Operations Support Engineer - Lead
Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is seeking a Lead Operations Support Engineer to join their DevOps and infrastructure team. This role involves supporting application developers and operations at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) within the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The position is based in Bethesda, MD, with options for remote work.
In this role, the Lead Operations Support Engineer will lead a team responsible for assisting internal developers in transitioning legacy software development and deployment to a modern DevOps platform based on GitLab and Kubernetes. Key responsibilities include identifying and resolving operational issues in a micro-service environment, collaborating with developers to address deployment and runtime problems, and performing analysis and debugging across multiple technologies. The engineer will also prioritize issues to maintain application performance, document processes and procedures, compile postmortems to minimize future outages, and provide on-call support to NCBI's internal developers and staff.
Candidates should possess a BS degree in a STEM field or equivalent experience, with a customer-focused and team-oriented approach. Proficiency in systems debugging, familiarity with the Linux environment or UNIX command-line interface, and experience with programming or scripting languages are essential. The role requires the ability to create processes, procedures, and standard operating procedures documentation, a general understanding of TCP/IP, HTTP, and related protocols, and the initiative to take ownership of tasks and drive them to completion. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are necessary to interface with customers, peers, and management.
Preferred qualifications include experience with Kubernetes, OpenShift, cloud technologies, and Linux systems administration. Familiarity with automated continuous integration servers, such as TeamCity and GitLab, and automation programming or scripting in languages like bash, Ruby, Python, Go, Java, Scala, Rust, or C++ is advantageous. Experience with automated configuration management tools like Puppet, Ansible, or Chef, version control systems (especially git), service mesh technologies (e.g., linkerd, Istio), and monitoring and alerting technologies (e.g., TIGK stack, Grafana, Prometheus, OpsGenie) is also beneficial. Knowledge of Confluence, Jira, Microsoft Office suite, GitOps tools (especially ArgoCD), and Google Anthos is a plus.
Black Canyon Consulting offers a competitive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition reimbursement. The company fosters a culture centered on integrity, impact, and innovation, emphasizing customer-focused service delivery. Employees have access to flexible working hours, remote options, on- and off-site training courses, and opportunities for conference attendance and tuition reimbursement.
Joining Black Canyon Consulting provides an opportunity to work on challenging problems in a technical, scientific, and goal-oriented environment. The company values agility, adaptability, and a customer-focused approach, offering a dynamic and innovative work environment. Employees are encouraged to take ownership of tasks and drive them to completion, contributing to the company's mission of delivering high-value execution in support of Federal R&D programs.