Junior software engineer Jobs in Washington, DC

Junior DevOps Engineer

Location

Washington, DC

Job Type

Contract-to-Hire | 6+ Months

Job Summary

STAFFXPERT LLC is seeking a Junior DevOps Engineer on behalf of our client in Washington, DC. This role supports the engineering, automation, troubleshooting, and cloud operations of secure, mission-critical environments. The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience with AWS, infrastructure automation, CI/CD, Windows and Linux environments, and credential management technologies.

You will collaborate with development, security, and infrastructure teams to build reliable, scalable, secure, and automated solutions while supporting production operations and continuous improvement initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide infrastructure, engineering, cloud, and operational support for cloud-hosted applications.
• Support and maintain environments running on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Use Terraform and/or Ansible to provision, configure, and automate cloud infrastructure across Windows and Linux environments.
• Collaborate with application development teams to develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and automation workflows.
• Automate the provisioning and configuration of application environments for development, testing, staging, and production.
• Implement automated application build, packaging, deployment, and release processes using industry best practices.
• Configure performance monitoring, establish operational baselines, and implement proactive alerting.
• Troubleshoot infrastructure and production issues and contribute to timely incident resolution.
• Conduct root cause analysis and implement long-term solutions for recurring technical issues.
• Continuously improve infrastructure automation, system reliability, maintainability, security, and operational processes.
• Apply and promote security best practices across infrastructure and application environments.
• Provide system-level support for credential management and authentication technologies, including Intercede MyID and HID solutions.
• Troubleshoot and configure drivers, middleware, smart cards, authentication devices, and related software.
• Support and maintain Windows Server environments.
• Perform database administration and support activities associated with credentialing and authentication systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant IT or engineering experience, including 1 2 years of cloud support experience.
• Hands-on experience with AWS cloud environments.
• Experience with infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform and/or Ansible.
• Experience supporting Windows and Linux environments.
• Experience with CI/CD automation, application deployment, and infrastructure provisioning.
• Hands-on experience with credential management technologies such as Intercede MyID, HID solutions, PKI infrastructure, or certificate lifecycle management platforms.
• Experience troubleshooting drivers, middleware, credentialing software, authentication technologies, and related hardware/software components.
• Experience supporting Windows Server environments and performing database administration tasks for credentialing or similar enterprise systems.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and effectively within cross-functional engineering and delivery teams.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the required Federal or DoD Public Trust clearance, with adjudication required prior to onboarding.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting mission-critical or government environments.
• Familiarity with security-focused infrastructure and identity/authentication technologies.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, monitoring, and operational automation.
• Understanding of PKI, digital certificates, smart cards, and certificate lifecycle management.
• Experience performing root cause analysis and implementing durable infrastructure or application remediation.
• Relevant cloud, DevOps, security, or infrastructure certifications are a plus.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a hands-on, solutions-oriented engineer who enjoys automating infrastructure, troubleshooting complex technical issues, and collaborating across development, security, and operations teams. You should be comfortable working in cloud environments while maintaining a strong focus on security, reliability, and operational excellence.