DevSecOps Engineer

At Ardent , we hire people who want more than a job — they want to serve a mission that matters. Our teams support the federal government’s most critical national security and defense priorities, helping protect the nation, strengthen resilience, and advance the technologies and capabilities that keep America secure. For veterans, cleared professionals, and purpose-driven innovators, Ardent is a place to continue serving alongside a team that understands the importance of the mission and the people behind it. We also know top talent has choices, which is why we back our mission with benefits and flexibility that stand out: competitive pay, comprehensive health coverage, flexible PTO, federal holidays off, tuition reimbursement, professional development support, wellness stipends, and a culture that values and rewards hard work, dedication, and adaptability. If you want to build something meaningful, while enjoying the kind of flexibility and support that you need to do your best work — Ardent is where your next mission begins. Ardent is seeking a DevSecOps Engineer to join our team. This position is based in Washington, DC and may require a combination of on-site and remote support depending on program needs. Position Description: Ardent is seeking a DevSecOps Engineer to support infrastructure automation, secure software delivery, CI/CD pipeline development, container orchestration, and security integration activities within a hybrid cloud environment. This role will work closely with engineering teams to enhance existing DevSecOps capabilities, improve automation, strengthen security controls, and support modernization initiatives across enterprise infrastructure and application environments. The DevSecOps Engineer will contribute to infrastructure as code, configuration management, pipeline automation, containerized deployments, and compliance hardening efforts while supporting established engineering standards, change management processes, and federal cybersecurity requirements. Responsibilities and Duties: Maintain, extend, and improve Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform and OpenTofu. Develop and maintain Ansible playbooks and roles to automate system configuration, compliance enforcement, patch management, and application deployment. Build, maintain, and enhance GitHub Actions workflows supporting automated build, test, security scanning, and deployment processes. Integrate security controls throughout the software development lifecycle using DevSecOps and Shift-Left security practices. Support containerized application delivery using Docker and Kubernetes. Develop and maintain Dockerfiles, Kubernetes manifests, and Helm charts following security and operational best practices. Support namespace management, RBAC configuration, cluster health monitoring, and container troubleshooting activities. Implement and maintain security gates including SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, secrets detection, and policy-as-code validation. Support compliance and hardening initiatives aligned with CIS benchmarks, NIST standards, and organizational security baselines. Participate in sprint planning, standups, technical reviews, peer reviews, and engineering collaboration activities. Develop and maintain technical documentation, operational runbooks, and configuration records. Support code reviews and contribute to continuous improvement efforts across infrastructure and software delivery pipelines. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field. Minimum of 5 years of experience supporting DevSecOps, Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure Engineering, Platform Engineering, or related disciplines. Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform and/or OpenTofu. Experience with Configuration as Code (CaC) using Ansible. Experience designing, developing, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions or similar technologies. Experience supporting containerized environments using Docker and Kubernetes. Experience integrating security tools and controls into software delivery pipelines. Familiarity with SAST tools, secrets management, dependency scanning, and policy-as-code frameworks. Experience with Git-based development workflows, pull request reviews, and source code management practices. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to work independently while supporting multiple priorities in a collaborative environment. Ability to successfully complete and maintain a government background investigation. Preferred Qualifications: Experience supporting federal government or highly regulated environments. Familiarity with NIST SP 800-53, FISMA, FedRAMP, and Zero Trust security principles. Experience with AWS cloud services and cloud-native infrastructure. Experience with secrets management platforms such as HashiCorp Vault. Proficiency in Python, Bash, or other scripting languages. Experience supporting Kubernetes security, container hardening, and compliance initiatives. Experience implementing DevSecOps best practices within enterprise-scale environments. Due to the nature of the work we support, all candidates in consideration for this role must be willing to undergo the government issued background investigation process. We highly encourage all Veterans and those with disabilities to apply. Ardent is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other basis protected by state, local, or federal law.