Systems Operations Engineer

Parsons•Colorado Springs, CO

10d•Remote

About The Position

Our Space Operations Program Directorate is passionate about making America the undisputed leader in Space because we understand that ensuring our nation’s security for future generations depends on it. Parsons creates game-changing space solutions by teaming highly respected subject matter experts with brilliant technologists. Do you want to be part of a team that is helping the government solve major national security challenges in the space domain? We need your help. Our Team is seeking a highly experienced and certified Systems Operations Engineer to join our team. The Systems Operations Engineer will ensure the continuous health, availability, security, system currency, and repeatability of the organization’s cloud environments and core operational platforms. Serving as a hybrid system administrator and cloud operations specialist, you will manage core internal services—specifically Keycloak for identity management and Mattermost for team collaboration—while maintaining Terraform and Ansible automation scripts to guarantee rapid infrastructure reconstitution. You will actively drive system lifecycle management, ensuring all operating systems, software packages, dependencies, and platform applications remain fully updated, patched, and compliant against security vulnerabilities. You will work closely with development teams to support smooth, reliable application deployments across multi‑cloud, hybrid-cloud orchestration platforms. You will need experience with DoW cloud service offerings, software development processes, system authorization processes, and policies to create cohesive and integrated system architectures. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to critical missions by leveraging advanced cloud technologies to enhance data processing, analytics, and integration capabilities. In this role you will work closely with government stakeholders, software developers, mission operators, and commercial vendors to ensure commercial capabilities are integrated, tested, and transitioned effectively into the Joint Commercial Operations (JCO) cloud environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline with 2+ years of relevant systems operations, infrastructure support, or IT engineering experience; or an associate degree/HS diploma with 5+ years of experience.
Strong technical expertise with core cloud infrastructure services (EC2, VPC, S3, IAM, CloudWatch, security groups).
Evaluate and select appropriate cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, GovCloud, etc.) based on workload needs, compliance requirements, and cost considerations.
Demonstrated experience managing system updates, software lifecycles, and automated patch management across cloud environments using development pipelines.
Perform routine Linux and cloud administration, including automated system deployments, health monitoring, user access management, and resource optimization across AWS environments.
Ability to obtain a security clearance if required by the contract.
Strong communication skills, including the ability to create high-quality technical documentation and presentations for senior leadership.
Extensive troubleshooting abilities and comfort working in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders to ensure cloud solutions meet mission requirements and follow best practices.
DoD 8140/8570 IAT Level II certification (Security+, CISSP, CCNA, etc.) or ability to obtain certification within 60 days of employment.

Nice To Haves

Strong understanding of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and serverless architectures.
Familiarity with networking concepts (VPC, VPN, DNS, load balancing).
Understanding of security frameworks (Zero Trust, IAM, encryption at rest/in‑flight).
Experience with Agile/Scrum development processes.
Exposure to DevOps culture and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, Argo).

Responsibilities

Ensure the continuous health, availability, security, system currency, and repeatability of the organization’s cloud environments and core operational platforms.
Manage core internal services—specifically Keycloak for identity management and Mattermost for team collaboration.
Maintain Terraform and Ansible automation scripts to guarantee rapid infrastructure reconstitution.
Actively drive system lifecycle management, ensuring all operating systems, software packages, dependencies, and platform applications remain fully updated, patched, and compliant against security vulnerabilities.
Work closely with development teams to support smooth, reliable application deployments across multi‑cloud, hybrid-cloud orchestration platforms.
Work closely with government stakeholders, software developers, mission operators, and commercial vendors to ensure commercial capabilities are integrated, tested, and transitioned effectively into the Joint Commercial Operations (JCO) cloud environment.
Monitor cloud infrastructure telemetry, manage system logs, rapidly troubleshoot operational disruptions, and perform root-cause remediation.
Lead software lifecycle and patch management efforts, ensuring operating systems, container base images, AMI templates, and software dependencies are consistently kept current and supported.
Perform routine Linux and cloud administration, including automated system deployments, health monitoring, user access management, and resource optimization across AWS environments.
Administer, configure, and upgrade core operational tools, applying major/minor vendor releases and security patches for Keycloak (IAM/SSO) and Mattermost (collaboration platform).
Develop, test, and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management scripts with Terraform and Ansible to enable automated, repeatable reconstitution of fully patched cloud environments and applications.
Maintain version-controlled Terraform and Ansible repositories capable of rebuilding complete, up-to-date infrastructure and application stacks on demand.
Proactively monitor vulnerability scan results, track End-of-Life (EOL) software timelines, and rapidly apply remediation patches for zero-day vulnerabilities and security advisories.
Create and maintain system administration logs, user privilege matrices, version upgrade procedures, and disaster recovery runbooks.
Define end-to-end architectural blueprints for cloud-enabled solutions (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and ensure alignment with U.S. government IT regulatory frameworks.
Communicate architectural trade-offs and risk assessments to executives and non-technical stakeholders; produce architecture diagrams, decision logs, and reference implementations.
Ensure data consistency, latency, and reliability across cloud and hybrid environments.
Embed security controls—including identity and access management, encryption, and network segmentation—into all designs.
Model capacity, scalability, and resiliency needs; implement monitoring, observability, and cost-optimization strategies (right-sizing, auto-scaling, reserved instances).
Ability to obtain a security clearance if required by the contract.
Communicate effectively, including the ability to create high-quality technical documentation and presentations for senior leadership.
Collaborate with diverse stakeholders to ensure cloud solutions meet mission requirements and follow best practices.