Platform/DevSecOps SME

About Science and Technology Corporation

About Science and Technology Corporation (STC): STC is a U.S. government contractor providing scientific, engineering, and technical support to federal agencies, with deep roots in NOAA, NASA, and DoD programs. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Hampton, VA, STC staff support a growing number of operational missions that monitor the Earth through Earth-observing systems and satellite platforms and through direct field research. STC also researches and investigates leading-edge observing technologies and assesses their applicability to operational missions. STC's NOAA Programs team supports a broad range of operational meteorological, environmental, and geospatial programs.

About the AWIPS HIVE Program

STC is seeking candidates to support the National Weather Service (NWS) on the AWIPS Application Environment contract (commonly referred to as HIVE). AWIPS (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System) is the mission-critical platform used by forecasters at National Weather Service sites nationwide to analyze environmental data and issue the forecasts, watches, and warnings that protect lives and property. Under the HIVE modernization initiative, STC provides engineering and technical talent in direct support of a major cloud transformation effort to move AWIPS from a legacy desktop system to a modern, cloud-native web application built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The program operates in a collaborative Agile environment and involves migrating complex operational meteorological workflows, tools, and data visualization capabilities to a microservices-based architecture with a React/TypeScript frontend and Java/Spring Boot microservices backend.

About This Role

STC is seeking a senior Platform/DevSecOps Subject Matter Expert (SME) to provide expert-level leadership and hands-on engineering for the HIVE program's cloud delivery and security posture. This is a deeply technical, hands-on role requiring mastery of GitLab CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes deployment, GitOps, and infrastructure-as-code for a custom application stack comprising micro-frontends, APIs, and microservices. Security is built into the pipeline, not bolted on; you will embed scanning, policy enforcement, and compliance evidence into the delivery flow and carry it through to FISMA High/FedRAMP ATO.

Specific Duties Will Include

• Lead platform engineering for GitLab CI/CD pipelines (build/test/scan/deploy, self-hosted runners) and EKS Auto Mode deployments
• Operate multi-region AWS EKS infrastructure using Helm, GitLab Kubernetes Agent, and GitOps via ArgoCD
• Manage infrastructure-as-code with Terraform/AWS CDK and oversee container supply chain (ECR, signing, scanning)
• Implement and govern DevSecOps pipeline security: SAST/DAST/SCA/container/secrets scanning as enforced CI stages
• Enforce policy-as-code using AWS Config, SCPs, and OPA; drive vulnerability management to closure
• Manage secrets and key management (Secrets Manager, KMS) and produce compliance evidence from real CI output
• Build and maintain observability (CloudWatch, X-Ray, Container Insights, CloudTrail, Grafana) and threat detection (Security Hub, GuardDuty, Config, SIEM)
• Lead FISMA High/FedRAMP Moderate compliance activities, ATO support, and pen-test coordination
• Implement Zero Trust architecture, least-privilege IAM, and workload identity (IRSA)
• Mentor platform and DevSecOps engineers on the program team
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or related field
• 12+ years of overall experience in platform engineering, DevOps, and/or DevSecOps
• 7+ years hands-on platform/DevOps/DevSecOps ownership
• 4+ years hands-on CI/CD with strong GitLab CI/CD proficiency
• 3+ years Kubernetes in production (AWS EKS) and Docker
• Hands-on IaC (Terraform/CDK), scripting (Bash/Python), and GitOps (ArgoCD)
• Deep experience with SAST/DAST/SCA/container and secrets scanning as enforced pipeline gates
• 3+ years AWS security (IAM, GuardDuty, Security Hub, KMS, WAF, Config)
• Federal compliance expertise: FISMA, FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, Zero Trust

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS Solutions Architect or Security Specialty certification
• CKA/CKS (Certified Kubernetes Administrator/Security Specialist)
• Multi-region high-availability operations experience
• Policy-as-code expertise (OPA/Gatekeeper)
• FISMA High or FedRAMP Moderate ATO support experience
• Pen-test coordination and control testing experience

Work Arrangement

Fully remote.

Citizenship Requirement

US Citizenship or Permanent Resident status required.

We are equal opportunity/affirmative action employers, committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under state or local law.