Principal DevOps Engineer

KBR, Inc.•Colorado Springs, CO

1d•$142,000 - $212,900•Onsite

About The Position

KBR’s National Security Solutions team provides high-end engineering and advanced technology solutions to our customers in the intelligence and national security communities. Our KBR team in Colorado Springs, CO is seeking a Principal DevOps Engineer. This role is pivotal in integrating cloud technologies with DevOps practices, requiring a blend of technical skills and operational acumen. As a Principal DevOps Engineer, your contributions will directly impact the success of our projects and the overall business outcomes we aim to achieve. This role involves building the infrastructure that powers Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) prototypes — rapid-prototype cloud environments supporting warfighter capabilities across air, space, and cyber domains. It is a small team where engineers own decisions end-to-end; we value working code and face-to-face collaboration over process. AFRL leads the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space, and cyberspace force. Our rapid prototyping environment requires that we empower and entrust our engineers to make high level decisions. We live the Agile values, prioritizing development team autonomy, face-to-face communication, and working code over processes and documentation. Your work will directly support the Air Force in expanding national capabilities. As the Air Force's leader for National-to-Tactical capability development, AFRL collaborates with leading experts across the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, National Laboratories, industry, inter-agency, academia, and partner nations.

Requirements

Must have an active U.S. government TS security clearance with SCI eligibility, which is something only a U.S. citizen can obtain
B.S. in Computer Science. Other degrees will be considered with relevant work experience or certification.
5+ years building and deploying Kubernetes microservices on cloud platforms (Azure Government preferred)
Production Kubernetes experience (Helm, container orchestration)
Proficiency with GitLab CI/CD
Experience deploying to air-gapped networks
DoD 8140 / Security+ or equivalent (must obtain within 90 days of start)
On-site in Colorado Springs, CO (flexible schedule)
Ability to research and solve complex technical problems independently

Nice To Haves

Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) certification or similar
Azure cloud certification
Familiar with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, PowerShell scripting, Ansible, etc.)
OAuth2/OIDC/KeyCloak familiarity
Cert Manager, OpenSSL, and PKI experience
Experience with Kafka or similar event streaming platforms
Cloud native application delivery experience
Experience leading an engineering team

Responsibilities

Own the CI/CD pipelines that deliver containerized applications to Azure Government clusters supporting AFRL rapid prototypes — from build to scan to deployment.
Design and maintain deployments for air-gapped Kubernetes environments, establishing patterns other teams adopt.
Containerize legacy applications and build the Helm charts that package them for production.
Architect cloud-native networking and system designs for classified workloads.
Diagnose and resolve pipeline and deployment issues — you are the team's go-to for Kubernetes troubleshooting.
Build and deploy helm charts to Kubernetes clusters
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support a variety of tech stacks