Automation & ai engineer

15th October, 2026

Role: Automation & AI Engineer

Location: Fairfax, VA (Onsite; weekly onsite schedule not stated)

Salary: $120,000 - $170,000

Clearance/Certification: Active DoD Secret or higher.

Citizenship: U.S. Citizen required

Job Description:

Seeking an Automation Engineer to support a Department of Defense (DoD) program onsite in Fairfax, VA office. Seeking an experienced, mission-focused Automation Engineer to join an engineering team responsible for a hybrid environment spanning Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud, Microsoft Azure Government, and on-premises data center infrastructure. The Automation Engineer will design, build, and maintain the program's automation capabilities, including infrastructure as code, configuration management, compliance workflow automation, and GitHub-based delivery pipelines. This role will reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and ensure that infrastructure and compliance changes are reviewed, versioned, tested, repeatable, and auditable in accordance with Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG) and Risk Management Framework (RMF) guidelines.

Job Responsibilities:

• Automate patch orchestration, DISA STIG hardening, configuration validation, and drift remediation for Windows and Linux systems.
• Develop Python tools that automate operational and cybersecurity compliance workflows, including parsing and generating STIG Checklist (CKL) files; consuming ACAS and Nessus exports; tracking IAVM and POA&M status; and producing scheduled reports and dashboards.
• Design, develop, and maintain reusable Terraform modules for AWS GovCloud and Azure Government compute, networking, identity and access management, storage, and monitoring resources.
• Bring existing manually provisioned infrastructure under version control and infrastructure-as-code management without disrupting production operations.
• Use JSON, YAML, CSV, and REST application programming interfaces (API) to exchange data and integrate platforms in the environment, including Jira, Splunk, NetBox, Infoblox, NetApp ONTAP, Active Directory, and cloud-provider services.
• Replace manual runbook steps with idempotent, logged, testable, and auditable automation that supports CCB review and cybersecurity evidence requirements.
• Develop and maintain GitHub workflows and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines that enforce branching, pull-request, code-review, testing, and release controls.
• Incorporate infrastructure-as-code, configuration, and application security scanning into automated delivery workflows and address identified findings.
• Work from the team backlog in Jira under an Agile/Scrum delivery cadence; participate in asynchronous standups, sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and demonstrations.
• Coordinate with engineering, cybersecurity, operations, and program stakeholders to prioritize automation opportunities and ensure solutions meet mission, security, and operational requirements.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Required Skills:

• U.S. citizen.
• Active Department of Defense (DoD) Secret or higher security clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field of study, or an equivalent combination of education and hands-on experience.
• 5+ years of professional experience in systems engineering, DevOps, site reliability engineering, or automation engineering roles.
• Strong hands-on Python development experience for automation and integration, including JSON, YAML, and CSV data processing; REST API integration; error handling; logging; and unit testing.
• Production experience with Terraform, including reusable modules, remote state, workspaces, and AWS and/or Azure providers.
• Proficiency with Git and GitHub workflows.
• Working knowledge of Windows Server and Linux administration, Active Directory, and enterprise networking fundamentals.
• Working knowledge of DoD cybersecurity compliance requirements and processes.
• Ability to work onsite as required by the program.

Desired Skills:

• Experience supporting AWS GovCloud and/or Azure Government, including Government Community Cloud High (GCC High), Impact Level 4 or 5 workloads, and FedRAMP High considerations.
• PowerShell development experience for Windows automation in conjunction with Python.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and configuration security scanning tools such as Checkov, tfsec, ansible-lint, and static application security testing (SAST) platforms.
• Experience automating STIG compliance at scale using CKL generation and parsing, Evaluate-STIG, Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP), or Ansible STIG roles, including production of Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS)-ready evidence.
• Experience integrating and automating Splunk, Nagios, NetBox, Infoblox, NetApp ONTAP, or similar enterprise platforms.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, or other container and orchestration technologies.
• Experience with cloud-native automation services such as AWS Systems Manager or Azure Automation.
• Experience using large language model APIs or agentic automation platforms, including Amazon Bedrock or Azure OpenAI, for operational tooling.
• Current certifications such as HashiCorp Terraform Associate, Red Hat Ansible Automation, AWS or Azure Solutions Architect, or DoD 8140-aligned certifications such as Security+ or higher.
• Prior experience supporting DoD or other Federal programs under Agile delivery and CCB-controlled change processes.
• Production experience with Ansible, including playbooks, roles, inventories, vault, and management of Windows and Linux targets.