Director of DevOps at Knox Systems

Reports To: VP of Engineering or CTO Location: Charlotte, NC or Woburn, MA (Hybrid) or Remote Classification: Full-Time, Exempt Estimated Annual Salary: $190,000 – $225,000 About Knox Knox runs the largest Federal managed cloud, building and operating secure cloud and AI environments that support the U.S. government’s most critical missions — from national security and public safety to essential public services. Our customers rely on Knox to deploy production systems that meet the highest standards for security, reliability, and compliance. Work at Knox is high-impact and purpose-driven. The problems we solve are high-stakes, the expectations are high, and the results are visible. Speed, rigor, and trust matter here - because the environments we secure cannot fail. Your contributions are visible, your expertise is relied upon, and the impact of your work is immediate and measurable. We operate at federal scale, securing some of the most sensitive government environments in the country - because the systems we build must perform without fail. Position Overview The Director of DevOps is responsible for defining and executing Knox’s enterprise DevOps, cloud platform, and automation strategy. This role provides technical and organizational leadership across Platform Engineering, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), observability, reliability, and compliance automation in support of Knox’s regulated cloud environments. The Director ensures Knox’s platforms are secure, scalable, auditable, and cost-efficient, enabling engineering teams to deliver software rapidly while meeting FedRAMP and NIST 800-53 requirements. This leader operates at both a strategic and hands-on advisory level, partnering closely with Engineering, Security, Compliance, NOC, and Executive Leadership. The ideal candidate brings deep DevOps and cloud expertise, experience leading managers and senior engineers, and a strong track record operating in high-compliance, multi-cloud environments. Key Responsibilities Strategic Leadership & Organizational Management - Define and own Knox’s DevOps and Platform Engineering strategy, roadmap, and operating model. - Build, lead, and scale a multi-disciplinary organization of DevOps Managers, Platform Engineers, and SREs. - Establish clear ownership models, career paths, performance standards, and succession planning. - Champion a DevSecOps culture focused on automation, reliability, accountability, and continuous improvement. - Serve as the executive escalation point for platform reliability, deployment risk, and operational maturity. Cloud Platform & Infrastructure Strategy - Set architectural direction for multi-cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) using Infrastructure as Code. - Define enterprise standards for: - Networking, IAM, encryption, and key management - Configuration baselines and environment consistency - Policy-as-Code and GitOps workflows - Ensure platform designs and automation meet FedRAMP Moderate/High requirements and NIST 800-53 controls. - Evaluate and approve new platform tooling and cloud services. CI/CD, DevOps Enablement & Developer Experience - Own the enterprise CI/CD strategy supporting multiple product and engineering teams. - Standardize pipelines with reusable frameworks, integrated security scanning, and compliance validation. - Enable self-service deployment models that balance velocity with governance. - Define and track DORA metrics, deployment success rates, and release reliability KPIs. - Partner with Engineering leadership to continuously improve developer productivity and release cadence. Reliability, Observability & Incident Readiness - Establish organization-wide standards for observability, SRE practices, and reliability engineering. - Ensure systems are instrumented with metrics, logs, and traces aligned to defined SLIs and SLOs. - Partner with NOC and Security teams to improve detection, alerting, and incident response. - Lead post-incident reviews and drive systemic improvements through automation and design changes. Security, Compliance & Audit Ownership - Partner with Security and Compliance leadership to embed compliance-as-code across platforms and pipelines. - Own DevOps and platform responsibilities for: - Continuous Monitoring (ConMon) - Evidence automation and audit readiness - Secure secrets, identity, and access management - Ensure platform documentation, runbooks, and policies meet FedRAMP and 3PAO expectations. - Act as a technical leader during audits and compliance reviews. Financial Governance & FinOps - Establish FinOps practices across cloud environments, integrating cost controls into automation. - Ensure consistent tagging, usage tracking, and cost attribution. - Provide executive-level reporting on cloud spend, optimization opportunities, and ROI. - Balance performance, reliability, and cost efficiency in platform decisions. Executive & Cross-Functional Collaboration - Serve as the primary Platform/DevOps representative in: - Architecture review boards - Change management - Release readiness and risk assessments - Communicate platform health, risks, and progress to senior leadership. - Partner with Product, Engineering, Security, and Operations leaders to align priorities and execution. Technical Environment - Cloud Providers: AWS, Azure, GCP - IaC / Automation: Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation, GitOps (ArgoCD, Flux) - CI/CD: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, Spacelift - Containers: Docker, Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE), Helm, Service Mesh (Istio, App Mesh) - Observability: Grafana, Datadog, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Prometheus, CrowdStrike - Secrets & Security: Vault, KMS, Azure Key Vault, Keeper - Compliance: FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, SOC 2, ISO 27001 Qualifications - 10+ years in DevOps, Platform Engineering, or Cloud Infrastructure roles. - 5+ years leading senior engineers and/or managers in complex environments. - Proven experience operating multi-cloud platforms in regulated industries. - Deep expertise in IaC, CI/CD, GitOps, and cloud-native architectures. - Strong working knowledge of FedRAMP and NIST 800-53 control implementation. - Exceptional leadership, communication, and executive presentation skills. Preferred Certifications: AWS DevOps Engineer – Professional, Azure Solutions Architect, Terraform Professional, CISSP, or ITIL v4 Success Indicators - Platform reliability and deployment success consistently meet defined SLAs and SLOs. - Audit readiness maintained continuously through automation. - Reduced operational toil and manual effort across engineering teams. - Cloud costs are predictable, optimized, and transparently reported. - Engineering teams report improved deployment velocity and developer experience. - Platform organization demonstrates strong ownership, growth, and leadership depth. Hiring Requirement: Due to the nature of our work with federal government clients and compliance with applicable regulations, this position requires U.S. citizenship. Dual citizenship is not permitted for this role. Candidates must be able to provide documentation verifying sole U.S. citizenship status as part of the background check process. Any offer of employment is contingent upon the successful completion of all required pre-employment screenings, including a background check, in accordance with applicable laws and government contract requirements. Benefits & Perks Knox offers a competitive employee benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability, unlimited PEO, and an employee funded 401k plan. Please note, benefits are subject to change. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.