Senior Automation Engineer (Ansible / Terraform / Python / Kubernetes)
Job Description
The OperAxis team is seeking a Senior Automation Engineer for an 8-month contract with a state government (public sector) client in Raleigh, NC (hybrid, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm). The role requires onsite presence, so only candidates local to Raleigh, NC will be considered; candidates in the Research Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) are preferred. You will lead the automation of infrastructure provisioning, build and deploy activities for the client's applications, working with DevOps, application, architecture, deployment and database teams to deliver consistent, reliable releases across environments. The ideal candidate has deep hands-on experience with Ansible, Terraform, Python/Bash, Docker/Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines, along with a solid understanding of AWS infrastructure and the software release life cycle. Requirements: - Must have: BASH, BitBucket, Linux and Python - 7+ years automating Linux OS and software patches and upgrades across multiple environments with tools like Ansible - 7+ years automating build/deploy processes, including database changes, with tools like Ansible - 7+ years developing automation scripts, operational utilities and workflow scripts in Python/Bash/Shell - 4+ years of infrastructure provisioning, configuration and environment management with Terraform and Ansible - 3+ years of hands-on BitBucket or Git source code management: branching, merging, configuring and administering - 2+ years building and packaging applications with Docker and managing containerized workloads on Kubernetes - 2+ years developing and managing CI/CD (DevOps) pipelines with tools like TeamCity, Jenkins or Ansible - Strong knowledge of Ansible Tower/AWX, YAML, automation best practices and infrastructure-as-code principles - Preferred: 2+ years of strong knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and infrastructure - Must be local to Raleigh, NC and available for on-call evenings and weekends as needed Responsibilities: - Lead the automation effort for infrastructure provisioning, build and deploy activities for client applications - Create and maintain Ansible playbooks, troubleshoot automation issues and ensure consistent, reliable deployments across environments - Automate Linux OS and software patching and upgrades across multiple environments - Build and package applications with Docker and manage and scale containerized workloads on Kubernetes - Collaborate with DevOps and application teams to enhance CI/CD workflows - Debug deployments, validate configurations and improve release reliability - Work with IT management to improve software engineering processes for CI/CD of application changes - Work with architects, developers, the deployment team and DBAs to automate various tasks - Be on call evenings and weekends as required to meet business needs