Cloud Operations Engineer

MRI Technologies•Houston, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

MRI Technologies has an exciting opportunity for a Cloud Operations Engineer on the JETS II contract at NASA Johnson Space Center. You will help design, build, and operate enterprise-grade, multi-tenant cloud platform services across all three major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud) that NASA teams rely on to deploy commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and cloud-native applications. The work directly supports NASA human spaceflight missions, including Orion, Lunar Gateway, and Artemis. This is a senior, hands-on cloud platform engineering role - not a help desk, cloud-console-only, or traditional on-premises sysadmin position. Candidates should have direct production experience running Kubernetes and automating infrastructure as code across one or more major cloud providers. A Day in the Life You will develop new cloud-native platform services and administer NASA cloud networks, managing requests to deploy COTS and cloud-native applications into those environments. Much of your work will center on managed Kubernetes offerings (EKS, AKS, GKE), including integrating cloud-managed AI and data services with bespoke and open-source Kubernetes applications. You will write quality code, give thoughtful, engaged code reviews to your peers, and help define and promote best practices for cloud-native application development across the organization. You will look for opportunities to abstract requirements from prospective projects into reusable, multi-tenant platform services, and you will partner with NASA security and compliance teams to make sure platforms and the teams using them follow industry best practices and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

Hands-on, production experience running Kubernetes (ideally a managed offering such as EKS, AKS, or GKE)
Experience operating and troubleshooting Kubernetes clusters
Proficiency with infrastructure as code using Terraform or an open-source alternative (e.g., OpenTofu)
Hands-on experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
Strong GitLab proficiency (including administering GitLab and GitLab CI/CD)
Extensive Linux experience
Expert-level skill in at least one programming language (Go and/or Python preferred)
Experience with Python and SQL
Experience with observability and monitoring tools such as Grafana and Apache Superset
Demonstrated problem-solving, planning, and communication skills
Ability to work effectively in a team environment

Nice To Haves

Experience architecting and building cloud-native applications
Experience across more than one of the major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
Working understanding of machine learning model lifecycle management (MLOps)
Experience with R
Demonstrated success owning the full project lifecycle, from requirements through operations
Good instincts for identifying opportunities for abstraction and reuse
Ability to balance individual project tasks with overall platform and company goals
Solution-oriented mindset; welcomes and acts on feedback
Self-motivated and self-managing, with strong organizational skills
Clear communicator who keeps leadership informed with regular status updates and builds consensus with peers
Knowledge of NASA or federal security mechanisms (security plans, POA&Ms, ATOs, risk assessments)
Windows familiarity

Responsibilities

Develop new cloud-native platform services
Administer NASA cloud networks
Manage requests to deploy COTS and cloud-native applications
Integrate cloud-managed AI and data services with bespoke and open-source Kubernetes applications
Write quality code
Give thoughtful, engaged code reviews to peers
Define and promote best practices for cloud-native application development
Abstract requirements from prospective projects into reusable, multi-tenant platform services
Partner with NASA security and compliance teams to ensure platforms and teams follow best practices and regulatory requirements