What are the responsibilities and job description for the Sr. DevOps Engineer - Computing Services position at Carnegie Mellon University?
The Senior DevOps Engineer designs, builds, and maintains secure, reliable, and scalable application platforms and delivery pipelines. This role partners closely with engineering, security, and IT operations teams to improve the full software delivery lifecycle—planning, building, testing, deploying, and supporting services—through automation, infrastructure-as-code, and modern DevOps practices. The Senior DevOps Engineer also contributes hands-on engineering work, technical assessments, operational documentation, and continuous improvement initiatives across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments.
Key Responsibilities:
Platform Engineering & Operations
Joining the CMU team opens the door to an array of exceptional benefits.
Benefits eligible employees enjoy a wide array of benefits including comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance as well as a generous retirement savings program with employer contributions. Unlock your potential with tuition benefits, take well-deserved breaks with ample paid time off and observed holidays, and rest easy with life and accidental death and disability insurance.
Additional perks include a free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass, access to our Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs, fitness center access, and much more!
For a comprehensive overview of the benefits available, explore our Benefits page.
At Carnegie Mellon, we value the whole package when extending offers of employment. Beyond credentials, we evaluate the role and responsibilities, your valuable work experience, and the knowledge gained through education and training. We appreciate your unique skills and the perspective you bring. Your journey with us is about more than just a job; it’s about finding the perfect fit for your professional growth and personal aspirations.
Are you interested in an exciting opportunity with an exceptional organization?! Apply today!
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Job Function
Software/Applications Development/Engineering
Position Type
Staff – Regular
Full Time/Part time
Full time
Pay Basis
Salary
More Information:
Key Responsibilities:
Platform Engineering & Operations
- Design, implement, and operate resilient infrastructure and application platforms across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments.
- Ensure platforms are secure, reliable, scalable, and cost-aware; identify and remediate operational risks.
- Install, upgrade, troubleshoot, and maintain internal and third-party applications and supporting services.
- Develop and maintain operational runbooks, standards, and technical documentation.
- Design, build, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to automate build, test, release, and deployment processes (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD).
- Implement GitOps and automated deployment patterns to improve consistency and reduce manual effort.
- Drive continuous improvement by identifying repetitive tasks and automating workflows to simplify them.
- Build and maintain infrastructure using IaC and configuration management tooling (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, Puppet).
- Standardize environments and configurations to improve reliability, auditability, and delivery speed.
- Manage software/artifact repositories (e.g., Artifactory, Nexus) to support versioning, release management, and deployments.
- Deploy and operate container platforms and workloads (e.g., Kubernetes, OpenShift).
- Establish best practices for container lifecycle, configuration, observability, and operational support.
- Partner with development teams to ensure changes are tested, integrated, and deployed efficiently and safely.
- Participate in technical assessments and solution design, including feasibility, compatibility, and effort estimates.
- Manage multiple priorities across teams and stakeholders; communicate clearly about risks, timelines, and operational readiness.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
- 5 years of experience in DevOps, SRE, platform engineering, systems engineering, or related roles.
- Strong Linux and/or Windows systems experience and proven troubleshooting skills in distributed environments.
- Hands-on experience building and operating CI/CD pipelines and modern software delivery workflows.
- Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code and configuration management (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, Puppet).
- Experience operating containerized workloads and orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes or OpenShift).
- Proficiency in scripting/automation (e.g., Python, Bash, PowerShell).
- Demonstrated ability to produce clear documentation (runbooks, standards, how-to guides) and improve operational processes.
- A combination of education and relevant experience from which comparable knowledge is demonstrated may be considered.
- Experience in higher education, research computing, or similarly complex multi-tenant environments.
- Familiarity with security/compliance frameworks and practices (e.g., NIST, FERPA, HIPAA) as they apply to IT services.
- Experience with IT service management practices (e.g., ITIL/ITSM) and service improvement methods (e.g., Lean/Six Sigma).
- Experience implementing observability practices (logging, metrics, tracing) and operational readiness standards.
- Systems thinking and operational excellence mindset
- Strong problem-solving and incident-response skills
- Clear communication and stakeholder collaboration
- Ability to prioritize and deliver across multiple efforts
- Strong engineering discipline (automation-first, testable, repeatable, documented)
Joining the CMU team opens the door to an array of exceptional benefits.
Benefits eligible employees enjoy a wide array of benefits including comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance as well as a generous retirement savings program with employer contributions. Unlock your potential with tuition benefits, take well-deserved breaks with ample paid time off and observed holidays, and rest easy with life and accidental death and disability insurance.
Additional perks include a free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass, access to our Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs, fitness center access, and much more!
For a comprehensive overview of the benefits available, explore our Benefits page.
At Carnegie Mellon, we value the whole package when extending offers of employment. Beyond credentials, we evaluate the role and responsibilities, your valuable work experience, and the knowledge gained through education and training. We appreciate your unique skills and the perspective you bring. Your journey with us is about more than just a job; it’s about finding the perfect fit for your professional growth and personal aspirations.
Are you interested in an exciting opportunity with an exceptional organization?! Apply today!
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Job Function
Software/Applications Development/Engineering
Position Type
Staff – Regular
Full Time/Part time
Full time
Pay Basis
Salary
More Information:
- Please visit “Why Carnegie Mellon” to learn more about becoming part of an institution inspiring innovations that change the world.
- Click here to view a listing of employee benefits
- Carnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.
- Statement of Assurance