SME Platform Engineer

General Dynamics Information Technology • Arlington, TX

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Iron EagleX is seeking a SME Platform Engineer to support our Engineering team in Crystal City, VA. This role will lead the design, implementation, and management of our secure, on-premises cloud infrastructure. In this role, you will be the driving force behind our advanced computing environments, ensuring the seamless orchestration of containerized applications and large-scale data science platforms. You will work at the intersection of infrastructure, security, and machine learning, managing robust compute clusters and providing foundational support for AI model training and deployment. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in Kubernetes ecosystem tools, GitOps methodologies, and strict compliance standards.

As a SME Platform Engineer, your work will directly empower our data science and engineering teams to push the boundaries of machine learning and data analytics. By building and maintaining resilient GPU and Ray clusters, you will accelerate the fine-tuning and deployment of advanced models. Your commitment to security and compliance will ensure our critical systems remain protected against vulnerabilities, providing a safe, compliant, and highly performant foundation for the organization's most impactful technical initiatives. You will not just be managing infrastructure; you will be enabling innovation.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience designing, deploying, administering, and troubleshooting production Kubernetes environments; hands-on experience with RKE2 or similar.
• Strong Linux systems administration skills, including the ability to manage, diagnose, and troubleshoot infrastructure and platform services through the command line (CLI).
• Experience implementing authentication and authorization solutions using technologies such as Keycloak, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OIDC, RBAC, or comparable identity and access management frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with Git-based development and deployment workflows, including Helm charts, CI/CD pipelines, and GitOps practices.
• Experience with Argo CD or similar tools for declarative, GitOps-based continuous delivery.
• Experience managing Kubernetes storage solutions, including distributed block storage and object storage; experience with Longhorn or comparable technologies preferred.
• Experience hosting and administering data science or analytics platforms; experience with Posit Workbench, Posit Connect, Hive Metastore, or similar technologies.
• Experience configuring and operating systems in accordance with FIPS or comparable security and compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated experience identifying, prioritizing, and remediating critical and high-severity system and application vulnerabilities.
• Experience administering GPU-enabled compute environments supporting AI/ML, high-performance computing, or other compute-intensive workloads.
• Experience supporting distributed AI/ML workloads using Ray or comparable distributed computing frameworks, including model training and fine-tuning use cases.
• Experience deploying or supporting large language model inference and serving technologies; experience with vLLM and related routing capabilities preferred.
• Experience pulling, managing, securing, and troubleshooting container images using private or public registries such as Harbor, Docker Hub, Container Yard, or equivalent container registry platforms.
• Current TS/SCI Clearance with current or willingness to obtain CI polygraph
• 15 + years of related experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)

Nice To Haves

• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or comparable technologies.
• Proficiency in scripting or programming languages such as Python, Go, or Bash to support infrastructure automation, platform operations, and troubleshooting.
• Advanced knowledge of Linux system administration, networking concepts, and protocols within complex or highly available infrastructure environments.
• Experience implementing and maintaining monitoring, logging, and observability solutions using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, or comparable platforms.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices and the machine learning lifecycle, including model development, deployment, monitoring, versioning, and operational support.
• Experience automating infrastructure provisioning, configuration, deployment, and operational workflows in secure or regulated environments.
• Familiarity with performance tuning, capacity planning, and resource optimization for Kubernetes, GPU, or other compute-intensive environments.

Responsibilities

• Architect, deploy, and manage on-premises cloud infrastructure using RKE2 and maintain storage solutions like Longhorn and Object storage.
• Host and maintain robust data science environments, including software such as POSIT Workbench/Connect and Hive Metastore.
• Manage and scale robust GPU clusters, Ray Clusters for fine-tuning machine learning models, and VLLM Routers for efficient model inference.
• Build, maintain, and optimize CI/CD pipelines using Git, Helm charts, and ArgoCD for reliable software delivery.
• Ensure continuous FIPS compliance across the environment.
• Actively manage and mitigate critical and high-level vulnerabilities.
• Implement and maintain robust authentication and authorization mechanisms using Keycloak and Open Policy Agent (OPA).
• Pull and manage container images from secure registries such as Harbor, Docker Hub, or Containeryard.
• Manage all core capabilities and troubleshoot issues effectively via the command-line console.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits and wellness packages
• 401K with company match
• Competitive pay
• Paid time off
• Full flex work weeks where possible
• Variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave.
• Short and long-term disability benefits
• Life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior