Automation Engineer

We are Skyward. That is, a love for people, for improvement, for human advancement through information technology. We are a people-centered business with a desire to serve others. We are diverse and unified; creative and collaborative; a collection of complementary, not competing talents. And though on the surface we remain relaxed, beneath, a torrent of energy links us to our civic tech mission. We stand by our values, and we won’t compromise on any of them. Integrity: We’re conscientious, intentional, and empathetic. Our words and actions align. That’s our character. Please don’t ask us to play another part, we’re poor actors. Compassionate: If we may borrow a quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Because our team is thoughtful and supportive, caring deeply for each other, our clients, and our work, this comes naturally. Inquisitive: We remain students by failing openly and turning lessons into solutions. Unconventional: For us, life isn’t what happens outside of work. Work happens inside of life and our culture erases the line often dividing the two. Authentic: Made possible only because we embody the values listed above. We’re relaxed and fun yet intensely curious and driven. Team members are placed with thought, care, and precision to ensure that Trust, Truth, and Transparency continue to represent our brand. Because of that, we continue Onward, Upward, and Skyward. **This position is contingent on contract award** We need an Automation Engineer. Do you look at a repetitive, manual task and feel a physical urge to automate it out of existence? Do you get a little thrill when a pipeline runs green, an alert self-heals before anyone notices, and a server provisions itself from a few lines of code? If you speak fluent Infrastructure as Code, dream in Python, and believe that a well-tuned AIOps platform is a beautiful thing, then please apply. Come join us if you're motivated to learn from others, to learn from mistakes, to be part of a future-looking and growth-oriented team. Let's go Skyward together. What you'll do: Be part of the team modernizing enterprise IT operations for a federal customer, bringing automation, orchestration, and a little machine-assisted intelligence to infrastructure that a whole lot of people rely on every single day. Build and maintain Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation/ARM) so environments provision themselves consistently, repeatably, and without the 2 a.m. surprises. Design and deploy Robotic Process Automation (RPA) workflows that take the soul-crushing, repetitive tasks off people's plates. Stand up and tune AIOps and observability platforms (think Splunk ITSI, Dynatrace, Datadog, Moogsoft/BigPanda, or ScienceLogic) to correlate events, spot anomalies, and trigger auto-remediation before small problems become big ones. Automate across both AWS and Azure, plus on-prem. Because the real world is hybrid and we roll with it. Write clean, reusable scripts in Python, PowerShell, and Bash that make everyone's life easier. Plug automation into CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps toolchains for fast, reliable, secure delivery. Support 24x7 operations by engineering the monitoring, orchestration, and backup/recovery tooling that keeps availability high and downtime low. Keep things patched, hardened, and compliant, helping remediate vulnerabilities and apply security updates on schedule. Document your automation like the pro you are and track the error-reduction and efficiency wins so everyone can see the magic. Team up with engineers, network folks, and developers to hunt down manual toil and replace it with something smarter. What we'd like you to have: Bachelor’s degree in computer science or similar. At least 3 years of relevant experience. Solid hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code. Terraform and Ansible are your friends. Automation chops: RPA, orchestration, and scripting (Python, PowerShell, Bash) that you can show off. Cloud fluency across AWS and/or Azure, and comfort operating in hybrid on-prem environments. Experience with monitoring, observability, or AIOps platforms and a knack for turning noisy alerts into useful signal. Working knowledge of ITIL service management and how automation fits into change, patch, and vulnerability management. Familiarity with federal security frameworks (FISMA, NIST 800-53, FedRAMP), or the eagerness to learn them fast. A curious, problem-solving brain and the good vibes to match. You make the team better. What would blow us away: Certifications like AWS/Azure Associate-or-above, Terraform Associate, or ITIL 4. You've built self-healing automation that genuinely reduced incidents, and you have the metrics to prove it. Prior experience supporting a federal or DHS environment. A sense of humor. You know how to light up the room (or the Slack channel). Even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply. At Skyward, we're focused on hiring individuals with the right skills and passion to grow, not just checking off every box. And now the important part. What we offer you: Medical, dental, vision 15 days of paid leave 7 days of sick leave 2 days bereavement leave 11 paid Federal holidays Up to 40 hours for jury duty 401K with 4% employer contribution (and no vesting period) Up to 4 weeks of paid paternity and maternity leave Company provided laptop $5,000 per year for professional development $600 per year for technical supplies and equipment $2,000 referral bonus Life and disability insurance HSA and FSA Legal Shield and ID Shield Voluntary Benefits Opportunity to work in a collaborative, motivated team focused on modernizing government services with cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions. Who says government work can't be exciting! At Skyward, we support flexible working hours and remote opportunities to help maintain a healthy work-life balance for all employees. Offers of employment with Skyward are contingent upon acceptable results of a background investigation. Applicants must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance due to the nature of our work as a government contractor.