DevOps Engineer (remote)

About Element 84 

Element 84 is a woman-owned small business that works with public, private, and non-profit sector clients to develop geospatial data processing pipelines & build software that helps answer big questions about our health, our infrastructure, and our changing planet. We solve challenging problems across a wide range of industries, but our superpower is cloud-based geospatial data processing, remote sensing, and Earth science systems. Our headquarters is located in Alexandria, VA and we have a satellite office in Philadelphia, PA. Element 84 also supports a large remote workforce from a variety of other states.

A Few Other Things You Should Know

1. Element 84's values are: We Invest in Each Other, We are Reliable, and Our Work Benefits our World.

2. Element 84 works on meaningful projects that are challenging—from a technical, people, and team perspective. We make an impact on large projects through our leadership and expertise, both formal and informal.

3. Element 84 values life outside of work. We offer parental leave for everyone and support each other through family challenges like medical problems, adoptions, and new babies.

4. Element 84 has had a flexible work schedule since our founding in 2010.

5. Element 84 is committed to building an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace. We expect the entire team to share that same commitment. 

About You

You are curious about the world, are constantly learning, driven to lead (formally or informally), and have a strong work ethic. You're interested in solving impactful problems in science, medicine, and other projects that have a societal good. You can work independently or with a team, prioritize your projects, and be effective without micromanagement.

You'll care about writing. Our team is remote and written communication is essential. In addition to caring about a well-crafted email and a succinct conference abstract, you understand that good writing is good design and engineering.

Element 84 is looking for experienced DevOps engineers with strong AWS experience to support multiple projects, primarily working in the Remote Sensing domain. This engineer will work with teams to deliver continuous deployment, continuous testing, and continuous monitoring processes and technologies for complex operational systems. The ideal candidate would have experience deploying and supporting enterprise software within AWS. 

Here are examples of things you might be working on:

• Managing automated infrastructure for handling dozens to hundreds of AWS accounts.
• Maintenance of GitHub Actions, Gitlab Pipelines, or similar and creation of new pipelines for automation.
• Writing and maintaining code for automated creation of AWS Infrastructure.
• Writing automation scripts in Python, bash/zsh, JavaScript, and other languages.
• Designing cloud-native architectural approaches.
• Implementing systems for managing a collection of metrics and logs from potentially thousands of instances and other cloud infrastructure.
• Automating the creation of operating system images and containers.
• Working with security experts to understand organizational security requirements and create secure implementations.
• Writing and maintaining code to support Generative AI applications on domain-specific datasets.
• Plan, assist, and perform migration of on-prem systems into AWS. 
• Automating the creation of operating system images and containers.
• Defining standards for DevOps success across Element 84 and customer organizations.

Please submit your information, resume, and cover letter if you are interested in this permanent full-time position.  Remote candidates are considered if located in VA, DC, MD, PA, UT, NJ, TX, MN, FL, NH, OR, NM, OH, IN, MA, AZ, CO, KS, MI, MT, RI, SD, CA, IL (excluding Chicago).

This position requires that applicants be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or at any time in the future and be able to pass a general background check.

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience working in software development, 2+ years working with Cloud Technologies.
• Writing and maintaining infrastructure as Code (Cloudformation, Terraform, CDK)
• Working experience with deploying and managing containerized applications and platforms in Kubernetes, Helm Charts, Docker, etc.
• Willingness to support 24x7 operations (with help, of course!) as needed
• Ability to clearly document and communicate architectural concepts, cloud architecture patterns, and tradeoffs at multiple levels, including delivering presentations, creating visual designs, and writing white papers
• Experience working with an Agile Development software team
• Experience with infrastructure monitoring tools (Grafana, Prometheus, CloudWatch, ELK stack, New Relic, Splunk, etc.)
• Strong experience with data engineering tools and technologies (SQL, NoSQL, DynamoDB, Postgres, Redshift, Athena, Glue, etc.)
• Strong experience with Linux environments
• Working experience with cloud architecture patterns and tradeoffs (Serverless, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
• Working understanding of code and script (Python, Go,  Javascript, and TypeScript)
• Experience with web server technologies (Nginx, Puma, Unicorn, and/or Tomcat)
• An AWS foundational level certification, like AWS Cloud Practitioner or AI Practitioner.

Preferred Qualifications

• Associate-level or beyond certifications, like AWS Solutions Architect, AWS DevOps, and/or Certified Kubernetes Administrator certifications
• B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related fields (will consider equivalent professional experience in lieu of degree)
• Experience with Generative AI  technologies (e.g. AWS Bedrock, GCP Gemini, LLMs, etc.)
• Experience working in regulated contexts (e.g. NIST 800-53, PCI, HIPAA)
• Experience with authentication and authorization technologies (SAML, SSO, AWS Cognito, JWT, OAuth, etc.)
• Demonstrated ability to proactively learn new technologies while performing job duties
• Experience supporting a migration from on-prem into a cloud-based solution
• Experience administering and configuring Windows
• Experience with Google Cloud and/or Azure

Paying attention to who we are as a company–people, family members, friends, and colleagues–is our primary focus at Element 84. There are lots of ways to run a company and for us, it's wanting to come to work, being around people we enjoy, taking on big things with people you trust, and sharing our achievements as a team.

• You’ll get credit when things go right and we’ll have your back when things go wrong.
• We only take on work that is challenging and right for us. There are projects we will turn down and the team has a say.
• We may be a small company, but we have big company benefits meant to support the idea that we're here for the long term and happiness comes from much more than where you work. 
• We have an extraordinary retention rate because we hire extraordinary people. We hope that’s you.

The salary range for this position is $107,000 - $130,000.

Actual compensation offered to candidate will be finalized at offer and may be above or below the posted range due to skill level, experience, industry-specific knowledge, education/certifications, or geographic location. Base salary represents just one component of the Element 84 total compensation package. Employees will also receive a number of benefits as listed below. Other compensation for this position may include bonus eligibility (dependent on employee performance and company profits).

Benefits

• Competitive medical, dental and vision benefits
• Life Insurance, Short & Long Term disability insurance
• Voluntary Accident, Critical Illness & Hospital Insurance
• 401(k) and Roth 401(k) retirement plans with a fixed 3% of salary employer contributions (paid regardless of employee participation)
• Health savings account with a company contribution
• Flexible spending accounts (medical, dependent care and transportation)
• Company-paid parental leave after one year of employment
• Flexible work schedules
• Paid employee assistance program
• 9 paid holidays
• 4 weeks + 1 day Paid Time Off per calendar year (pro-rated first year)
• Cell phone stipend

Element 84 is an equal opportunity employer, with a company culture that values diversity.

We embrace inclusivity and believe that diversity of thought, perspective, and experience helps us reach higher and think bigger. Element 84 is committed to hiring the best person for the team and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.