AI Platform Engineer - TS/SCI with CI Poly

Location and Employment

McLean, VA (Onsite 5 Days per Week) • Full-Time

Salary

$125,000 – $185,000

Security Clearance

Active TS/SCI with Counterintelligence Polygraph • Current IAM Level II certification meeting DoD 8570 IAT requirements

About the role

We are seeking an experienced AI Platform Engineer to build, maintain, secure, and optimize the infrastructure that supports advanced Artificial Intelligence workloads. This individual will design and manage scalable Kubernetes environments, implement automated deployment pipelines, and ensure platform reliability, security, and performance. The role collaborates closely with engineering, operations, and security teams to deliver highly available AI platform solutions in a mission-critical environment.

Responsibilities

• Kubernetes and Platform Engineering: Design, deploy, secure, maintain, and upgrade highly available Kubernetes clusters across cloud and on-premises environments; manage control plane components, worker nodes, and supporting infrastructure; implement containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes best practices; configure Kubernetes resources (Pods, Deployments, StatefulSets, Services, Ingress, ConfigMaps, Secrets, Persistent Volumes, Namespaces); support advanced networking configurations (CNI plugins, network policies, service meshes, DNS).
• Security and Compliance: Implement security best practices across Kubernetes environments; manage RBAC, admission controllers, vulnerability scanning, secret management, and network security controls; ensure platform compliance with government and organizational security requirements; support secure deployment practices and infrastructure hardening.
• DevOps and Automation: Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines for containerized applications; utilize GitOps methodologies and tools to automate application deployment and platform management; develop infrastructure as code (IaC) using Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, or similar; create automation scripts and tooling using Python, Go, Bash, or related languages.
• Monitoring, Performance and Reliability: Implement monitoring, logging, alerting, and observability solutions across platform environments; diagnose and resolve complex performance issues; optimize resource utilization and platform scalability; support distributed tracing, centralized logging, and operational analytics; apply DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles to improve platform resilience and operational excellence.
• Collaboration and Leadership: Collaborate with development, operations, security, and infrastructure teams; lead technical initiatives and mentor junior engineers; drive continuous improvement efforts across platform engineering and deployment practices; communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Requirements

• Extensive experience designing, deploying, and managing Kubernetes environments (EKS, AKS, GKE, OpenShift, or self-managed clusters).
• Advanced knowledge of Docker and containerization technologies.
• Strong understanding of Kubernetes networking, service meshes, and cluster architecture.
• Expertise in Kubernetes security, access controls, and secret management.
• Experience with CI/CD platforms such as Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Tekton, Argo Workflows, or similar.
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools including Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation.
• Strong scripting and automation experience using Python, Go, Bash, or similar languages.
• Experience with GitOps tools such as Argo CD.
• Hands-on experience with monitoring and observability platforms including Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch, Datadog, or Splunk.
• Strong Linux/Unix administration background.
• Solid understanding of networking concepts including TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, and load balancing.
• Expert-level Git and version control experience.

Professional Skills

• Exceptional troubleshooting and analytical problem-solving abilities.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical efforts.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Adaptability and commitment to continuous learning.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
• Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
• Experience developing Kubernetes Operators and Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)
• Experience building Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)
• Familiarity with testing methodologies including unit, integration, and end-to-end testing

Travel

Up to 20% travel as required for on-site installations, maintenance, and troubleshooting activities at customer locations or data centers.

Benefits

• Comprehensive PPO medical coverage with access to a Health Savings Account (HSA) option
• Vision plan and dental insurance (base dental plan option paid for by PGTEK)
• Life Insurance, Short and Long-Term disability, and Critical Illness insurance with premiums covered
• Matching 401(k) plan
• Discount on pet insurance through ASPCA Pet Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program at no cost
• Generous PTO and Holidays
• Education Assistance Program available after 12 months of employment