Principal DevOps Engineer (Level 3) - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Davidson is distinguished in the aerospace and missile defense industry, in part, because of its excellence in hiring exceptional experts, engineers and software developers dedicated to delivering advanced, intelligent technology solutions in defense of our nation.

Davidson is seeking for a Principal DevOps Engineer (Level 3) in Colorado Springs and Schriever Space Force Base, CO. This position supports the Modeling and Simulation Vistas - Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV‑TASD) program and will split time between Colorado Springs, CO. location and Schriever Space Force Base, CO.

This role requires candidates to be onsite daily, with limited remote/hybrid work available.

Key Responsibilities:

As a DevOps Engineer (Level 3), you will work in a collaborative environment to understand system requirements and design, implement, and maintain DevOps solutions using tools such as Jenkins, GitLab Runner, Bamboo, Docker, Podman, SonarQube, Gherkin, Cucumber, and others to enable efficient, secure, and repeatable software development and delivery. You will leverage containerization technologies and secure credential and identity management solutions to support our distributed modeling and simulation environments.

Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to support frequent, reliable software delivery

Automate infrastructure deployment, scaling, and management using configuration management and scripting tools

Implement and manage containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Podman), including rootless vs. rootful configurations where appropriate

Collaborate closely with development and test teams to improve build, integration, and deployment processes

Integrate automated testing and quality/security tools (e.g., static analysis, code quality, coverage) into CI/CD pipelines

Monitor system and pipeline performance and implement improvements to ensure reliability and availability

Ensure security, compliance, and configuration baselines are implemented and maintained across environments

Work with identity and credential management tools (e.g., credential managers, service accounts) to support secure automation and access control

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline from an accredited institution and 5 years of related experience; OR a Master's degree in a STEM discipline and 3 years of related experience; OR a PhD in a STEM discipline and 1 year of related experience

Ability and willingness to travel up to 10% to support business needs

Experience with containerization and container runtime technologies (Docker, Podman, or similar)

Experience with automated testing and software development pipelines/factories (e.g., unit, integration, or acceptance tests in CI/CD)

Experience deploying applications in containerized environments

Experience with CI/CD and related tools such as the Atlassian tool suite, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, SonarQube, Checkmarx, Coverity, or Jenkins

Hands-on experience with Unix/Linux operating systems

Preferred Qualifications:

Strong experience with Linux administration, shell scripting, and operations in production-like environments

Experience implementing and maintaining automated software testing and analysis within CI/CD pipelines

Familiarity with hypervisors, virtualized medium- and high-trust environments (e.g., experience working with hypervisors on medium trust environments)

Experience working with credential and identity management solutions (e.g., credential managers, service accounts, Keycloak or similar technologies) to securely manage non-interactive access

Exposure to Kubernetes or infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible) is a plus

Experience developing software in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment

Experience with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and tools such as Gherkin and Cucumber for automated acceptance testing

Clearance:

Must have an Active DoD Secret Security Clearance