COMPANY OVERVIEW

XCEL Engineering, Inc. is an award-winning small business that provides trusted information technology, engineering, consulting and project management solutions and services to federal agencies and organizations. Originally founded in 1971 by professional engineers at the University of Tennessee, XCEL was acquired in 2003 by U.S. Army and Navy veterans and in 2023 became a MartinFed company.

XCEL Engineering is a part of IT Lab Partners (ITLP) which was created to support a leading research facility in the East Tennessee region in recruiting the best and the brightest technical talent. Considering joining our impressive team today!

Please Note: This is a Hybrid position. Must be able to come onsite 2 weeks per quarter.

JOB OVERVIEW

Xcel Engineering is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to play a key role in improving security, performance, and reliability of our HPC (high performance computing) environments. In this role, you will work within the HPC Clusters Group to support numerous activities including computing infrastructure which includes system installation, deployment, acceptance, performance testing, upgrades, problem diagnosis, and troubleshooting.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Work with the team to define and implement best practices and standards within the organization.
• Automate systems administration tasks utilizing open-source configuration management tools.
• Identify automation opportunities to improve DevOps operations, make recommendations to management, and lead the implementation of improvements.
• Review architecture and offer recommendations for improvements, lead implementation efforts.
• System troubleshooting and problem-solving across multiple platforms (dev/test/prod)
• Work with team to adopt a software-defined infrastructure and infrastructure as code paradigm.
• Embrace continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) processes. Train and mentor junior-level staff on these processes.
• Evaluate new technology options and vendor products; rely on expertise to recommend new technology and products to management.
• CI/CD technologies - Gitlab runners, etc.
• Configuration Management - i.e. Puppet, Ansible, etc.
• Identify and document IT best practices that will improve the systems deployment function.
• Ensure the secure and effective operation of computing systems through compliance with ORNL procedures and IT Internal Operating Procedures.
• Work with other systems engineers and vendors to resolve hardware and software issues.
• Answer escalated helpline calls in addition to primary project work.
• Monitor systems performance.
• Install and configure software, both commercial packages, and various open-source packages.
• Maintain documentation/notes on software builds and installs.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• US Citizen with eligibility to obtain a security clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical subjects or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• A minimum of 7 years of experience managing UNIX/Linux Systems.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience managing container infrastructure using docker.
• A minimum of 2 years utilizing configuration management and automation tools such as Git, Ansible, Puppet or other CI/CD pipeline tools.
• Fluency in at least one scripting language such as Bash, Python, Go or equivalent

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Working knowledge of multiple operating systems.
• Experience with RHEL7/8
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals including TCP/IP, traffic analysis, common protocols, and network diagnostics.
• Experience with performance and diagnostic tools for benchmarking, analysis, and tuning of systems, networking, and storage.
• Experience with Nagios, Zabbix, Ganglia, and other network and device monitoring systems.
• Previous experience working n a government, scientific, or other highly technical environment.
• Background of contributing to open-source projects or avocational endeavors such as hacker/maker spaces is desirable.
• Technical documentation skills, including the ability to prepare simple documentation web pages.
• Excellent interpersonal skills suitable for user support and ability to work well with peer system administrators.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to balance complex research and security requirements.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS and ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

• Inside office environment.
• Working on a computer for long periods of time.
• May involve long period of sitting at a desk.
• The work environment is fast-paced and sometimes involves extreme deadline pressures.

OTHER DUTIES

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Xcel Engineering is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, religious creed, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, pregnancy, marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, protected Veteran Status, genetics or any other characteri