Principal DevOps Architect

MKS Instruments•Milpitas, CA

4d•$140,000 - $185,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a Principal DevOps Architect in Engineering Services at MKS, you will shape how engineering teams across the company build, test, secure, and deliver software. This high-impact technical role combines strategic architecture with hands-on problem solving to address complex DevOps challenges at enterprise scale. You will partner with engineering teams, IT, and Security to modernize the DevOps ecosystem, simplify the tool landscape, create reusable engineering solutions, and establish dependable platforms. Approximately 20% of your time will be spent assisting with administration of tools such as GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab, and Jenkins. You will influence the future direction of DevOps at MKS, including CI/CD architecture, developer workflows, DevSecOps, automation, reliability, and software delivery standards. This hybrid role requires two days per week in the office and reports to the Manager, Engineering Services. Travel is less than 15%.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Management Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of progressive experience in DevOps, DevSecOps, platform engineering, software engineering, cloud engineering, infrastructure engineering, or a related technical discipline.
5+ years of hands-on experience architecting, building, administering, or modernizing enterprise CI/CD and DevOps platforms that support multiple engineering teams, sites, or business units.
Deep understanding of CI/CD architecture, software development lifecycle practices, source control, branching and pull-request models, build and test automation, artifact management, release engineering, and platform reliability.
Hands-on experience with several of the following: GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, CloudBees CI, Perforce, Bitbucket, Nexus Repository, Jira, and Confluence.
Experience creating reusable automation, pipelines, templates, frameworks, or platform capabilities that reduce developer friction and improve consistency at scale.
Strong understanding of DevSecOps and secure software delivery practices, including identity, secrets, vulnerability management, access controls, auditability, and software supply chain security.
Ability to move between architecture and hands-on technical problem solving while influencing engineering teams and technical leaders without direct authority.
Strong communication skills and ability to translate complex technical decisions into practical solutions for engineers, IT, Security, vendors, and business leaders.
Eligible to work in the United States; the company will not sponsor work visas for this position at this time.
Ability to take and follow directions and instructions.
Ability to interact with employees, customers, suppliers, vendors, or the public in a safe, professional, and respectful manner.
Trustworthiness, reliability, and good judgment, including in connection with access to sensitive and confidential business systems and information.
May need to qualify as a U.S. person for access to controlled goods or technologies subject to ITAR or EAR, depending on position requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience integrating source code management, CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps tooling, secure artifact management, software supply-chain controls, and AI-assisted development capabilities into enterprise engineering workflows.
Experience supporting firmware, embedded software, FPGA, robotics, IoT, operational technology, hardware validation, lab-connected testing, or other physical-product engineering environments.
Experience establishing or participating in a DevOps Center of Excellence, platform engineering function, or enterprise architecture governance model.

Responsibilities

Own the technical vision and architecture for MKS's enterprise DevOps capability, including source control, CI/CD, artifact management, release automation, DevSecOps, reliability, and platform governance.
Modernize and simplify a complex DevOps ecosystem spanning GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab, Jenkins, CloudBees CI, Nexus, Perforce, Bitbucket, and related engineering platforms.
Architect reusable CI/CD solutions, including pipeline templates, shared libraries, automated testing, quality gates, artifact promotion, and repeatable release patterns for engineering teams to adopt at scale.
Identify developer friction, technical debt, reliability gaps, and opportunities for automation and standardization, and solve related platform and developer-experience problems.
Partner with Security and IT to build security into engineering workflows through identity management, secrets management, least-privilege access, vulnerability scanning, auditability, and software supply chain controls.
Set technical direction and influence engineering practices across teams and sites while allowing flexibility for different products and engineering environments.
Establish and lead the DevOps Center of Excellence, creating practical standards, reference architectures, documentation, training, mentoring, and a community of practice.
Advise engineering teams on difficult CI/CD, platform, reliability, release, and DevSecOps challenges.
Improve engineering-platform reliability and supportability through automation, ownership, documentation, observability, and operational practices.
Assist with administration of tools such as GitHub Enterprise, Azure DevOps, GitLab, and Jenkins, approximately 20% of the time.
Occasionally participate in urgent incidents, platform-support, or escalation discussions involving critical DevOps services.
Occasionally travel for stakeholder workshops or platform reviews based on business needs.

Benefits

Discretionary annual bonus eligibility.
Comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance.
401(k) with company match.
Life and disability insurance.
12 paid holidays.
Sick time.
15 paid vacation days.
Six weeks of fully paid parental leave.
Adoption assistance.
Tuition reimbursement.