Areté is seeking a DevSecOps Engineer who is here for one purpose: to make our software development teams fast and successful on GitLab and our CI/CD tooling.
You will own the day-to-day health of our self-hosted GitLab environment, build and troubleshoot the pipelines our developers depend on, and integrate security scanning into those pipelines so compliance is something the pipeline handles rather than something developers fight. You are the person a developer goes to when a build, runner, or merge request workflow is broken. This is a hands-on engineering role with a heavy support and enablement component — a substantial part of the job is unblocking other engineers, writing the documentation that prevents the next ticket, and steadily raising the team's practices.
This position is onsite at our Falls Church, VA facility. The candidate will collaborate with Cyber Security and IT staff members, travel occasionally, and provide some afterhours support. This is an exempt non-supervisory full-time position.
Primary Responsibilities:
Developer Enablement & Support
• Serve as the primary point of contact for development teams on pipeline failures, GitLab access and permissions, runner issues, package and container registry usage, merge request workflows, and environment troubleshooting.
• Build reusable pipeline templates, CI/CD components, and project scaffolding so teams start from a working, secure baseline instead of copying a pipeline from another repo.
• Create onboarding guides, runbooks, and internal documentation; run training sessions on Git workflow, pipeline authoring, and secure development practices.
• Advise developers on branching strategy, code review practice, versioning, and release management.
CI/CD Pipeline Engineering
• Build, maintain, optimize, and troubleshoot CI/CD pipelines in GitLab CI, automating builds, tests, deployments, and security scans.
• Improve build reliability and speed — caching, artifact management, parallelization, runner sizing and scaling.
• Manage GitLab Runners across environments, including containerized and self-hosted runner fleets.
Platform & Server Administration
• Administer self-hosted GitLab: upgrades, migrations, backups and restore testing, runners, integrations, monitoring, permissions, and security configuration.
• Administer Areté's artifact repository (JFrog Artifactory) — repository structure, retention policy, remote/proxy repositories for external packages, and access control.
• Administer supporting DevSecOps services such as SonarQube, a secrets manager, and container registries; perform Linux system administration (RHEL, Rocky, or Ubuntu) for the platform, including system services, logging, and SSL/TLS certificate management.
Security Integration
• Implement and maintain SAST, DAST, software composition analysis, container image scanning, secret scanning, and SBOM generation within pipelines.
• Configure quality and security gates, and work with development teams to triage and resolve findings rather than simply reporting them.
• Manage build-time secrets, signing, and artifact provenance in line with Areté's security requirements.
Automation, Process & Documentation
• Automate platform, build, and remediation tasks using Bash, Python, or PowerShell; manage infrastructure and configuration with IaC and deployment tooling.
• Maintain DevSecOps procedures, system documentation, and standard operating procedures; support change management, audit readiness, and compliance-aligned workflows.
• Track and report metrics on build times, pipeline reliability, and security posture, and drive measurable improvement.
• Other duties, as assigned.
Experiences and Background We Look For:
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related discipline, or an additional 2 years of relevant work experience in lieu of a degree.
• Minimum of 3 years of hands-on DevOps or DevSecOps experience with modern CI/CD pipelines
• Demonstrated ability to build, debug, and optimize GitLab CI pipelines — .gitlab-ci.yml authoring, CI/CD components and templates, and diagnosing failures across build, test, packaging, and deployment stages. Experience with self-hosted GitLab, as an administrator or advanced user, is strongly preferred.
• Proficiency in Linux system administration (RHEL, Rocky, or Ubuntu), including networking fundamentals, system services, logging, and certificate management.
• Hands-on experience with Docker and container lifecycle management — image creation, registries, and image tagging/promotion.
• Experience automating tasks with Bash, Python, or PowerShell.
• Experience integrating at least one class of security tooling into pipelines — SAST, DAST, software composition analysis, secret scanning, or container image scanning.
• Demonstrated ability to support developers directly — resolving CI/CD and Git workflow issues, teaching Git fundamentals (branching, rebasing, merge conflict resolution, repository hygiene), writing clear documentation and runbooks, and explaining technical issues to engineers and non-technical stakeholders alike.
• Must hold an active Top Secret security clearance, or be eligible to obtain and maintain one.
• Must have or be able to obtain a CompTIA Security+ CE certification within 120 days of employment, in accordance with DoDM 8140.03 and DFARS 252.239-7001.
