[Hiring] IT Systems Engineer V @Koniag Government Services, LLC

Role Description

The IT Systems Engineer V will serve as a senior technical expert supporting APHIS MRP's IT modernization, cloud adoption, and systems engineering initiatives. This is a Key Personnel position requiring demonstrated expertise across cloud architecture, automation, business process engineering, and independent validation and verification (IV&V). The ideal candidate will provide expert-level guidance to senior technical and business leaders while leading cross-functional teams through complex technology adoption and continuous improvement efforts.

Key Responsibilities:

• Systems Architecture & Cloud Engineering:
  • Conduct business and systems analysis and architecture reviews to support automation and infrastructure improvement initiatives.
  • Determine system and application architectures aligned with business impact and financial costs.
  • Identify optimal cloud-first architectures aligned with the Azure Well-Architected Framework.
  • Research current and emerging technologies and propose changes to improve organizational capabilities.
  • Lead organizations through technology adoption and establish architectural best practices.
  • Perform cloud engineering, operations, support, and maintenance tasks to support migration of server applications from sovereign to commercial cloud environments.
• Automation, DevSecOps & Platform Engineering:
  • Design, develop, and implement automation using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), templating, policy as code, CI/CD pipelines, feature toggles, and chaos engineering.
  • Implement automation tools such as Terraform and Ansible for system provisioning, configuration, and deployment.
  • Develop and enforce cloud policies and policy-as-code for governance and compliance.
  • Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for continuous integration, testing, and deployment.
  • Drive efforts to reduce toil in system administration through DevSecOps, CloudOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Platform Engineering.
• Cloud Operations & Support:
  • Provide day-to-day cloud operations, monitoring, and troubleshooting to meet established SLAs.
  • Review compute, network, database, application, and other cloud resources for security compliance and best practices.
  • Implement backup, disaster recovery, and high availability strategies to meet business continuity requirements.
  • Ensure cloud resources are financially transparent and traceable to appropriate cost centers.
• Business Process & Requirements Analysis:
  • Conduct discovery sessions with users, stakeholders, business leaders, and technical staff to define system problems, requirements, and objectives.
  • Lead stakeholder interviews and requirements analysis to clarify data availability, reporting needs, and system design challenges.
  • Analyze and assess business processes within custom application software and internal IT operations.
  • Apply Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM) principles to identify waste, bottlenecks, and non-value-added activities.
  • Develop and maintain process maps, data flow diagrams, and entity-relationship diagrams using manual and Computer Aided System Engineering (CASE) tools.
• Modernization & Reengineering:
  • Apply reverse engineering and reengineering disciplines to legacy systems.
  • Produce modernization, migration, and strategic planning documents.
  • Develop controls, conversion procedures, and system implementation plans for modernization initiatives.
  • Communicate modernization strategies clearly to technical and business leaders.
• Agile Practices & Team Coaching:
  • Audit current Agile practices, identify gaps, and recommend improvements to establish true Agile methodologies.
  • Coach teams on Agile principles, ceremonies, and roles using industry-standard frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban.
  • Implement metrics and feedback loops to monitor Agile maturity and effectiveness.
• Independent Validation & Verification (IV&V):
  • Conduct IV&V of proposed, in-progress, completed, and running applications and systems.
  • Develop and execute test plans and review implementation against requirements.
  • Report deficiencies and recommend corrective actions to management.
• Documentation & Strategic Advisory:
  • Prepare and maintain comprehensive documentation for system designs, architectures, automation scripts, and process improvements.
  • Produce strategic, modernization, migration, and system implementation plans.
  • Provide expert advice and guidance to senior leaders on overarching IT strategy and modernization efforts.
  • Evaluate and provide input on major phases of significant projects to ensure alignment with industry standards and organizational goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or a related field (additional years of relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree).
• Minimum 3 Years of Experience In:
  • Architecting, administering, maintaining, and optimizing systems and cloud-native solutions in Microsoft Azure.
  • Analysis, review, diagnosis, and remediation of cloud issues including performance, stability, and security.
  • Data storage solutions, configuration, administration, and troubleshooting in Azure.
  • Database IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS resources including Oracle, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, Synapse, and Databricks in Azure.
  • Cloud-native PaaS and SaaS resources such as Azure App Service, Azure Functions, Service Bus, and Azure Data Factory.
  • Applying the Azure Well-Architected Framework to lead the design and build of Azure resources and solutions.
• Minimum 10 Years of Experience In:
  • Effective written and verbal communication skills to clearly explain complex cloud topics to management and IT partners.
  • System and application design, architecture, and engineering.
  • Agile software development, user-centered design, and product team management.
  • Business and IT process engineering, continuous improvement, and quality management.

Requirements

• Active or ability to obtain a federal security clearance.
• Microsoft Azure certifications (e.g., Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer Expert).
• Experience supporting USDA or other federal civilian agencies.
• Familiarity with federal IT compliance frameworks such as FedRAMP, FISMA, and NIST 800-53.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Paid time off.
• Paid parental leave.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Flexible spending accounts.
• Commuter benefits.
• Tuition reimbursement.