Senior DevOps​/Platform Engineer III - Richland, WA

Overview

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operates several directorates, including the National Security Directorate. The AI & Data Analytics Division develops advanced AI and analytics solutions to address complex national security challenges. This role supports advanced AI engineering initiatives at PNNL.

• Design and build scalable, mission‑critical AI systems and platforms.
• Develop and deploy agentic AI systems with reasoning and decision‑making capabilities.
• Build components of LLM orchestration frameworks using Lang Chain, Llama Index, and emerging platforms.
• Contribute to MLOps platforms, including experiment tracking, model versioning, and deployment pipelines.
• Create developer tooling and interfaces for AI‑native frameworks.
• Integrate multi‑modal data sources into cohesive processing pipelines.
• Develop microservices within distributed architectures for high‑throughput workloads.
• Build real‑time streaming platforms and event‑driven systems.
• Implement data pipelines for large‑scale ETL and analytics.
• Deploy containerized applications using Kubernetes and support CI/CD pipelines.
• Deploy AI systems with appropriate monitoring, logging, and observability.
• Ensure code quality, security best practices, and compliance standards.
• Support system performance optimization and troubleshooting.
• Lead technical components of projects and mentor junior staff.
• Participate in design discussions and contribute to architectural decisions.
• Support proposal development with technical content and scoping.
• Build effective collaborations across teams and S&E domains.

• Strong proficiency in Python; additional proficiency in C#, Go, C++, or Java.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Cloud Formation, Pulumi, or ARM).
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Git Lab CI, Git Hub Actions, or Azure Dev Ops.
• Proficiency with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes, EKS, AKS, GKE).
• Knowledge of cloud native services (AWS, Azure, GCP) and event‑driven architectures.
• Experience with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger) and log aggregation (ELK, Loki).
• Understanding of SRE principles, incident response, and chaos engineering.
• Experience with data pipelines and MLOps frameworks (Airflow, Prefect, Kubeflow).
• Strong problem‑solving abilities and communication skills across technical teams.

• PhD & 1 year of Software Engineering OR MS/MA & 3 years OR B.S./A.A. & 5 years OR A.A. & 14 years in software design, architecture, and automation.
• Preferred:
  Degree in Computer Science or related field; 3‑5 years of hands‑on Dev Ops/Platform Engineering experience.
• Experience contributing to technical direction and structuring complex problems into actionable work.
• Proficiency in Python and at least one other language (C#, Go, C++).
• Active contributions to open‑source infrastructure projects or Dev Ops communities.
• U.S. citizenship; ability to obtain and maintain a federal security clearance.

This position requires a federal security clearance. Candidates must pass background investigations, drug testing, and meet eligibility requirements for classified matter (10 CFR 710, Appendix

B). Non‑use of illegal drugs, including marijuana, for 12 months is required.

PNNL is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. Reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities are provided upon request.