Space Systems DevOps Engineer
$130,000–$170,000 year
On-siteVandenberg Space Force Base, California, United States
Job Summary
Embed with the orbital analyst team to translate mission requirements into infrastructure configuration, tuning, and automation. Diagnose performance bottlenecks spanning compute, storage, network, and virtualization, then isolate variables and validate hypotheses with controlled benchmarking before changing production. Administer and harden Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems in an air-gapped, DISA STIG-compliant environment while configuring enterprise virtualization and high-performance shared storage. Design CI/CD pipelines and Python 3 tooling for monitoring, lifecycle tracking, and routine automation in a disconnected environment. Resolve performance and reliability issues that span the full stack to ensure mission systems meet throughput and latency demands. Support vulnerability management and patch remediation in coordination with the ISSE/ISSO.
Required Qualifications
- US Citizenship
- Active DoD Secret clearance
- Willingness to complete a background investigation and application for upgrade to a TS/SCI clearance
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
- Equivalent combination of relevant experience to a Bachelor's degree
- 4+ years of combined experience across systems administration, DevOps, and/or software engineering
- 2+ years with a graduate degree
- DoD 8570/8140 IAT Level II certification
- Ability to obtain DoD 8570/8140 IAT Level II certification within a defined onboarding period
- Strong proficiency with Linux operating systems
- Proficiency in Python 3 scripting and automation
- Track record of delivering efficient, maintainable code
- Experience with version control systems such as Git
- Familiarity with CI/CD concepts and workflows
- Familiarity with virtualization (VMware, Red Hat, or similar)
- Familiarity with core storage and networking fundamentals
- Ability to work on-site in a secured classified facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA
- Ability to work primarily standard business hours with periodic support outside normal business hours
Desired Qualifications
- 8+ years of combined experience across systems administration, DevOps, and/or software engineering
- 2+ years in a DoD, USAF, or USSF mission environment
- Experience administering and hardening systems to DISA STIG / RMF standards (SELinux, Secure Boot, air-gapped operations)
- Experience tuning enterprise storage and high-throughput networking for high-performance or latency-sensitive workloads
- Familiarity with configuration management and automation frameworks such as Ansible
- Experience with enterprise virtualization and VDI (VMware vSphere / ESXi / Horizon)
- Familiarity with Python numerical and scientific libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, and SciPy
- Familiarity with monitoring and observability and messaging tooling (e.g., Grafana, message brokers)
- Proficiency in Linux shell scripting
- Familiarity with Perl for maintaining legacy tooling
- Understanding of parallel programming concepts such as multiprocessing, multithreading, or async
- Understanding of DevOps principles and agile methodologies (Scrum or Kanban)
- Knowledge of the Space Domain Awareness/Command and Control (SDA/C2) mission
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