DevOps Engineer - Level 3

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work - and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Multi-Domain Operations, and Missile Defense Integration Business Unit (BU) has an exciting career opportunity for a Principal DevOps Engineer - Level 3 to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals. Our domain provides rewarding work that contributes to the latest advancements being made in the industry. This position supports the Modeling and Simulation Vistas – Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV‑TASD) program and will split time between a Northrop Grumman facility in Colorado Springs and Schriever Space Force Base, CO.

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

Position Overview:

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.

Essential Functions:

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.

Current, active, in-scope U.S. Government issued Secret security clearance at the time of application (required to start)

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

Primary Level Salary Range: $103,600.00 - $155,400.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.