We're seeking a Lead DevOps Engineer to serve as the technical anchor for a large-scale enterprise identity platform deployment inside a highly secure, air-gapped government cloud environment. This is a hands‑on leadership role: you will own the underlying Kubernetes/cloud infrastructure, CI/CD and artifact‑delivery pipelines, and the operational foundation that a broader identity and access management (IAM/IGA) platform is built on top of.
This is a multi-year, phased deployment supporting a large user base and a large application portfolio, the environment will be built on Kubernetes in a government cloud comparable to commercial hyperscaler offerings but operating under stricter security and connectivity constraints (including limited or no internet egress).
This role is DevOps/platform‑engineering first. Deep identity product expertise is not required — we need someone who can own infrastructure, automation, and delivery pipelines, and who is comfortable picking up identity/access concepts and vendor tooling on the job alongside our identity architects.
What You'll Do
- Own and operate Kubernetes‑based infrastructure in a secure/classified cloud environment, including cluster lifecycle, capacity planning, and production support
- Build and maintain CI/CD (GitOps‑style) pipelines to deploy and update containerized platform components across dev, test, and production tiers
- Design and manage the process for moving software artifacts (container images, Helm charts, license files, patches) into an air‑gapped or restricted‑connectivity environment, including validation and change‑control steps
- Apply security hardening (STIG‑equivalent), patching cadence, and compliance controls to infrastructure and supporting services
- Partner closely with identity architects/engineers to support deployment of directory, authentication, federation, and identity governance services
- Stand up and maintain observability, logging, and SIEM integration for platform components
- Own backup/restore procedures and support disaster‑recovery and failover testing
- Lead day‑to‑day technical delivery for a small team of engineers; report progress, risks, and blockers to program/practice leadership
- Produce clear infrastructure‑as‑code, runbooks, and operational documentation to support an eventual transition/handover to client operations staff
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of DevOps, Platform Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering experience
- 2+ years operating Kubernetes in production environments
- Strong hands‑on experience with a major cloud provider (AWS strongly preferred); experience with government/GovCloud or restricted‑connectivity cloud environments is a significant plus
- Experience with infrastructure‑as‑code tooling (Terraform, Ansible, or similar) and container packaging/deployment tools (IronBanks)
- Experience building and maintaining CI/CD or GitOps pipelines (e.g., ArgoCD, Jenkins, GitLab CI, or similar)
- Working familiarity with federal security hardening and compliance frameworks (e.g., STIG/DISA baselines, NIST 800-53/800-171, RMF/ATO processes) — you don't need to be a compliance expert, but you should be comfortable operating within one
- General working knowledge of identity and access management concepts — SAML, OIDC, LDAP/directory services, PKI, MFA/smart‑card (PIV/CAC) authentication — enough to collaborate effectively with identity specialists; deep product‑level expertise is not required
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfortable engaging directly with client technical stakeholders
Nice to Have
- Direct hands‑on experience with any enterprise identity/IAM or identity governance (IGA) platform (e.g., Ping Identity, ForgeRock, Okta, SailPoint, Saviynt, Microsoft Entra) — willingness to ramp up on a specific vendor stack is valued more than prior depth
- Prior experience working in air‑gapped, disconnected, or classified cloud/enclave environments
- Experience supporting ATO/RMF documentation, audit evidence collection, or continuous monitoring programs
- Background supporting large‑scale application onboarding or migration efforts
- Veteran or prior DoD/IC program experience is a plus, not a requirement