Remote Senior DevOps Engineer (Hub-Remote: DC or Philly Metro)

We anticipate hiring multiple people for this position and it is not required that you meet every criteria in this job description.

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

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.

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.

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

Element 84 is committed to fostering a culture of curiosity and respect for all individuals as we constantly strive to create a work environment where everyone feels welcome and supported.

About You You are curious about the world, are constantly learning, driven to lead (formally or informally), and have a strong work ethic. Youre 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.
Youll 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.

About the Role Element 84 is seeking a highly experienced and motivated Senior DevOps Engineer with a strong background in architecting reliable, scalable cloud systems and a proven record of utilizing infrastructure as code in complex deployments to support our innovative projects.
In this role, youll be instrumental in leading the design, implementation, and operation of cloud-native solutions for complex operational systems, collaborating closely with technical teams and customers.
The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in designing, deploying, and supporting enterprise-grade software within cloud environments, with a strong emphasis on infrastructure as code principles. While direct experience with geospatial applications isnt required, a curiosity and aptitude for working in this domain will be beneficial.

What Youll Be Working On Leading the design and implementation of robust, scalable, and secure cloud-native solutions on AWS and Azure.

Collaborating with security experts to translate organizational security requirements into secure and compliant cloud implementations.

Developing and maintaining infrastructure-as-code to manage and provision infrastructure across numerous Azure and AWS accounts, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

Maintaining and optimizing CI/CD automation pipelines to facilitate rapid and reliable software deployments.

Crafting automation scripts in Python, Bash, JavaScript, and other relevant languages to streamline operational workflows.

Contributing to the development and maintenance of infrastructure supporting Generative AI applications on domain-specific datasets.

Automating the creation and management of front and back-end applications, pipelines, security tooling, etc.

Defining and advocating for best practices and standards for DevOps success across Element 84 and our customer organizations.

Required Qualifications 6+ years of experience in software development, with 3+ years specifically focused on Cloud Technologies.

Strong, hands-on experience with IaC is a must, including writing, maintaining, and troubleshooting complex configurations for cloud environments.

Strong experience developing in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, Bash, JavaScript).

Demonstrable experience designing, deploying, and managing infrastructure and services on a major cloud platform.

Ability to clearly document and communicate intricate architectural concepts at various levels, including delivering presentations, creating visual representations of architectures, and writing white papers.

Demonstrated experience in negotiating tradeoffs between critical factors such as security, performance, maintainability, and cost.

Proven ability to multitask and effectively prioritize work across competing demands and multiple customers.

Extensive experience working within an Agile Development software team.

Solid experience with Linux environments.

Deep understanding of cloud architecture patterns and tradeoffs (e.g., serverless vs. provisioned, managed services vs. self-hosting).

Expertise with build and deployment automation tools.

Proficiency with infrastructure monitoring tools, such as CloudWatch, AWS Config, Kibana, Splunk, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Honeycomb, etc.

Experience with data storage and data engineering tools and technologies (e.g., ElasticSearch, SQL, NoSQL, DynamoDB, Redshift, Athena, Glue, etc.).

Experience with networking tools and technologies and troubleshooting issues (CloudFront, Route53, Load Balancers, API Gateway, VPCs, NACLs, etc.).

Technical cloud certification (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect Associate/Professional, AWS DevOps Engineer Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert) or willingness to obtain one.

This position requires that applicants be a US Person (US citizen or legal permanent resident) and authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Preferred Qualifications AWS Solutions Architect, AWS DevOps, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, and/or Certified Kubernetes Administrator certifications.

B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field (equivalent professional experience will be considered in lieu of a degree).

Experience with Generative AI technologies.

Experience working in regulated contexts (e.g., NIST 800-53, PCI, HIPAA).

Experience with authentication and authorization technologies (e.g., SAML, SSO, AWS Cognito, JWT, OAuth, OPA, Ranger).

Demonstrated ability to proactively learn and integrate new technologies into existing workflows.

Familiarity with geospatial data processing, analysis, or visualization tools and concepts.

Experience using containerized workloads for local development and enterprise deployments (e.g. docker, EKS, EKS-automode, minikube, podman)

Experience with data warehousing or data lakehouses (e.g. Databricks or Snowflake)

Additional Information Benefits 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, we prioritize 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 were 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 $145,000 - $175,000. 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).

This is a full time, salaried position. Please submit your information, resume and cover letter if you are interested. Remote candidates are encouraged, but your home office must be less than 100 miles from either Element 84’s Alexandria, VA or Philadelphia, PA hub.

Benefits Offered 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

6 paid floating holidays

4 weeks + 1 day paid Vacation Time Off per calendar year (prorated first year)

40 hours paid Sick Leave

Cell phone stipend

Element 84 is an equal opportunity employer.