Senior DevOps Engineer

Company Overview

By Light Professional IT Services LLC readies warfighters and federal agencies with technology and systems engineered to connect, protect, and prepare individuals and teams for whatever comes next. Headquartered in McLean, VA, By Light supports defense, civilian, and commercial IT customers worldwide. 

Cole Engineering Services (CESI), a By Light company, is recognized as a premier provider of modeling and simulation (M&S) training solutions to the Federal Government and industry. Since 2004, CESI has been at the forefront of developing, maintaining, and integrating simulation-based training, serious gaming, technical services, training and other support in live, virtual, constructive, and gaming (LVCG) domains.  CESI also designs, builds and runs infrastructure, platforms, applications and processes that enable cyber training for the integrated multi-domain force. Our vision is to become a worldwide full spectrum LVCG and cyber training/analysis developer, integrator and services provider.

Position Overview

We are seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of DevOps processes, tools, and automation across a fast-paced application integration and fielding team. This role will be responsible for improving the speed, reliability, repeatability, and quality of software delivery across hybrid infrastructure environments.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader with strong experience in AWS, VMware, Linux systems, CI/CD automation, automated testing, and application deployment automation. The candidate should be comfortable working across hybrid cloud, virtualized, and Linux-based environments while providing technical mentorship to junior and mid-level engineers.

This position is on-site.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and improvement of DevOps processes, tools, standards, and best practices across application integration and fielding activities.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines that support automated deployment, test, and promotion of software across environments.
• Provide technical leadership for automated application deployments, including both container-based and VM-based deployment models.
• Support automated promotion of software through integration, test, staging, and production environments.
• Design and improve automated testing integration within CI/CD workflows, including quality gates and deployment validation.
• Provide technical mentorship, coaching, and review support to junior and mid-level engineers.
• Advise leadership on DevOps strategy, deployment automation, release processes, testing automation, and operational improvements.
• Collaborate with software engineers, system engineers, integration teams, cybersecurity personnel, and operations stakeholders to deliver reliable and repeatable deployment capabilities.
• Build and maintain automation for infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, monitoring, and environment validation.
• Support hybrid infrastructure environments with a focus on AWS, VMware, and Linux.
• Identify bottlenecks and risks in existing delivery workflows and implement practical improvements.
• Participate in troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and resolution of deployment, infrastructure, pipeline, and application integration issues.
• Promote DevSecOps practices by incorporating security, compliance, and operational controls into automated workflows

Required Experience/Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical field preferred. Equivalent professional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Ability to obtain CompTIA Security+ or equivalent certification is required
• 5+ years of experience in DevOps, Platform Engineering, Systems Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, or a related technical role.
• Demonstrated experience leading DevOps initiatives in a fast-paced software integration, application delivery, or fielding environment.
• Strong experience designing, implementing, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using tools such as GitLab CI or similar platforms.
• Hands-on experience automating application deployments across multiple environments.
• Experience with both container-based and virtual machine-based application deployment approaches.
• Strong Linux administration, scripting, troubleshooting, and automation experience.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and configuration management tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, Puppet, Chef, or similar.
• Strong scripting or programming experience using Bash, Python, or similar languages.
• Experience integrating automated testing, deployment validation, or quality gates into CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to mentor engineers and provide technical direction without requiring constant supervision.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical tradeoffs to engineering leads and stakeholders.

Preferred Experience/Qualifications

• Experience working in AWS environments, including deployment, automation, networking, security, and operational support.
• Experience supporting VMware-based virtualized infrastructure.
• Experience with Kubernetes, specifically RKE2, OpenShift, TKG/VKS, or similar industry standard Kubernetes orchestration and deployment technologies.
• Experience with GitOps workflows and tools such as ArgoCD, Flux, or similar.
• Experience supporting application fielding, mission systems, edge environments, or disconnected/degraded network environments.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, security scanning, vulnerability management, and compliance-driven delivery pipelines.
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools such as Prometheus, Loki, Grafana, Elastic, CloudWatch, or similar.
• Experience supporting production or mission-critical systems with high reliability requirements.

Desired Characteristics

• Hands-on technical leader who can both set direction and execute implementation work.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to operate effectively in a rapid-paced environment.
• Comfortable working across cloud, virtualization, operating system, networking, security, and application deployment domains.
• Passion for automation, repeatability, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Able to balance near-term delivery demands with long-term engineering improvements.
• Strong mentor who enjoys helping junior and mid-level engineers grow technically.
• AWS, VMware, Linux, Kubernetes, Terraform, or DevOps-related certifications.

Special Requirements/Security Clearance

Please note that pursuant to a government contract, this specific position requires U. S. Citizenship status and a TS/SCI security clearance. Security Clearance requirements will be specified in the Government's Task Order.

Benefits Overview

CESI recognizes that our strength is our people. We support every employee as an individual to build strong teams across the enterprise.  Our benefit package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage
• Wellness Program
• 401(k) Matching
• Disability (Short Term & Long Term)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Life Insurance
• Education & Training
• Generous Leave Policy (11 Federal Holidays, PTO, Military Leave, Bereavement and Jury Duty)

CESI is committed to principles of inclusion and equal employment opportunity.  We foster a non-discriminatory, professional work environment for all our teams.  We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status.