Senior DevOps Engineer
Cambridge, MA
Contract or Contract to hire
This is a contract to hire position with a Higher Education Institute.
Highlights:
*B.S, Degree plus 10 years of work experience (or 14 years’ experience)
*Strong Python or Ruby scripting abilities
*Working knowledge of virtualization (public and private clouds); such as VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, AWS and Azure
*Software development and release engineering experience a plus.
*Prior experience with frameworks (i.e., Django, NodeJS and Flask) a plus.
*Prior experience with software defined networking technologies a plus.
*Knowledge of containers and container orchestration a plus; Docker and Kubernetes preferred.
*Relevant industry accredited certification preferred.
We are looking for an experienced DevOps engineer to automate, optimize, and modernize aspects of our hybrid cloud platform.
We are engaged in a number of exciting projects, including multi-cloud management of over 3,000 VMs, full lifecycle management of Linux through Puppet and REST APIs, the Software-Defined Data Center (storage, compute, and networking), modernization of our Linux stacks, backup service modernization, and container management. Our technology stack includes Puppet, Python, Git, Django/Flash apps, Cloud APIs, vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Cisco UCS, and VMware NSXt.
The ideal candidate for this position is a self-starter, has a love of infrastructure and automation, and enjoys collaborative work on leading edge technologies. There are two tracks for this position: Linux site reliability engineering or DevOps automation. Familiarity with our entire technology stack is not necessary
Essential Functions:
- Work Planning & Requirements:
- Work within and between operational teams to identify and implement process improvements for the benefit of customer facing services.
- Evaluate requirements for projects to determine the impact to the infrastructure such as equipment redundancy and capacity requirements.
- Create and share development estimates and operational requirements to enable accurate planning with realistic timelines.
- Design:
- Create technical design specifications.
- Work closely with architects to assure all systems are in line with IS&T’s long-term strategy.
- Development:
- Follow technical design specifications to develop/build, test, debug, plan and execute IT systems.
- Install and configure cloud infrastructure and software components.
- Coordinate development activities with other groups.
- Lead or provide technical direction for planning, designing, and executing tests.
- Integration:
- Integrate with and augment OS, infrastructure and software-defined network and security platforms.
- Change Management:
- Review production and test change requests with appropriate IT groups and resolve discrepancies and dependencies.
- Responsible for the full-cycle test development, execution and automation of OS, DSM and Virtualization applications.
- Administration:
- Plan and perform routine maintenance tasks for infrastructure systems.
- Administer applications and systems.
- Cloud:
- Implement and control the flow of data to and from the Cloud.
- Design and automate templates for cloud infrastructure use cases.
- May conduct traffic and capacity analysis.
- Production Support:
- Maintain and enhance internal tooling and enhance full lifecycle of infrastructure.
- Participate in on-call rotation.
- Research, analyze and recommend solutions for problems and/or create temporary fixes until permanent solutions can be implemented.
- Review checklists, scrips and updates as needed.
- Performance Management:
- Analyze performance and control reports to understand the infrastructure’s strengths and weaknesses to uncover opportunities for improvements.
- Vendor Management:
- Work with vendors to resolve problems and develop solutions.
- Evaluate vendor solutions to ensure compliance with requirements and cost-effectiveness.
- Perform vendor reviews periodically.
- Customer Satisfaction:
- Provide high level of customer satisfaction in promptly responding to requests, resolving problems and managing changes.
- Business Continuity:
- Participate in the development of contingency plans including reliable backup and restoration procedures.
- Assist in the development of disaster recovery plans with service providers.
- Policies, Processes and Standards:
- May assist in defining DevOps policies, processes and standards.
- Adhere to standards and procedures; ensuring compliance.
- Document/User Guides:
- Document functions and changes to new or modified modules, test activities/results and other areas.
- Prepare informative documents relating to usage and specific system standards.
- Prepare instructional materials to assist employees in using and understanding the email system.
- Technology Evaluation and Research:
- Evaluate new application packages and tools and perform research on best practices.
- Provide recommendations for the solutions.
- Coaching and Mentoring:
- Provide technical leadership, coaching and mentoring to team members.
- Provide advice, encouragement and constructive feedback.
- Develop reports and presentations for senior management as needed.
- Additional responsibilities as requested and/or required.
Required Qualifications & Technical Skills:
- Bachelors Degree and minimum 10 years of relevant experience. Without a Bachelors Degree, minimum of 14 years of relevant experience required.
- Possess strong scripting abilities, Python or Ruby preferred.
- Working knowledge of virtualization (public and private clouds); such as VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, AWS and Azure.
- Strong communication (oral and written) and presentation skills to effectively collaborate with all levels in ways that support problem solving and planning.
- Demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional teams in pursuit of common goals.
- Demonstrated ability to analyze and interpret complex problems or processes, identify and understand requirements, and develop alternate solutions.
- Experience designing, developing, testing, and deploying applications/systems using proven or emerging technologies in a variety of technologies and environments.
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
Desired Qualifications & Technical Skills:
- Software development and release engineering experience a plus.
- Prior experience with frameworks (i.e., Django, NodeJS and Flask) a plus.
- Prior experience with software defined networking technologies a plus.
- Knowledge of containers and container orchestration a plus; Docker and Kubernetes preferred.
- Relevant industry accredited certification preferred.