Principal DevOps Engineer

About The Company Ascensus is a leading provider of retirement, college savings, and health savings solutions, dedicated to helping individuals and organizations achieve their financial goals. With a strong focus on innovation, integrity, and customer service, Ascensus partners with financial institutions, employers, and government entities to deliver comprehensive and scalable solutions. The company prides itself on fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment that encourages continuous learning and professional growth. Recognized for its commitment to excellence and technological advancement, Ascensus remains at the forefront of the financial services industry, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance its offerings and operational efficiency. About The Role As a DevOps Principal Engineer at Ascensus, you will be instrumental in shaping the company's cloud-native infrastructure and delivery pipelines. This role involves providing strategic technical leadership and architectural oversight across multiple agile teams, ensuring the development and deployment processes are scalable, secure, and highly automated. You will collaborate closely with architects, security teams, infrastructure specialists, and software engineers to design and implement robust DevOps practices that accelerate software delivery while maintaining high standards of reliability and operational excellence. The position offers an exciting opportunity for a hands-on leader who thrives at both strategic and tactical levels, influencing technology direction and actively solving complex engineering challenges. Additionally, you will champion a DevSecOps culture, fostering continuous improvement and innovation in developer experience and platform stability. Qualifications 10+ years of hands-on experience in DevOps, Platform Engineering, Build & Release, or Engineering Operations rolesProven experience designing and supporting DevOps architecture in enterprise-scale production environmentsStrong understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Delivery practicesHands-on experience deploying and troubleshooting applications in Linux and Windows environmentsAdvanced automation and scripting skills using PowerShell, Python, or similar languagesExpertise with CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, JenkinsDeep knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes container orchestrationExperience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like TerraformProficiency with configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or ChefSolid understanding of microservices and cloud-native architecturesKnowledge of networking, load balancing, caching, and service discoveryExperience with security, secrets management, and certificate managementHands-on experience with AWS cloud servicesExcellent communication skills with the ability to influence and guide technical teams Responsibilities Provide architectural oversight and technical direction for DevOps, CI/CD, and platform engineering across multiple teamsCollaborate with Application and Program Architects to align DevOps solutions with business strategiesDefine and evolve standards for build, deployment, infrastructure, and environment managementDesign reusable reference architectures, templates, and patterns for consistent adoptionLead the development and implementation of automated CI/CD pipelines, including build, test, release, and deployment workflowsEstablish best practices for source control, branching strategies, and release managementDesign Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions for environment provisioning and managementEmbed security and compliance controls into pipelines, promoting DevSecOps practicesDrive adoption of containerized and cloud-native architectures using Kubernetes-based platformsEnsure platforms meet standards for scalability, resiliency, performance, and cost efficiencyGuide teams on service networking, API management, load balancing, and traffic managementSupport high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity strategiesProvide Level-3 support for complex production incidents and reliability challengesPartner with operations and engineering teams to enhance observability, monitoring, and alerting systemsMentor and coach engineers on DevOps practices, tools, and architectural decisionsPromote a culture of automation, ownership, continuous improvement, and qualityResearch emerging tools and technologies to optimize the software delivery lifecycleBuild consensus and introduce cost-effective solutions to increase delivery speed, quality, and reliability Benefits Competitive salary ranging from $150,000 to $200,000 annually, commensurate with experienceComprehensive health benefits including Medical, Dental, and Vision insuranceRetirement plan options with 401(k) matchingPaid Time Off (PTO) and holiday leaveOpportunities for professional development and continuous learningCollaborative and inclusive work environment that values innovation and integrityFlexible remote work policies to support work-life balance Equal Opportunity Ascensus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected category under applicable law. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind and are dedicated to fostering a workplace that respects and values individual differences. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply and join our team in advancing our mission and values.