Lead DevOps Engineer

Pelico • Miami, FL

18h

About The Position

Pelico is hiring a hands-on DevOps leader to own how its manufacturing orchestration platform is packaged, deployed, and operated in customer environments that Pelico cannot access, including air-gapped, on-premise aerospace and defense infrastructure. The role leads a small DevOps team of approximately 3–5 people and works directly with customer IT teams so they can install, operate, diagnose, and recover the product independently while Pelico meets its commitments. The role is player-coach, with an expected 20–50% hands-on infrastructure work.

Over the next 12–18 months, the role will lead two co-primary tracks: creating repeatable on-premise deployment tooling and packaging for current and committed enterprise customers, and establishing Pelico's federal posture through GovCloud/FedRAMP and controls as code. The federal track is described as the most probable near-term direction. Pelico currently deploys approximately 20 microservices on a single VM and scales to Kubernetes for enterprise deployments.

The role designs observability, diagnostics, health checks, alert classification, and self-remediation for customer-run environments; builds deployment assets for single-VM, air-gapped Kubernetes, and private-cloud variants; and develops clear runbooks for customer IT. It also turns committed enterprise deliverables into scoped roadmaps with checkpoints and deadlines, makes deployments repeatable, defines responsibilities and service levels with customer IT and security, and develops the team while introducing AI tooling appropriately.

Requirements

• Track record operating enterprise software in environments not fully controlled, such as customer-owned, on-premise, or air-gapped environments; alternatively, equivalent depth establishing regulated or government-cloud environments.
• Current hands-on expertise with Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform/IaC, and Docker/Compose.
• Experience with managed Kubernetes platforms such as GKE, EKS, or AKS, as well as on-premise or bare-metal environments.
• Experience shipping observability into environments that cannot be directly accessed, using tools such as Prometheus/Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch, or Splunk, and designing diagnostics and remediation for customer self-operation.
• Experience owning committed enterprise deliverables end-to-end with customer IT, including RACI, SLAs, checkpoints, scope, and delivery dates.
• A hands-on leadership approach that sets standards by doing; ideally experience managing approximately three or more engineers, or exceptional hands-on technical leadership readiness to build and run a small team.
• Comfort treating security and operability as infrastructure, with experience in regulated, customer-owned, or on-premise environments and a focus on auditability and self-service.
• Ability to work through ambiguity and take accountability for operating software in environments that cannot be directly observed.

Nice To Haves

• GovCloud and/or FedRAMP experience, including AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, GCP Assured Workloads, or taking a system through FedRAMP Moderate/High, IL, or CMMC authorization; described as strongly preferred/expected but not a hard requirement.
• Aerospace, defense, government, regulated on-premise, air-gap, or ITAR/EAR experience.
• A self-service or platform-engineering philosophy, including golden paths and self-remediation.
• AI-native ways of working, including scoped tasks, heavy context, and retained ownership.
• Experience with secrets management, backup/disaster recovery, upgrade or migration tooling for disconnected sites, or Fargate/ECS.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small DevOps team of approximately 3–5 people while remaining hands-on in infrastructure work.
• Own how Pelico is packaged, deployed, and operated in customer-controlled environments, including air-gapped and on-premise systems.
• Design observability and self-remediation for environments Pelico cannot access, including shipped diagnostics, remediation playbooks, health checks, and alert auto-classification.
• Build Helm charts, Compose stacks, and Terraform/IaC for on-premise single-VM, air-gapped Kubernetes, and private-cloud deployments, with runbooks for customer IT.
• Make deployments repeatable so current and committed enterprise customers can go live and operate the product without bespoke effort or heroics.
• Establish Pelico's federal posture on GovCloud/FedRAMP infrastructure, including controls as code.
• Turn enterprise commitments into roadmaps with defined MVP scope, weekly checkpoints, and delivery dates, and deliver on those commitments.
• Work with customer IT and security teams to agree on RACI, SLAs, and clear operational boundaries.
• Set engineering standards, develop team members, and introduce AI tooling appropriately.
• Design for security, auditability, and self-service in regulated and customer-owned environments.

Benefits

• Equity in a category-defining scale-up.
• Ownership of high-stakes deployments and autonomy to solve complex enterprise problems.
• An AI-native engineering culture and small team.
• Opportunity to contribute to Pelico's growing US presence and work with an international team.
• Commitment to fair pay and equal opportunity.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed