Cloud Operations Engineer

Are you passionate about human space exploration, understanding the origins of the universe, and working with a passionate and diverse team to make a difference? If you are, we need you!

We need your talent, teamwork, and energy to help us achieve great things that inspire people all over the globe. We need you to bring creative ideas and diverse backgrounds to help us envision, shape, and deliver systems that will enable the exploration of space while benefiting people here on Earth. We are excited about what we do, and we need you on our team as we take on exciting challenges for NASA's pursuits in deep space exploration.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Cloud Operations Engineer to join our JETS II contract team at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX .

If selected you will:

• Developing new cloud-native platform services spanning all three major cloud environments
• Developing best practices for cloud-native application development and promoting them within the organization
• Administering NASA cloud networks and managing requests for deployment of COTS and Cloud Native applications into cloud environments
• Writing quality code, providing quality and engaged code reviews for peers
• Working with Managed Kubernetes offering across all three major cloud providers
• Integrating cloud managed AI and data services with other bespoke and open-source Kubernetes applications
• Developing best practices for cloud-native application development and promoting them within the organization
• Identifying opportunities to abstract Prospective Project requirements and develop Enterprise-grade, multi-tenant Platform Services
• Collaborate with NASA security and compliance teams to ensure teams are adhering to industry best practices and regulatory requirements
• Working directly with NASA human spaceflight missions like Orion, Lunar Gateway, Artemis
• Perform other duties as required

Qualifications:

• Typically requires a bachelor's degree or equivalent certification in a related area and normally possess 10 years of experience in the field or in a related area.
• Strong experience with Kubernetes in production
• Ability to manage and use GitLab (preferably very proficient)
• Hands‑on experience with CI/CD pipeline tools
• Observability Monitoring tools such as Grafana and SuperSet
• Proficiency with Infrastructure‑as‑Code utilizing Terraform for infrastructure automation and/or open source alternatives (OpenTofu)
• Extensive Linux experience (familiarity with Windows also preferred, but not required)
• Expert in at least one programming language (Go and Python is preferred)
• Experience with Python, SQL (and R is preferable)
• Working understanding of Machine Learning Model Lifecycle management (is preferred)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Solution‑oriented mindset, accepts feedback with enthusiasm
• Effectively communicates with team members: clear status updates to direct report, regularly establishes unanimous decisions with peers
• Self‑motivated and self‑managing, with strong organizational skills
• Experience architecting and building cloud‑native applications
• Demonstrable success and confidence in owning the full project lifecycle
• Good instincts for identifying opportunities for abstraction
• Balances individual project development tasks at hand with overall platform and company goals

Benefits

• Competitive pay
• Positive work‑life balance
• 100% Employer paid insurance including: Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, short‑term disability, and long‑term disability
• 11 paid holidays annually
• Generous PTO
• 401k after 12 months of service with employer match
• Education assistance
• Relocation assistance (if applicable)

Mclaurin is a unique organization with a special focus on combining the best features of research and industry in order to foster innovation. Our organization strongly supports research, publication, and engagement with the academic community. We encourage our employees to remain on the cutting edge of new developments in their respective disciplines.

US Citizenship and the ability to pass a comprehensive security background investigation is required.

Mclaurin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.