Cybersecurity Operations Engineer

University of Texas at Austin•Austin, TX

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

This position is a hybrid opportunity based in Austin, TX and provides life/work balance with typically a 40-hour work week. Flexible work arrangements are available for this position and in addition to competitive salary and benefits (and an amazing opportunity to make an impact and do good across the planet), an exclusive Incentive Pay Program is offered, as available, to qualifying UTISO employees. This is an early-career opportunity intended for someone in the first stage of their DevOps career who is eager to grow alongside experienced engineers and mentors. You will help design, build, and securely operate CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, container and orchestration platforms, observability, secrets management, and the AI tooling that is rapidly becoming central to how we do our work. You will work closely with the UTISO to ensure the infrastructure is effectively and securely supporting our customer base which spans the state of Texas and beyond. The threat landscape we operate in is varied and requires a multi-faceted team to respond appropriately; therefore, please apply even if you are unsure if your experience is relevant. The most important ingredients for success on this team are a strong ability to think creatively about problems, very strong communication skills, a passion to learn and share knowledge. You will get to work with a very intelligent and dedicated team to address enterprise cybersecurity challenges through novel approaches in an office that highly values work-life balance, the freedom to explore out of box ideas, and serving others. This is a hybrid role expected to meet in person at least once a week to interact and collaborate together in person. Most importantly, you will help take our tools and ideas to the next level. What starts here changes the world! Your skills will make a difference You'll be working for a university that is internationally recognized for research and the work you do will make a difference in the lives of our students, faculty and staff. You’ll also be working for a team that is nationally respected by their peer community. If you're the type of person that wants to know your work has meaning and impact, you'll like working for our team. The Information Security Office at The University of Texas at Austin provides an outstanding benefits package to our staff. Those benefits include: Competitive health benefits (employee premiums covered at 100%, family premiums at 50%) Voluntary Vision, Dental, Life, and Disability insurance options Generous paid vacation, sick time, and holidays Teachers Retirement System of Texas, a defined benefit retirement plan, with employer matching funds Additional Voluntary Retirement Programs: Tax Sheltered Annuity 403(b) and a Deferred Compensation program 457(b) Flexible spending account options for medical and childcare expenses Robust free training access through LinkedIn Learning plus professional conference opportunities An exclusive incentive pay program A great physical office space should you prefer to work from campus Tuition assistance Expansive employee discount program including athletic tickets Free access to UT Austin's libraries and museums with staff ID card Free rides on all UT Shuttle and Austin CapMetro buses with staff ID card For more details, please see: https://hr.utexas.edu/prospective/benefits and https://hr.utexas.edu/current/services/my-total-rewards. This position requires you to maintain Internet service and a mobile phone with voice and data plans to be used when required for work. You must also be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis for any employer without sponsorship (e.g., US citizen, US resident, US asylee). The Cybersecurity Operations Engineer will join a newly established, collaborative DevOps function within the UT Austin Information Security Office (UTISO) helping build and operate the shared engineering infrastructure that enables the UTISO to develop, deploy, and secure their services at scale.

Requirements

U.S. Citizen, resident, or officially recognized asylee - Applicant selected will be subject to government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information at the level appropriate to the project requirements of the position.
A minimum of 1 year of experience building & integrating systems in environments utilizing enterprise source code management tools & automation tooling (using Python and/or Bash scripting, Ansible, etc.); a bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, or a related field may substitute for up to one year of this experience
At least 2 years of experience with Linux system administration or an advanced understanding of operating systems and common operating environments; a bachelor's degree in a related field may substitute for up to one year of this experience
Demonstrated fluency with modern AI tooling (e.g., coding agents, LLM-assisted development workflows, or hands-on experimentation with AI in operations or security contexts) and a habit of adopting new AI tools as they emerge
Excellent written and oral skills, ability to work closely with multiple groups, manage expectations and track engagement scope
General networking and security troubleshooting (firewalls, routing, NAT, etc.)
Demonstrated affinity for or interest in information security
Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Nice To Haves

Experience building and operating CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code
Experience with containerization and orchestration platforms
Experience with cloud security posture management and securing cloud environments at scale
Experience with secrets management and credential lifecycle in automated systems
Experience building and securing AI agent infrastructure
Knowledge of monitoring and observability systems
Experience with clustered / highly available systems and securing systems at scale

Responsibilities

Collaborate with a small team of engineers to design, build, and securely operate shared DevOps infrastructure including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, container and orchestration platforms, observability, and secrets management across on-premise and cloud environments
Use configuration management tooling (e.g., Ansible) to configure, harden, and maintain systems with secure defaults
Tune systems for scale, performance, and resilience
Build and operate secured and sandboxed environments for AI agents and automated workflows
Integrate AI tooling into UTISO’s development and operations workflows to amplify the team’s leverage, while thinking critically about where and how AI should be applied
Advise on architectural and security reviews of infrastructure and services
Develop and manage comprehensive documentation, runbooks, and patterns to codify and share knowledge across the team

Benefits

Competitive health benefits (employee premiums covered at 100%, family premiums at 50%)
Voluntary Vision, Dental, Life, and Disability insurance options
Generous paid vacation, sick time, and holidays
Teachers Retirement System of Texas, a defined benefit retirement plan, with employer matching funds
Additional Voluntary Retirement Programs: Tax Sheltered Annuity 403(b) and a Deferred Compensation program 457(b)
Flexible spending account options for medical and childcare expenses
Robust free training access through LinkedIn Learning plus professional conference opportunities
An exclusive incentive pay program
A great physical office space should you prefer to work from campus
Tuition assistance
Expansive employee discount program including athletic tickets
Free access to UT Austin's libraries and museums with staff ID card
Free rides on all UT Shuttle and Austin CapMetro buses with staff ID card