Sr Staff Applications Operations Engineer – Engineering Tools Automation & AI Ops

Responsible for supporting and maintaining critical applications and related data processing platforms and services. Ensure the team has the facilities, tools, resources and skills they need to deliver on commitments while tracking ongoing execution and delivery of Application Operations delivery SLAs. Operational owner maintaining incident management, change controls, support coverage, and provisioning compliantly

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Serve as the senior technical operations authority across engineering application pods (software, hardware and electronic design, and project and portfolio management tools) for US and UK users.

• Define, track, and improve operational KPIs and SLAs, and communicate status, risks, and trends to users and leadership.

• Drive consistent incident, problem, and change management across pods; lead resolution of high-severity escalations and root cause analysis.

• Perform hands-on Linux and Windows server administration across development, test, and production environments.

• Partner with cybersecurity and compliance teams to meet security, export control, and regulatory requirements (e.g., CMMC / NIST SP 800-171).

• Automate repetitive operational work (provisioning, monitoring, patching, license management, reporting) using Python, Bash, Power Shell, Jenkins, Ansible, and similar tools.

• Advance CI/CD capabilities for engineering teams (e.g., Jenkins, Artifactory, Git Hub), measuring impact against operational KPIs.

• Lead the team in using AI for operations. Develop Agentic Operations framework to disseminate across broader Engineering Operations DT team.

• Own the lifecycle and obsolescence roadmap for the portfolio, tracking end-of-support risk and driving upgrade, migration, and retirement plans to execution.

• Lead hands-on migrations off legacy platforms, including IBM Rational Synergy and Change to modern tools, and assess AWS hosting options, while protecting continuity for regulated programs.

• Present risk-assessed options to leadership that weigh the cost, risk, and benefit of change.

• Coach and mentor Applications Operations engineers, building depth in Linux, automation, cloud, and operations practices.

• Set technical standards and runbooks, and influence the decisions of engineers at SPB levels and below and of partner teams.

• Participate in Agile planning and support escalation coverage as required.

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited university or college with a minimum of 5 years of professional experience OR an Associate's degree with a minimum of 8 years of professional experience OR a High School Diploma with a minimum of 10 years of professional experience

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in Application Operations or systems administration supporting enterprise or engineering applications

• Minimum 3 years of hands-on Linux server administration experience

• Note:
  
  Military experience is equivalent to professional experience

• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required. We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job.

• Deep hands-on Linux/Unix server administration (e.g., RHEL), including patching, tuning, troubleshooting, and scripting.

• Hands-on AWS experience (e.g., EC2, S3, IAM, VPC) hosting or migrating enterprise applications.

• Experience leveraging AI-enabled operational tools and automation to streamline infrastructure support, reduce manual effort, and improve service reliability.

• Experience with IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (DOORS Next, EWM, ETM), DOORS Classic, or Rational Synergy and Change.

• Experience leading platform migrations, including legacy source control to Git-based tools (e.g., Git Hub).

• Automation and CI/CD experience (Python, Bash, Power Shell, Jenkins, Artifactory, Ansible) and ITSM tools such as Service Now.

• Experience in regulated aerospace or defense environments (e.g., DO-178C / DO-254, export control, CMMC).

• Prioritizes operational work by program impact and builds business cases that weigh cost, licensing, and lifecycle trade-offs.

• Recognized technical expert who coaches and mentors others.

• Influences without authority, building support across teams and levels and driving alignment on technical direction.

• Change agent experienced in Agile delivery (e.g., Scrum,…