Systems Engineering Manager (Hybrid)

CareFirst•Reston, VA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Systems Engineering Manager leads a team responsible for the daily operation, design, and engineering of the organization’s infrastructure. The role oversees environments across multiple on-premises data centers, cloud infrastructure, and disaster recovery, ensuring availability, performance, security, automation, DevOps, and license compliance. The manager ensures hardware and software are installed and configured according to vendor best practices and organizational needs, monitors system performance, and recommends or carries out engineering work as needed. The position is accountable for establishing and maintaining customer-based service level agreements, developing staff, retaining talent, and managing hardware and software budgets. It oversees engineering support processes, evaluates deliverables, manages relationships with internal business units, and works with vendors to understand product lifecycles. The manager guides technical specifications and leads validation planning for projects, including deliverables, resources, personnel, and timelines. This is a people-management role in the Platform Engineering department, with an estimated 10% travel requirement for routine travel between CareFirst/SBP locations. The position is hybrid.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field; alternatively, four additional years of relevant work experience in addition to the required experience.
Five years of related professional experience.
One year of supervisory experience or demonstrated progressive leadership experience.
Ability to present technical and non-technical information to multiple audiences.
Ability to build relationships across partner groups in a global environment.
Ability to plan and manage complex projects.
Knowledge of engineering theory and design criteria.
Proficiency with systems engineering tools and processes.
Ability to meet established deadlines and handle multiple customer service demands within service expectations.
Effective communication and positive customer service skills with internal and external customers, including demanding or challenging customers.
Must be eligible to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

ITIL Foundations certification, preferred and obtainable within 12 months.
SAFe Agile certification, obtainable within 12 months.
AWS Cloud Practitioner certification, obtainable within 12 months.
Certified Kubernetes Administrator certification (listed as “CFA” in the posting), obtainable within 12 months.
Demonstrated experience applying platform-as-code principles, including customer-centric service design, self-service capabilities, golden paths, platform roadmaps, adoption measurements, and continuous feedback.
Platform-as-a-product mindset.
Technology strategy and multi-year roadmap development experience.
Outcome-based leadership and use of OKRs/KPIs.
Experience with Agile/SAFe delivery and reliability engineering principles.
Talent development and organizational change leadership experience.
Knowledge of AWS compute architecture, especially EC2, Kubernetes/EKS, and container orchestration.
Knowledge of VDI/DaaS technologies.
Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and GitOps concepts.
Knowledge of observability and telemetry.
Networking and storage fundamentals.
Knowledge of cloud security and policy as code.
Knowledge of disaster recovery/resilience and high-availability architecture.
Experience with automation tooling and scripting.

Responsibilities

Manage a team of technical engineers responsible for daily infrastructure operations, design, and engineering.
Administer environments across on-premises data centers, cloud infrastructure, and disaster recovery.
Maintain infrastructure availability, performance, security, automation, DevOps, and license compliance.
Ensure hardware and software are installed and optimally configured according to vendor best practices and organizational needs.
Monitor system performance, provide recommendations, and execute engineering tasks as needed.
Create and maintain customer-based service level agreements.
Mentor staff and manage talent retention, hardware budgets, and software budgets.
Oversee system engineers and engineering support processes to ensure effective resolution of business issues.
Evaluate deliverables to ensure products and services meet customer expectations.
Manage relationships with internal business units to deliver on service level agreements.
Support performance management and associate development.
Communicate with vendors to understand product lifecycles.
Guide engineering teams in developing system, performance, and software specifications.
Lead validation planning for ongoing projects, including deliverables, resources, personnel, and timelines.
Travel routinely between CareFirst/SBP locations, estimated at 10%.