is a leading mid‑sized provider of technology services to the United States Federal Government. We are focused on people, values and purpose. Every day, our 3,200+ employees focus on providing their technical talent to support the Federal Agencies and Departments of the US Government to serve, protect and defend the American People.