Nice to Have:
• Active Top Secret security clearance; TS/SCI with polygraph is a plus.
• Experience administering self-hosted GitLab — Runner configuration and scaling, project and group permissions, integrations, and registries.
• Experience with an enterprise artifact repository — JFrog Artifactory preferred; Sonatype Nexus or the GitLab Package/Container Registry comparable; administration experience a plus.
• Working experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform or Azure Bicep) and configuration management or deployment packaging tools such as Ansible or Helm.
• Experience with Kubernetes or OpenShift.
• Experience with container security practices — image signing, SBOM generation, and policy enforcement.
• Familiarity with secure SDLC practices, OWASP Top 10, and compliance frameworks such as NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, JSIG, or ITAR.
• Experience supporting development in classified, airgapped, or otherwise disconnected environments, including offline dependency and artifact management.
• Experience with GitOps deployment patterns, Azure DevOps, or cloud-native CI/CD services.
• Certifications such as GitLab Certified CI/CD Associate or Specialist, Docker or Kubernetes certifications (CKA/CKAD), or cloud associate certifications.
Benefits We Offer:
Generous PTO and Leave Times
• Flextime Scheduling
• Bereavement
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Paid Parental Leave
Financial Benefits
• Company-funded 5% contribution to your 401(k) retirement plan
• Company-funded 5% contribution to your Employee Stock Ownership Plan
• Continuing Education Assistance
Health, Medical, and Wellness Benefits
• Medical Insurance
• Dental & Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance and Long-Term Disability (LTD)
• Vision Reimbursement
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related discipline, or two additional years of relevant work experience in lieu of a degree
- At least 3 years of hands-on DevOps or DevSecOps experience with modern CI/CD pipelines
- Experience building, debugging, and optimizing GitLab CI pipelines, including .gitlab-ci.yml, CI/CD components, and templates
- Proficiency in Linux system administration, including networking, system services, logging, and certificate management
- Hands-on Docker and container lifecycle management experience
- Experience automating tasks with Bash, Python, or PowerShell
- Experience integrating security tooling such as SAST, DAST, software composition analysis, secret scanning, or container image scanning into pipelines
- Ability to directly support developers, resolve Git and CI/CD issues, teach Git fundamentals, and write documentation and runbooks
- Active Top Secret security clearance or eligibility to obtain and maintain one
- CompTIA Security+ CE certification or ability to obtain it within 120 days of employment
- Experience administering self-hosted GitLab
- Experience administering an enterprise artifact repository, preferably JFrog Artifactory
- Experience with Terraform, Azure Bicep, Ansible, or Helm
- Experience with Kubernetes or OpenShift
- Experience with container security, image signing, SBOM generation, and policy enforcement
- Familiarity with secure SDLC, OWASP Top 10, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, JSIG, or ITAR
- Experience supporting classified, air-gapped, or disconnected environments
- Experience with GitOps, Azure DevOps, or cloud-native CI/CD services
- GitLab, Docker, Kubernetes, or cloud certifications
What We Do
Areté, an employee-owned company, is an advanced science and engineering company that provides innovative solutions to the most challenging technical problems faced by the United States Defense and Intelligence agencies. Areté is derived from the Greek word “ἀρέτη”, meaning the pursuit of excellence and the achievement of maximum performance. Areté was founded in 1976 by five scientists, tasked by the DoD to help solve the challenge of detecting weak signals in heavy clutter over very wide areas. The signatures involved in this work were so weak that any advancement in signal processing algorithms demanded a new approach and understanding of the underlying fundamentals affecting the sensors and signal phenomena in the environments of interest. This first-principles-of-physics approach has been a hallmark of Areté’s development programs for the past 40 years Areté now works across the electromagnetic spectrum. We develop sensors and the associated signal processing algorithms necessary for the extraction and interpretation of data for systems operating under water, in the atmosphere, and in space. With our emphasis on enhanced signal processing and real-time executable software, Areté is able to improve the performance of existing sensor systems at fractions of the cost and time to operations of replacement systems. We work directly with customers and partners seeking maximum performance. Building on our expertise in detection theory we will continue to exploit the contextual, spatial, spectral, and temporal characteristics of data, incorporating them into our signal processing algorithms. These robust algorithms will continue to enable Areté to rapidly deliver innovative solutions to the ever evolving challenges of our customers.
