Site reliability engineer (5757)

Join SMX as a Mid-Level Site Reliability Engineer architecting, automating, and operating high-performance cloud infrastructure for modern AI/ML platforms. In this role, you will bridge MLOps and DevSecOps, deploying scalable, cloud-based architectures that support compute-intensive AI workloads for enterprise and public-sector clients across commercial, private, hybrid, and government cloud environments.

Beyond hands-on platform engineering, you will serve as a customer-facing Technical Subject Matter Expert (SME), engaging with stakeholders to translate mission challenges into actionable architectures, demonstrating platform capabilities, and supporting technical scoping during service engagements. This is a fully remote position open to candidates across the United States.

Essential Skills

• Architect, deploy, and maintain highly available Kubernetes clusters optimized for AI/ML training, inference, and GPU utilization across cloud environments.
• Serve as the technical SME on client engagements, consulting directly with customer stakeholders to assess requirements, present technical solutions, and articulate the value of SMX managed platforms and services.
• Partner with delivery and account teams during technical discussions and solutioning phases to help scope, validate, and demonstrate modern AI/ML and DevSecOps architectures.
• Drive infrastructure automation using Terraform and GitOps patterns, embedding security controls, least privilege access, and compliance guardrails from day one.
• Build and maintain resilient CI/CD pipelines featuring automated container vulnerability scans, artifact tracking, and audit logging to enable secure, repeatable deployments.
• Proactively monitor platform performance, capacity, and telemetry; participate in an on-call rotation, driving root-cause analysis and operational post-mortems.
• Collaborate with engineering and security teams to enforce network segmentation, data isolation, and robust encryption and key management across high-throughput data pipelines.
• Produce client-ready technical documentation, reference architectures, runbooks, and diagrams that support operational excellence and customer handoffs.

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience: 3 to 5 years of professional experience in Site Reliability Engineering, DevOps, or Platform Engineering roles.
• Client & Consultation Skills: Proven ability to communicate complex infrastructure concepts directly to customer stakeholders, act as a technical SME, and support solution demos or technical scoping discussions.
• Kubernetes & Containers: Strong operational proficiency with Kubernetes, including container networking, RBAC, Pod Security, and secrets management.
• Cloud & IaC: Practical experience designing, deploying, and managing infrastructure across major cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud, including networking, identity and access management, encryption, security controls, and logging. Experience using Terraform or equivalent Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tooling and Git-based workflows.
• Automation: Proficiency in Python, Bash, or Go for operational automation and custom tooling development.
• Troubleshooting & Security: Strong full-stack troubleshooting skills across compute, storage, networking, and application layers, paired with familiarity with security baselines (e.g., CIS benchmarks, NIST, or FedRAMP concepts).

Desired Skills & Experience

• AI/ML Platforms: Hands-on experience provisioning and operating infrastructure for AI/ML workloads.
• Experience operating within regulated or government cloud environments, including AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, or environments subject to FedRAMP and DoD compliance frameworks.
• Experience supporting hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, or private cloud infrastructure architectures.
• Observability and telemetry experience using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or Datadog.
• Relevant cloud certifications from AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or recognized cloud-native technology providers.

The SMX salary determination process takes into account a number of factors, including but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories, relevant prior work experience, specific skills, education and certifications. At SMX, one of our Core Values is to Invest in Our People so we offer a competitive mix of compensation, learning & development opportunities, and benefits. Some key components of our robust benefits include health insurance, paid leave, and retirement.

The proposed salary for this position is: $96,400—$160,600 USD

At SMX®, we are a team of technical and domain experts dedicated to enabling your mission. From priority national security initiatives for the DoD to highly assured and compliant solutions for healthcare, we understand that digital transformation is key to your future success.

We share your vision for the future and strive to accelerate your impact on the world. We bring both cutting edge technology and an expansive view of what’s possible to every engagement. Our delivery model and unique approaches harness our deep technical and domain knowledge, providing forward-looking insights and practical solutions to power secure mission acceleration.

SMX is an Equal Opportunity employer including disabilities and veterans.

Selected applicant may be subject to a background investigation and/or education verification.

SMX does not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization or immigration related support for this position (i.e. H1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN, E-2, E-3, L-1 and O-1, or any EADs or other forms of work authorization that require immigration support from an employer).