DevOps Engineer

Founded in 2007, Initiate Government Solutions (IGS) is a Woman-Owned Small Business and a fully remote IT services provider supporting federal partners nationwide. We deliver innovative Enterprise IT and Health Services solutions with a strong focus on data analytics, health informatics, cloud migration, AI, and the modernization of federal information systems.

Our vision is to be a health IT trendsetter, continuing to solve the nation’s most challenging healthcare IT issues by conceiving, designing, and building solid, creative, and innovative open-source solutions. 

Our mission is to innovate, design, and deliver tailored solutions that balance technical advancement with cost-awareness while providing exceptional service.

IGS is currently recruiting a remote DevOps Engineer to support our work with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 

Assignment of Work and Travel:

This is a remote access assignment. The Candidate will work remotely daily and will remotely access VA systems and therein use approved VA provided communications systems. Travel is not required; however, the candidate may be required to attend onsite client meetings as requested.

This role leads the design and delivery of a secure, scalable, cloud-native self-service platform that enables automated deployment of containerized applications and enterprise APIs for federal data consumers. It partners closely with stakeholders to define architectural vision, enforce DevSecOps and Kubernetes standards, and deliver PaaS and end-to-end software solutions that accelerate development while ensuring compliance and reliability.

Responsibilities and Duties (Included but not limited to):

• Create and foster Self-Service Principles - create automated process for creating on-demand platform for deploying containerized applications and exposing API endpoints to federal data consumers
• Architectural Vision & Strategy: Shape and communicate the architectural blueprint for Lighthouse with a focus on scalability, security, automation, and developer experience in a cloud-native environment.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with product owners, security teams, and stakeholders to facilitate and prioritize features that Program Manager(s) can use to meet business needs and create technical roadmaps, ensuring compliance with VA, federal, and industry requirements.
• Establish and Enforce Standards: Define, document, and advocate for engineering best practices across the VA Lighthouse program, leveraging your expertise in DevSecOps and Kubernetes.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): Provide clients with PaaS solutions—delivering low-code/no-code development platforms and enterprise-grade API engineering to accelerate application delivery, streamline integration, and enable scalable digital solutions.
• End-to-End Software Development: Execute efforts across the full software development lifecycle, automating processes, boosting operational efficiency, and strengthening system reliability.
• DevSecOps Ownership: Design, implement, and maintain secure, automated CI/CD pipelines and increased monitoring and platform related business intelligence. Automate build, test, deployment, and infrastructure processes; champion shift-left security practices.
• Continuous Innovation: Continuously refine the platform and deliver innovative, reliable solutions to meet the mission.
• Governance & Compliance: Ensure solutions meet all compliance requirements, including audit readiness and documentation.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 5+ years of experience with AWS Cloud and/or DevOps at scale
• Deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes (design, implementation, troubleshooting, scaling) in production environments
• Understanding of L4, L5, and L7 networking with AWS Resources and Cilium, Istio, or equivalent operators
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and scripting languages
• Experience leading engineering teams and setting program-level standards
• Experience defining and maintaining a monitoring solution for providing insight to platform issues
• US Citizenship required due to clearance requirement 

 Preferred Qualifications and Core Competencies:  

• 8+ years in software or platform engineering, including technical leadership or architect role
• Experience with Terraform or OpenTofu for IaC
• Experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef
• Proven success implementing secure, automated DevSecOps pipelines and containerization tools like Kubernetes or Docker
• Experience with Blue Green Deployment techniques with ArgoCD
• Experience with end-to-end encryption techniques using managed mTLS
• Familiarity with monitoring, security best practices, and regulatory compliance (e.g., FedRAMP, FISMA)
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills
• Experience working with or within government or public sector environments
• Demonstrated ability to stay current with cloud and emerging technology trends
• Active VA Public Trust
• Prior experience supporting federal agencies
• Certifications in AWS, Kubernetes, or DevOps-related disciplines.
• Prior,  successful experience working in a remote environment

Successful IGS employees embody the following Core Values:

• Integrity, Honesty, and Ethics: We conduct our business with the highest level of ethics. Doing things like being accountable for mistakes, accepting helpful criticism, and following through on commitments to ourselves, each other, and our customers. 
• Empathy, Emotional Intelligence: How we interact with others including peers, colleagues, stakeholders, and customers’ matters. We take collective responsibility to create an environment where colleagues and customers feel valued, included, and respected. We work within a diverse, integrated, and collaborative team to drive towards accomplishing the larger mission. We conscientiously and meticulously learn about our customers’ and end-users’ business drivers and challenges to ensure solutions meet not only technical needs but also support their mission.
• Strong Work Ethic (Reliability, Dedication, Productivity): We are driven by a strong, self-motivated, and results-driven work ethic. We are reliable, accountable, proactive, and tenacious and will do what it takes to get the job done. 
• Life-Long Learner (Curious, Perspective, Goal Oriented): We challenge ourselves to continually learn and improve ourselves. We strive to be an expert in our field, continuously honing our craft, and finding solutions where others see problems.  

Compensation: There are a host of factors that can influence final salary, including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications.

Benefits: Initiate Government Solutions offers competitive compensation and a robust benefits package, including comprehensive medical, dental, and vision care, matching 401K and profit sharing, paid time off, training time for personal development, flexible spending accounts, employer-paid life insurance, employer-paid short and long term disability coverage, an education assistance program with potential merit increases for obtaining a work-related certification, employee recognition, and referral programs, spot bonuses, and other benefits that help provide financial protection for the employee and their family.

Initiate Government Solutions participates in the Electronic Employment Verification Program.

Initiate Government Solutions participates in the Electronic Employment Verification Program.