DevOps Engineer

Initiate Government Solutions (IGS) is a Woman-Owned Small Business providing IT services to federal partners. They are seeking a remote DevOps Engineer to design and deliver a secure, scalable cloud-native platform for automated deployment of applications and APIs, while ensuring compliance and reliability.

Responsibilities:

• Create and foster Self-Service Principles - create automated process for creating on-demand platform for deploying containerized applications and exposing API endpoints to federal data consumers
• Architectural Vision & Strategy: Shape and communicate the architectural blueprint for Lighthouse with a focus on scalability, security, automation, and developer experience in a cloud-native environment
• Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with product owners, security teams, and stakeholders to facilitate and prioritize features that Program Manager(s) can use to meet business needs and create technical roadmaps, ensuring compliance with VA, federal, and industry requirements
• Establish and Enforce Standards: Define, document, and advocate for engineering best practices across the VA Lighthouse program, leveraging your expertise in DevSecOps and Kubernetes
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): Provide clients with PaaS solutions—delivering low-code/no-code development platforms and enterprise-grade API engineering to accelerate application delivery, streamline integration, and enable scalable digital solutions
• End-to-End Software Development: Execute efforts across the full software development lifecycle, automating processes, boosting operational efficiency, and strengthening system reliability
• DevSecOps Ownership: Design, implement, and maintain secure, automated CI/CD pipelines and increased monitoring and platform related business intelligence. Automate build, test, deployment, and infrastructure processes; champion shift-left security practices
• Continuous Innovation: Continuously refine the platform and deliver innovative, reliable solutions to meet the mission
• Governance & Compliance: Ensure solutions meet all compliance requirements, including audit readiness and documentation

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 5+ years of experience with AWS Cloud and/or DevOps at scale
• Deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes (design, implementation, troubleshooting, scaling) in production environments
• Understanding of L4, L5, and L7 networking with AWS Resources and Cilium, Istio, or equivalent operators
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and scripting languages
• Experience leading engineering teams and setting program-level standards
• Experience defining and maintaining a monitoring solution for providing insight to platform issues
• US Citizenship required due to clearance requirement
• 8+ years in software or platform engineering, including technical leadership or architect role
• Experience with Terraform or OpenTofu for IaC
• Experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef
• Proven success implementing secure, automated DevSecOps pipelines and containerization tools like Kubernetes or Docker
• Experience with Blue Green Deployment techniques with ArgoCD
• Experience with end-to-end encryption techniques using managed mTLS
• Familiarity with monitoring, security best practices, and regulatory compliance (e.g., FedRAMP, FISMA)
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills
• Experience working with or within government or public sector environments
• Demonstrated ability to stay current with cloud and emerging technology trends
• Active VA Public Trust
• Prior experience supporting federal agencies
• Certifications in AWS, Kubernetes, or DevOps-related disciplines
• Prior, successful experience working in a remote environment