DevOps/QA Engineer

Overview

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is seeking skilled professionals to support a wide range of program and technical services across the institute. This is a remote position with occasional onsite visits required for key personnel to support collaboration, planning, and program delivery. The NICHD OIT team provides full lifecycle IT support, helping the institute maintain a secure, efficient, and modern technology environment. Team members will work alongside NIH scientists, administrators, and stakeholders to deliver innovative, compliant, and user-centered digital solutions that advance NICHD’s strategic goals.

We are seeking a skilled and motivated DevOps/QA Engineer to support the development, deployment, and continuous improvement of secure, scalable, and high-performing applications across the NICHD IT infrastructure. This role combines expertise in DevOps automation, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and Quality Assurance (QA) testing to ensure reliable, compliant, and modernized systems for NICHD’s hybrid environments (on-prem and Azure cloud).

The successful candidate will support efforts around CI/CD pipeline integration, containerization, automated testing, and infrastructure monitoring—while ensuring alignment with NIH/HHS security and compliance policies such as FISMA, NIST 800-53, and ITIL.

What You'll Do

DevOps Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines using tools such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar.

• Support the automation of deployments for both cloud and on-premises environments.

• Develop and manage infrastructure-as-code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform, ARM templates, or PowerShell DSC.

• Assist with containerization and orchestration using Docker and Kubernetes (AKS preferred).

• Monitor infrastructure health and performance using tools such as Splunk, SQL Profiler, Oracle OEM, and custom scripts.

• Implement security controls and ensure compliance with FISMA/NIST 800-53 policies, working closely with the security team on patching, vulnerability scans, and ATO documentation (SA&A, POA&M).

QA Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute automated and manual test scripts to validate application functionality, performance, and security.

• Integrate automated testing into the CI/CD pipelines to ensure high test coverage and quality gates.

• Support cross-browser and accessibility testing for NICHD websites and applications.

• Collaborate with developers and analysts to validate user stories, acceptance criteria, and test data requirements.

• Track and report bugs using tools such as JIRA or Azure DevOps Boards.

• Participate in Agile ceremonies to support iterative development, QA planning, and release readiness.

Required Knowledge and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.

• 3–5 years of experience in a DevOps, QA, or systems engineering role supporting hybrid cloud environments.

• Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps).

• Hands-on experience with test automation tools (e.g., Selenium, Postman, JMeter, or similar).

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure preferred), containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).

• Understanding of infrastructure monitoring tools (Splunk, SQL Profiler, Oracle OEM).

• Knowledge of FISMA/NIST 800-53, security best practices, and federal compliance processes.

Abilities

• Automate and streamline infrastructure and application deployment processes.

• Integrate automated testing to support DevSecOps and reduce release cycle times.

• Troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure or application performance issues.

• Collaborate across multidisciplinary Agile teams to support product delivery and modernization.

• Track infrastructure dependencies and ensure that updates (e.g., patching, container deployment) do not disrupt legacy operations.

• Balance operational reliability with forward-looking modernization goals.

Nice to Haves

• Azure certifications (e.g., Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Associate).

• Familiarity with Power Automate, SharePoint, IIS, or K2 integration.

• Experience supporting federal agencies such as NIH or HHS.

• Working knowledge of ISO 20000/22301 and ITIL practices.

• Experience writing or supporting documentation for ATO packages, SA&A, POA&Ms.

• Accessibility testing exposure (e.g., aXe, WAVE, JAWS) is a plus.

Salary Range

• The salary range is $130,000-145,000/year. The salary range for this position reflects a variety of factors that influence compensation decisions, including skills, experience, training, certifications, and organizational needs.

Salary : $130,000 - $145,000