Tysons or Warrenton
JOB DESCRIPTION
We are seeking a hands-on Systems Engineer with deep expertise across infrastructure, platforms, and application ecosystem spanning cloud and on-premises environments. This role requires a proven practitioner who can analyze existing (“as-is”) systems and applications, document current state architectures, design future-state solutions, and implement system enhancements or technology transformations end-to-end. The ideal candidate is a technical leader and achiever who can seamlessly collaborate across infrastructure, platform, application, DevSecOps, information systems security, and data teams while maintaining ownership of system reliability, performance, scalability, and security.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, or a related technical discipline, or the equivalent combination of education, technical training, or work/military experience
- Minimum ten (10) years of related systems engineering experience
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS
The candidate must demonstrate hands-on experience in all the following areas:
- Infrastructure & Platforms
- Enterprise networking (e.g. routing, switching, firewalls, load balancers, DNS)
- Storage technologies (e.g. SAN, NAS, object storage)
- Virtualization and container platforms (VMware, Hyper-V, Kubernetes, Docker)
- Windows and Linux (Redhat, CentOS) operating systems (administration, hardening, automation)
- Data platforms (HPCC, Hadoop/Cloudera)
- Cloud & On-Prem Technologies
- Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, and/or GCP)
- Hybrid and on-prem infrastructure design and integration
- Cloud networking, identity, security, and cost optimization
- Data & Application Platforms
- Relational and NoSQL databases – relational (e.g., Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server) and NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB, Redis) databases
- Data platforms (HPCC, Hadoop/Cloudera)
- Data pipelines, and ETL frameworks – with ETL pipelines, Airflow, Kafka, Spark, or similar frameworks
- Web services, APIs, and middleware
- Software development lifecycle (SDLC) fundamentals
- Engineering & Automation
- Infrastructure as Code – Scripting & Automation: Python, Bash, PowerShell, Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation
- Configuration management and scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python, etc.)
- CI/CD integration with infrastructure and platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, GitOps)
- Security best practices and system hardening
- Monitoring & Incident Response: Proficiency with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK Stack, CloudWatch
- Architecture & Design
- Ability to create:
- As-is architecture documentation
- To-be architecture and detailed engineering designs
- Implementation and migration plans
DESIRED SKILLS
- Observability and monitoring tools (logging, metrics, tracing)
- Zero Trust and modern security architectures
- Data analytics, AI/ML platform exposure
- Experience supporting regulated or mission-critical environments
- Relevant certifications (cloud, systems, security, or architecture)
- Knowledge of machine learning platforms (TensorFlow, PyTorch, SageMaker)
- Familiarity with big data ecosystems (Hadoop, Databricks, Snowflake, Google, BigQuery)
- Strong background in ITIL processes and agile methodologies
- Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect / DevOps Engineer, Azure Administrator, Kubernetes CKA/CKAD, ITIL Foundation
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Perform hands-on systems engineering across network, compute, storage, operating systems, middleware, databases, and applications
- Analyze and document as-is infrastructure, platform, and application architectures
- Design to-be architectures and detailed engineering designs for modernization, optimization, and transformation initiatives
- Lead and execute cloud and on-prem system implementations, migrations, and upgrades
- Ensure systems meet availability, scalability, performance, security, and compliance requirements
- Integrate infrastructure and platforms with DevOps and DevSecOps pipelines
- Troubleshoot complex, cross-stack issues spanning infrastructure, platforms, and applications
- Collaborate effectively with:
- Infrastructure & Platform Engineers
- Software Engineers
- DevOps / DevSecOps Engineers
- Data Engineers (ETL)
- Data Modelers, Data Scientists, and Data Analysts
- Produce clear technical documentation, diagrams, standards, and runbooks
- Serve as a technical authority and escalation point for complex system issues
- Communication Skills: Ability to brief executives clearly and translate technical issues into business impact
IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE
- Recognized SME with deep, hands-on technical expertise
- Strong systems thinker with the ability to see and engineer across the full stack
- Comfortable operating at both strategic architecture and tactical implementation levels
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams
- Proven ability to own complex systems from design through production