Senior Specialist, Software Engineering (DevOps Engineer)

L3Harris•Fountain, CO

About The Position

Join L3Harris and the ATLAS team to build and operate mission-critical backend and deployment capabilities supporting the U.S. Space Force. This role combines modern backend development with hands-on DevOps responsibilities to ensure services run reliably across multiple environments. Using Java, Spring Boot, SQL, and Kubernetes, the Senior Specialist designs, develops, deploys, and sustains services for the Advanced Tracking & Launch Analysis System (ATLAS), helping operators make informed decisions in a space mission environment. The position offers national security impact and collaboration with technical teams, with software and operational tooling used in real-world missions. The work includes supporting operational and training capabilities, particularly concurrent training scenarios, and implementing controls for scenario execution, state capture and restoration, and replay across distributed services. The role also develops Kubernetes deployment and orchestration solutions, works with platform teams on virtual-cluster technologies, and contributes to testing, observability, troubleshooting, and optimization across development, test, staging, and operational environments. The position is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and follows a 9/80 schedule: employees work 9 out of every 14 days, totaling 80 hours, with every other Friday off. Applicants must hold or be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 6 years of prior relevant experience; graduate degree and a minimum of 4 years of prior related experience; or, in lieu of a degree, a minimum of 10 years of prior related experience.
Strong hands-on experience developing backend microservices and APIs using Java, Spring Boot, and SQL.
Experience designing, testing, and troubleshooting distributed applications, including concurrent processing, service coordination, and data consistency.
Hands-on experience deploying and managing Kubernetes-based applications, including deployment automation, workload isolation, resource configuration, and troubleshooting.
Experience developing data initialization, provisioning, or lifecycle-management capabilities for training, simulation, testing, or comparable multi-instance environments.
Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, and application configuration management.
Experience collaborating across application development, platform administration, DevOps, and integration teams.
Experience working in Linux and Windows Server environments.
Must hold or be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience with simulation-time control, state checkpointing and restoration, event replay, or reproducible scenario execution.
Familiarity with concurrency control, event ordering, idempotency, and distributed state management.
Experience with Kubernetes virtual clusters, such as vCluster, or comparable multi-tenant isolation technologies.
Experience with Helm, Kubernetes operators, custom resource definitions, infrastructure as code, or GitOps.
Experience implementing application and infrastructure observability, including logging, metrics, and tracing.
Experience with GraphQL APIs or similar data-querying technologies.
Background in space operations, Space Domain Awareness (SDA), or orbital modeling and simulation.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, test, and sustain backend microservices and APIs using Java, Spring Boot, and SQL for operational and training capabilities.
Develop services for concurrent training scenarios, including execution coordination, scenario-data management, and lifecycle operations.
Collaborate with application and systems architects on scenario-time control, state capture and restoration, and replay across distributed services.
Design and implement Kubernetes deployment and orchestration solutions for concurrent training environments, including automated provisioning, workload isolation, and resource management.
Evaluate and integrate virtual-cluster technologies with the Platform Services Administration team to meet isolation, scalability, security, and operational requirements.
Collaborate with platform, DevOps, and integration teams to establish service interfaces, deployment automation, configuration practices, and integration testing.
Develop automated tests and observability capabilities to validate application functionality, scenario-data integrity, and deployment reliability.
Troubleshoot and optimize backend services, database interactions, and Kubernetes workloads across development, test, staging, and operational environments.
Work with systems engineers, front-end developers, testers, and mission operators to deliver reliable, resilient capabilities.