Senior Devops Engineer

Senior DevOps Engineer

You are a senior DevOps engineer with a track record of designing and owning infrastructure at scale. You don't just improve existing systems — you identify what's missing, architect the solution, and see it through to production. You're equally comfortable writing Terraform modules, debugging a flaky CI pipeline, and leading a cross-team initiative to improve deployment reliability.

You've worked in environments where the stakes are high and the systems are complex. You understand that in regulated or safety-critical domains, how you ship software matters as much as what you ship. You can take ownership of a problem end-to-end and deliver without needing a playbook handed to you.

You want to work on something more interesting than a typical SaaS platform — at Merlin, the infrastructure you build supports software that flies real aircraft. And unlike most senior DevOps roles, there is no on-call rotation — nights and weekends are yours.

Responsibilities:

• Infrastructure Architecture — Own the design and evolution of Merlin's cloud and on-premises infrastructure across AWS and Azure. Make architectural decisions that balance cost, reliability, security, and compliance.
• Infrastructure as Code — Lead Terraform-based IaC initiatives across the organization. Establish standards, review infrastructure changes, and drive the team toward fully code-managed environments.
• CI/CD Platform Ownership — Set the technical direction for CI/CD pipelines across multiple interdependent systems using GitHub Actions. Drive reliability, performance, and maintainability improvements at the platform level.
• Security & Compliance — Own DevSecOps tooling — security scanning (SAST, SCA, container scanning), SBOM generation, and artifact integrity. Ensure pipelines meet contractual and regulatory obligations including export control and CDRL requirements.
• Cloud Environment Management — Manage cloud infrastructure across commercial and government-aligned environments, including Azure GCC High or equivalent FedRAMP/DoD-compliant platforms.
• Deployment Automation — Design and improve deployment pipelines to test systems, bench hardware, and flight test aircraft using Docker, Debian packaging, Ansible, and JFrog Artifactory.
• Cross-Team Collaboration — Partner with flight software engineers, systems engineers, IT, and leadership to ensure infrastructure supports program priorities. Communicate clearly and document your work to drive adoption across teams.

Qualifications:

• 3–5 years of experience in DevOps, Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, or a related role
• Deep expertise with Infrastructure as Code — Terraform required; CloudFormation or Pulumi also acceptable
• Strong hands-on experience with AWS and Microsoft Azure — AWS is our primary cloud for engineering infrastructure; both platforms are active parts of the role
• Strong experience with CI/CD platforms — GitHub Actions preferred; Jenkins, GitLab CI, or CircleCI also acceptable
• Solid experience with Linux system administration (Ubuntu preferred)
• Proficiency with Docker for building, publishing, and deploying container images
• Strong scripting skills in Python and Bash
• Experience with security and compliance tooling — SAST, SCA, SBOM generation, container scanning, or artifact signing
• Experience with configuration management tools — Ansible preferred; Chef, Puppet, or similar also acceptable — including managing software and configuration state across physical systems and embedded hardware targets (e.g., bench hardware, flight test aircraft), not just cloud or server infrastructure
• Familiarity with artifact repositories — JFrog Artifactory, Nexus, or similar package/container registries
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to work independently with minimal direction
• Excellent communication and documentation skills

Nice to Have:

• Experience with government-aligned cloud environments — Azure Government, GCC High, or equivalent FedRAMP/DoD-compliant platforms
• Experience working in GCC High (Microsoft Azure Government Community Cloud) or other FedRAMP/DoD-compliant cloud environments
• Experience with Debian packaging (dpkg, dch, Launchpad PPAs, or S3-hosted APT repos)
• Experience with software products that include a physical systems component — aircraft, robotics, medical devices, autonomous vehicles, or similar
• Familiarity with distributed pub/sub frameworks (e.g., ROS2) and underlying middleware such as DDS and Zenoh
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals and network security best practices
• Experience working in a regulated environment (aerospace, automotive, medical, defense) where traceability and process compliance matter
• Familiarity with SITL (Software-in-the-Loop) or HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop) simulation infrastructure
• Familiarity with dev containers and containerized development environments
• Familiarity with orchestration techniques for automated regression and simulation-level integration testing (e.g., ReSim or similar frameworks)