Principal DevOps Engineer

The future of aerospace and defense starts here. Ursa Major was founded to revolutionize how America and its allies access and apply high-performance propulsion, from hypersonics to solid rocket motors, satellite maneuvering and launch. We design and deliver propulsion and defense systems that solve the most urgent and critical national security demands. Ursa Major is bringing a new model to propulsion and defense technology: one where performance and access are no longer constrained by legacy systems. We design, build, and deploy advanced propulsion systems that power national security missions, hypersonic capabilities, and the future of space access. Our mission requires an extraordinary team—one that will mold tomorrow’s critical technologies while deploying today’s best. We are an intrinsically motivated team with a passion for solving complex technical problems and empowering each other every day, knowing that there is always room for growth. As a Principal DevOps Engineer within our Digital Operations team, you won’t just be managing servers or responding to deployment tickets. You will be a principal technical leader and system architect responsible for owning and shaping Ursa Major’s platform engineering, infrastructure automation, and software deployment strategies across cloud, on-premise, and manufacturing environments. Sitting at the vital intersection of Software Engineering, IT, Zero-Trust Networking, Digital Manufacturing, and Cybersecurity, you will build the foundational platforms that empower our engineering and manufacturing teams to design, test, and deliver mission-critical systems faster and more reliably. As Ursa Major expands, you will decompose complex technical challenges, author clear architecture designs, and drive pragmatic, high-impact solutions that connect our cloud environments directly to physical manufacturing and test-bench hardware. Responsibilities: Platform Architecture & Developer Experience Lead the research, design, and continuous improvement of platform infrastructure, software deployment, and Developer Experience (DX) across the enterprise. Decompose complex infrastructure problems into maintainable systems; author clear technical design documents and lead cross-functional teams through execution. Act as a strategic connector between Software Engineering, IT, and Networking to unify tooling, share infrastructure patterns, and eliminate operational silos. Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), GitOps & High Availability (HA) Advance our declarative Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and GitOps practices (using Terraform, Helm, and ArgoCD/Flux) to deliver fully automated, drift-free application lifecycles across Azure GovCloud and AWS GovCloud. Extend containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker) beyond cloud environments into on-premise test benches, shop-floor PCs, and edge manufacturing hardware in alignment with our CMMC Level 2 hybrid strategy. Own Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) architecture—maintaining automated backup and failover capabilities that keep critical system recovery times measured in minutes, not days. DevSecOps & AI Pipeline Integration Partner with Cybersecurity and Zero-Trust teams to integrate automated vulnerability scanning, secrets management, and policy-as-code guardrails directly into CI/CD workflows without introducing developer friction. Architect and support automated pipelines for hosted and private AI models, enabling software and engineering teams to leverage high-throughput AI capabilities safely within our secure compliance boundary. Maintain continuous telemetry, metrics, and alerting frameworks (Prometheus, Grafana) to give engineers real-time visibility into application performance and pipeline health. Leadership, Mentorship & Impact Frame all technical initiatives in terms of maximum impact on overall business health, execution speed, and system reliability. Mentor and elevate engineers across the software and IT organizations, f…