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Systems Planning & Analysis · 2 hours ago

Principal Platform Engineer

Colorado Springs, CO

Full-time

Onsite

Lead/Staff

$165K/yr - $250K/yr

8+ years exp

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) is known for delivering high-impact technical solutions to complex national security issues. They are seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to build, deploy, and enhance a secure Azure-based cloud environment while ensuring compliance and operational excellence.

AnalyticsInformation Technology

Growth Opportunities

No H1B

Security Clearance Required

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Execute platform builds and deployments in alignment with approved reference architectures, patterns, and standards

Integrate core platform services such as AKS, GitLab, ArgoCD, Keycloak, and Azure Arc into the environment with precision and compliance rigor

Maintain and optimize day-to-day operations, including monitoring, scaling, patching, and securing workloads to ensure platform stability and compliance

Implement observability and monitoring solutions (Grafana, Loki, ELK, Azure Metrics Advisor) to achieve proactive, data-driven operations

Serve as the senior technical lead for implementation details and operational best practices for the SCI environment

Drive disciplined execution, coach team members, and ensure consistency across automation, configuration, and security baselines

Implement DevSecOps best practices, including automated security scanning (SAST/DAST, SBOM, Trivy, SonarQube), compliance-as-code pipelines, and continuous patching cycles

Ensure platform adherence to NIST 800-53/171, FedRAMP, and organizational cyber standards

Participate in Configuration Management and Change Control Boards, providing technical assessments and recommendations

Identify and implement process and automation improvements to enhance reliability, deployment velocity, and mean time to recovery (MTTR)

Partner with security, operations, and development teams to translate mission requirements into technical implementations that align with the approved platform roadmap and enterprise constraints

Qualification

Azure Cloud ServicesKubernetesDevSecOpsInfrastructure AutomationCI/CD PipelinesSecurity AutomationObservability StacksHybrid-cloud OperationsTroubleshooting SkillsIdentity ManagementSecrets ManagementCompliance-as-codeVulnerability ScanningCollaboration SkillsDocumentation Skills

Required

US Citizen and current active DoD Top Secret (TS) clearance with SCI eligibility

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related Engineering discipline

Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in cloud engineering, site reliability, DevSecOps, or infrastructure automation

Possession of DoD 8570/8140-compliant IAT Level II security certification

Deep hands-on experience with Azure Cloud Services, including AKS, VNETs, Application Gateway, and VPNs

Strong working knowledge of Kubernetes, GitOps, and CI/CD pipelines (GitLab, ArgoCD, Helm, Terraform/Bicep)

Familiar with identity management (Keycloak, Active Directory) and secrets management (External Secrets Operator)

Proficient in security automation, vulnerability scanning, and compliance-as-code integration

Experience with observability stacks (Grafana, ELK, Loki, or equivalent)

Understanding of hybrid-cloud and edge operations (Azure Arc, VDI environments)

Excellent troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in complex, hybrid environments

Strong documentation and collaboration habits

Ability to report to designated work location in Colorado Springs, up to full time, based on the needs of the customer

Preferred

Possession of at least one of the following certifications: Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700), Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400), Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent