Azure DevOps Administrator & SDLC Process Analyst

About the role

The Azure DevOps (ADO) Administrator & SDLC Process Analyst serves as the system administrator for C5MI’s ADO environment and the day-to-day steward of its SDLC framework. This role is critical to achieving C5MI’s targeted CMMI L3 certification in 2027, a requirement for federal contracting.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• ADO administration and configuration
• Administers the C5MI Azure DevOps organization end-to-end: projects, area paths, iteration paths, Teams (and their backlog / sprint configurations), security groups, permissions, integrations, and licenses.
• Maintains inherited process templates (Agile and CMMI variants): custom fields, rules, picklists, work-item types, and form layouts; ensure rules enforce required-field discipline.
• Maintains the C5MI Golden Templates (the reference work-item trees for each SDLC tier) and updates them whenever the SDLC framework or supporting guidance changes.
• Stands up new project environments using the standard clone-and-tailor procedure; validate that each new project carries the correct tier, custom-field values, area-path structure, and team configuration before delivery teams begin work.
• Builds and maintains shared queries, charts, and dashboards for PMO, IMS, and Delivery use (traceability coverage, gate readiness, defect aging, tier-compliance status, training currency, throughput, and similar).
• Administers Azure Test Plans: test plan structures, test suites, test configurations, parameter sets, and shared test step libraries; coordinate with QA-activity owners on test-case organization.
• ADO setup strategy and consultation
• Advises delivery and PMO leadership on the right ADO shape for new teams and engagements — boards, area paths, iteration cadence, team boundaries, work-item types, Test Plan organization, and dashboard layouts.
• Translates the SDLC framework, tiering model, and customer-specific requirements into concrete ADO configuration choices.
• Documents the trade-offs of common setup decisions (single-project vs multi-project, team boundaries by capability vs by customer, sprint cadence, etc.) so teams make informed choices and avoid rework.
• Participates in project kickoffs to confirm the ADO setup matches the engagement's tier, customer constraints, and reporting needs.
• Board maintenance and work-item hygiene
• Configures and maintains Kanban and Sprint boards for each delivery project: columns, swim lanes, WIP limits, card rules, and styles.
• Enters and triages work items as needed: converts incoming requests (emails, customer tickets, cross-references from external systems) into properly structured ADO work items linked to the right parent (Feature, User Story / Requirement, or Task).
• Maintains backlog hygiene: stale-item review, duplicate detection, link-integrity checks, and required-field completion across all work-item types in use (Features, User Stories / Requirements, Tasks, Test Cases, Test Plans/Suites, Bugs, Risks, Reviews, Change Requests).
• Enforces work-item discipline so the C5MI custom-field schema is fully populated: tier on each Feature, requirement type on each User Story / Requirement, phase on each Task, severity and origin on each Bug, gate identifier on each Review.
• SDLC compliance and coaching
• Audits ADO state against C5MI's SDLC framework and the assigned tier; produces a regular compliance report for PMO and IMS.
• Verifies bidirectional traceability at the tiers where it is mandated: every in-scope requirement has at least one Test Case, and every defect links back to the artifact it affects; flags and remediates gaps with the responsible Delivery Lead or Solution Architect.
• Verifies gate Reviews are created, populated with evidence, and signed off at the required phase transitions (both customer-mandated gates and C5MI internal phase / cutover gates).
• Coaches Delivery Leads, Solution Architects, Functional Consultants, and quality-assurance activity owners on correct ADO usage in the context of the SDLC framework; provide a 1:1 onboarding session for new assignees in their first week.
• Serves as the primary support contact for ADO questions across Delivery, PMO, IMS, and Client Account leadership; triages and routes deeper issues to Microsoft support or the relevant process owner as needed.
• Resource and work-item completion oversight
• Maintains the cross-reference convention between ADO work items and the project schedule / plan, and between ADO and any customer-mandated tools (incident systems, change-management tools, document repositories) so the audit trail across systems is intact.
• Monitors work-item status and progression: identifies work items in 'Active' state beyond expected duration, work items missing acceptance evidence, and work items closed without required artifacts.
• Validates that assigned resources are completing their work items correctly: required fields populated, parent and test links in place, descriptions meet the depth required by the assigned tier, evidentiary matter attached for completed Test Cases.
• Surfaces drift to the responsible Delivery Lead and the PMO early — before it becomes a gate failure or an audit finding.
• Support, training, and onboarding
• Serves as the first-line support contact for ADO questions across Delivery, PMO, IMS, and Client Account leadership; triages and routes deeper issues to Microsoft support or the relevant process owner as needed.
• Onboards new hires and project-team members to ADO: cover navigation, work-item creation, query and dashboard authoring, board interaction, Test Plan use, and the SDLC conventions specific to their role.
• Maintains internal ADO knowledge-base / runbook content; capture FAQs and recurring questions as candidates for future tooling or training improvements.
• Hosts weekly ADO office hours during pilot periods and as needed for new project teams.
• Reporting, metrics, and continuous improvement
• Produces the monthly SDLC adoption and compliance metrics report (tier-assignment compliance, phase-gate evidence completeness, traceability coverage, peer-review coverage, decision-record coverage, lessons-learned contribution rate, and similar).
• Contributes observations and proposed improvements to the organizational process-asset repository at project closure; participates in pilot retrospectives and periodic process reviews.
• Identifies ADO automation opportunities (scripts, REST-API jobs, Power Automate flows, webhook integrations) and implements them with PMO approval.
• Stays current with Microsoft Azure DevOps releases, feature deprecations, and best practices; recommends changes to the C5MI ADO configuration as the platform evolves.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related discipline with 3-5 years of related experience—or no degree with 5-7 years of equivalent professional experience in lieu of degree.
• 3+ years of hands-on Azure DevOps (or equivalent: Jira/Confluence/GitLab) administration experience — including process customization, work-item type editing, custom fields and rules, picklists, and area / iteration path management.
• Demonstrated experience with ADO queries (WIQL), shared dashboards, and reporting; familiarity with the ADO REST API for bulk operations.
• Hands-on experience with Azure Test Plans — test plan / test suite structure, test case authoring, test execution, and integration with the work-item traceability model.
• Practical understanding of an SDLC framework (Agile, CMMI, or similar) with the ability to translate process requirements into work-item structure and rules.
• Strong attention to detail and process orientation; comfortable enforcing standards and identifying drift before it becomes a finding.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain tooling and process expectations clearly to mixed audiences (engineers, functionals, project managers, customers).
• Ability to coach peers on process and tooling — patient, instructional approach rather than gatekeeping.
• Self-directed; able to prioritize across multiple projects and request streams simultaneously.
• Must be able to travel up to 10% throughout the year to attend in-person meetings as needed.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a government clearance.

Nice to Have

• Working knowledge of and compliance discipline for CMMI Development Level 3 — exposure to a Level 2 or Level 3 appraisal, evidence preparation, or organizational process-improvement implementation.
• Experience supporting SAP delivery work (EWM, TM, or other modules) — understanding of transports, configuration vs custom development, and SAP-specific work-product patterns.
• Experience supporting federal / DoD contract work — familiarity with CMMC, 8570/8140 controls, DLA / DoD vocabulary, and the artifact discipline those contracts require.
• Power BI and/or SQL skills sufficient to build self-service dashboards over ADO and adjacent data.
• com administration experience (or equivalent project-management tool integration with ADO).
• ServiceNow, SAP Solution Manager (SOLMAN), or other customer-tool exposure — sufficient to set up reliable cross-reference conventions.
• ITIL Foundation, ISO 9001 / 27001, or PMP/PMI-ACP certifications.
• Scripting fluency (PowerShell, Python, or Node.js) for ADO automation and bulk operations.
• Prior exposure to consulting or professional-services delivery environments.