Lead Platform Engineer

POSITION: Lead Platform Engineer

WORK LOCATION: Chantilly, VA

JOB CATEGORY: Information Technology

JOB TYPE: Temporary

REQUISITION ID: EM07-059

CITIZENSHIP: United States Citizen

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret/SCI

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: Up to 10%

E&M Technologies, Inc. is dedicated to recruiting and developing diverse, high-performing talent who are passionate about what they do. Our employees are unified in a shared dedication to our customers’ mission and quest for professional growth. E&M provides an inclusive, engaging environment designed to empower employees and promote work-life success. Fundamental to our culture is an unwavering focus on values, dedication to our communities, and commitment to excellence in everything we do.

E&M Technologies, Inc. is currently seeking a Lead Platform Engineer to join our team in Chantilly, VA in support of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The NGA delivers world-class geospatial intelligence that provides a decisive advantage to policymakers, military service members, intelligence professionals, and first responders.

Job Responsibilities:

• Perform advanced Linux administration
• Configure and optimize systemd service management, kernel tuning parameters, and SSH key architecture
• Manually install and configure container runtimes including containerd and CRI-O
• Manage cgroups v2, namespaces, and container isolation mechanisms at the OS level
• Implement OS-level security hardening using AppArmor, SELinux, and security profiles
• Design and implement software defined storage solutions to translate physical storage into dynamic persistent volumes
• Build resilient, distributed storage clusters from raw local drives
• Implement Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers for dynamic volume provisioning
• Monitor storage performance, capacity planning, and data replication strategies
• Cluster Lifecycle Management & High Availability
• Bootstrap production Kubernetes clusters from scratch in on-premises data centers without managed services
• Design and implement high-availability (HA) control plane architectures with multi-master nodes
• Configure internal load balancers for control plane API server redundancy
• Manage etcd cluster operations including backups, snapshots, restoration, and defragmentation
• Deploy clusters using kubeadm or Kubespray (Ansible-based)
• Perform cluster upgrades, node maintenance, and disaster recovery procedures
• Implement cluster monitoring, logging, and observability solutions
• Implement Kubernetes security best practices including API server auditing, RBAC policies, and network policies
• Configure pod security standards, admission controllers, and runtime security controls
• Manage certificate lifecycle for cluster components and service mesh implementations
• Conduct security assessments and vulnerability remediation for cluster infrastructure
• Develop automation scripts and playbooks using Ansible, Bash, or Python for cluster provisioning
• Implement GitOps workflows for declarative infrastructure management
• Create and maintain infrastructure-as-code repositories for repeatable deployments
• Build CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure testing and validation
• Manage Kaniko-based container image builds in air-gapped environments
• Configure environment-specific inventories and Helm values across multiple deployment tiers
• Analyze ArgoCD application logs, pod events, and container logs for root cause analysis
• Perform cluster administration using k9s, kubectl, and crictl for pod and container debugging
• Troubleshoot static pods (etcd, kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager, kube-scheduler) on controller nodes