Title:
Principal DevOps Engineer
Belong. Connect. Grow. with KBR!
KBR’s National Security Solutions team provides high-end engineering and advanced technology solutions to our customers in the intelligence and national security communities.
Our KBR team in Colorado Springs, CO is seeking a Principal DevOps Engineer . This role is pivotal in integrating cloud technologies with DevOps practices, requiring a blend of technical skills and operational acumen.
As a Principal DevOps Engineer , your contributions will directly impact the success of our projects and the overall business outcomes we aim to achieve.
Why Join Us?
Innovative Projects: Build the infrastructure that powers Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) prototypes — rapid-prototype cloud environments supporting warfighter capabilities across air, space, and cyber domains. This is a small team where engineers own decisions end-to-end; we value working code and face-to-face collaboration over process. AFRL leads the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space, and cyberspace force.
Collaborative Environment: Our rapid prototyping environment requires that we empower and entrust our engineers to make high level decisions. We live the Agile values, prioritizing development team autonomy, face-to-face communication, and working code over processes and documentation.
Impactful Work: Your work will directly support the Air Force in expanding national capabilities. As the Air Force's leader for National-to-Tactical capability development, AFRL collaborates with leading experts across the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, National Laboratories, industry, inter-agency, academia, and partner nations.
Key Responsibilities:
Within your first year, you will: Own the CI/CD pipelines that deliver containerized applications to Azure Government clusters supporting AFRL rapid prototypes — from build to scan to deployment.
Design and maintain deployments for air-gapped Kubernetes environments, establishing patterns other teams adopt.
Containerize legacy applications and build the Helm charts that package them for production.
Architect cloud-native networking and system designs for classified workloads.
Diagnose and resolve pipeline and deployment issues — you are the team's go-to for Kubernetes troubleshooting.
Build and deploy helm charts to Kubernetes clusters
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support a variety of tech stacks
Technology Ownership: Containerization & Orchestration: Kubernetes, Helm, and Zarf
Cloud Environments: Microsoft Azure Government, Air-Gapped Cloud Platforms
CI/CD Platforms: GitLab CI
Security: Anchore, Trivy, Grype, SAST tools
Work Environment:
Location: Colorado Springs, CO – Onsite
Travel Requirements: Minimal
Working Hours: Flexible
Qualifications:
Required:
Security Clearance: Must have an active U.S. government TS/SCI security clearance, which is something only a U.S. citizen can obtain
Education: B.S. in Computer Science. Other degrees will be considered with relevant work experience or certification.
5+ years building and deploying Kubernetes microservices on cloud platforms (Azure Government preferred)
Production Kubernetes experience (Helm, container orchestration)
Proficiency with GitLab CI/CD
Experience deploying to air-gapped networks
DoD 8140 / Security+ or equivalent (must obtain within 90 days of start)
On-site in Colorado Springs, CO (flexible schedule)
Ability to research and solve complex technical problems independently
Desired:
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) certification or similar
Azure cloud certification
Familiar with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, PowerShell scripting, Ansible, etc.)
OAuth2/OIDC/KeyCloak familiarity
Cert Manager, OpenSSL, and PKI experience
Experience with Kafka or similar event streaming platforms
Cloud native application delivery experience
Experience leading an engineering team
Basic Compensation: $142,000 - $212,900…