[Hiring] Deputy Chief of Platform Operations @Systems Planning and Analysis

Role Description

The Deputy Chief of Platform Operations serves as the second-in-command for all operational aspects of the KM Platform across environments and classifications. Acting as the senior integrator within the Platform Operations division, this role supports the Chief of Platform Operations in driving reliability, performance, and mission readiness while ensuring seamless coordination across branches, environment leads, and the Systems Engineering division.

Reporting directly to the Chief of Platform Operations, the Deputy leads assigned high-priority technical initiatives, enforces operational standards, and provides hands-on expertise during critical mission events or skills-gap scenarios. This role functions as the designated backup incident commander, maintaining full operational authority whenever the Chief is unavailable and ensuring continuity of leadership during outages or mission-impacting events.

The Deputy Chief of Platform Operations strengthens cross-functional integration with the Systems Engineering division – particularly across governance, compliance, architecture, cybersecurity, QA, and change management – to ensure unified execution of platform strategy, adherence to policy, and alignment of operational workflows with system design. This role reinforces operational discipline, drives continuous improvement, and ensures the platform consistently meets mission requirements at scale.

Qualifications

• Active Secret clearance at time of application
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field
• 9 years of relevant hands-on experience in cloud engineering, Kubernetes, DevSecOps, or platform operations
• Demonstrated experience supporting or leading multi-disciplinary operations for high-availability, mission-critical platforms
• Hands-on technical expertise with cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes orchestration, DevSecOps tooling, observability systems, and automation frameworks
• Experience driving operational improvements including automation, reliability engineering, workflow optimization, and cross-team integration
• Strong ability to serve as a senior integrator – aligning diverse teams, enforcing standards, and coordinating across technical divisions such as Systems Engineering
• Demonstrated capability to lead major technical initiatives and proactively contribute to operational policy, governance, and readiness planning

Requirements

• Serve as second-in-command of Platform Operations, supporting division-wide leadership, execution, and operational readiness.
• Act as designated backup incident commander, assuming full operational authority during outages or mission-critical events when the Chief is unavailable.
• Lead high-priority, high-technical initiatives delegated by the Chief, including platform enhancements, automation efforts, reliability improvements, and cross-environment integration projects.
• Enforce operational processes, SLAs, quality standards, and readiness expectations across all branches and environment-aligned teams.
• Provide hands-on technical expertise during incidents, major operational challenges, mission surges, or when team skill gaps require direct support.
• Drive cross-functional integration with Systems Engineering to ensure alignment on governance, compliance, cybersecurity controls, architecture, QA, test, and change management.
• Advise on new operational policy, governance structures, and compliance requirements; ensure Platform Operations adheres to SE-led policies and contributes operational insights.
• Own capacity and performance forecasting across all environments, supporting scale modeling, resource planning, and operational readiness.
• Guide the lifecycle of core operational tooling, including monitoring, logging, pipeline health, and automation frameworks, to ensure consistency, effectiveness, and proper adoption across teams.
• Serve as escalation lead for complex troubleshooting and multi-team operational issues, coordinating response between environment teams and Systems Engineering.
• Maintain accountability for operational documentation quality, ensuring runbooks, SOPs, and incident guides are accurate, current, and actionable.
• Partner with the Chief of Platform Operations and Technical Director to align operational improvements, tooling strategies, and technical architecture with mission priorities.
• Provide operational insight and interpretation of observability metrics, trends, and readiness indicators to leadership and stakeholders.
• Represent Platform Operations in mission engagements, readiness discussions, and leadership forums when delegated by the Chief.
• Promote operational excellence through automation, workflow optimization, and disciplined execution across all teams and environments.

Benefits

• Competitive base pay and variable compensation opportunities.
• Health insurance, flexible spending accounts, and health savings accounts.
• Retirement savings plans and life and disability insurance programs.
• Programs that provide for both paid and unpaid time away from work.
• Salary range: USD $180,000.00/Yr. - USD $225,000.00/Yr.