Principal Devops Engineer Jobs in Colorado
Principal Devops Engineer jobs in Colorado are concentrated in Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs, where aerospace and defense contractors, tech firms, and public-sector agencies maintain large infrastructure teams. Lockheed Martin, DISH Network, and Palantir Technologies all have established Colorado footprints and consistently hire at the principal level for cloud platform engineering, infrastructure automation, and site reliability. The Colorado market is among the most active in the Mountain West for senior-level devops talent, with demand running strong across container orchestration, CI/CD pipeline architecture, and zero-trust security implementation. See the openings below and apply to the ones that match your experience.
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Description
At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.
Northrop Grumman Space Systems is looking for a Principal DevOps Engineer to augment our team. This position can be based in Aurora, CO or Morrisville, NC
Primary Responsibilities:
- Responsible for planning and evolving processes and infrastructure to execute programs supporting rapid capability maturation and deployment.
- Integrates development pipelines leveraging automation with test-driven development tools and continuous integration/test frameworks.
- Define and implement the build, deployment, provisioning, and monitoring standards for the program.
- Ensures implementation of Software Configuration Management (SCM), code quality, and code coverage with automated testing for Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
- Work as part of an Agile development team to deliver end-end automation of deployment, monitoring, and infrastructure management framework.
- Build and configure delivery environments supporting CD/CI tools using an Agile delivery methodology.
- Create scripts and/or templates to automate infrastructure provisioning and management tasks.
- Work closely with development teams to create an automated continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) system.
- Work together with vendors and other IT personnel for problem resolution
- Monitor and support all installed systems and infrastructure.
- Develop custom scripts to increase system efficiency and lower the human intervention time on any tasks.
- Contribute to the design of information and operational support systems.
- Install, configure, test and maintain operating systems, application software and system management tools.
- Oversee the company’s security, backup, and redundancy strategies.
- Evaluate application performance, identify potential bottlenecks, develop solutions, and implement them with the help of developers.
Basic Qualifications:
- Must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret security clearance at time of application, current and within scope, with the ability to obtain and maintain SCI approval/access.
- Must have an active U.S. Government CI Polygraph at time of application, current and within scope.
- United States Citizenship
- Bachelor’s degree with 5 + years of relevant experience; 3 years with a Master's
- Security+, not needed to start, but must be able to obtain within 6 months
- Administration experience with Linux or related operating systems.
- Experience in an Agile software development framework
- Experience with at least 3 of the preferred qualifications
Preferred Qualifications:
- Active Security+
- Terraform
- Kubernetes administration
- AWS administration
- Flux
- Helm
- DynamoDB
- NATS configuration
- Big Bang (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki)
- Jenkins/GitLab/Bamboo
#LI-VC2
#COSpace
Primary Level Salary Range: $114,000.00 - $171,000.00 The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business. The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates. Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.
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Principal Devops Engineer Job Market in Colorado
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What Colorado Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in principal devops engineer jobs across Colorado.
- At least ten years of devops or infrastructure engineering experience with demonstrated leadership
- Deep expertise in Kubernetes, Terraform, and cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines at enterprise or large-scale production scale
- Strong background in infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, and platform automation
- Ability to obtain or maintain a federal security clearance for Colorado defense and government contractors
- Proficiency in scripting languages such as Python, Bash, or Go for pipeline and tooling development
Principal Devops Engineer Jobs in Colorado: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a principal devops engineer in Colorado?
Principal devops engineer is not a state-licensed role in Colorado, so there is no Colorado-specific exam or registration required. The typical path runs through a computer science, information technology, or related bachelor's degree, followed by progressive infrastructure or platform engineering experience. Certifications from AWS, Google Cloud, HashiCorp, or the Linux Foundation carry real weight with Colorado employers, particularly those in aerospace, defense, and government contracting where demonstrated technical credibility at the architecture level is expected.
How much do principal devops engineers make in Colorado?
Principal devops engineers in Colorado earn a median of about $138,390 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $96,480 for the lowest 10% to over $213,010 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire principal devops engineers in Colorado?
Colorado principal devops engineer roles are posted by Northrop Grumman, KBR, and L3Harris and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of September 2026. Colorado's mix of defense contractors, federal agency technology offices, and growth-stage tech companies in the Denver-Boulder corridor means principal-level devops openings appear across a wide range of industries and mission types.
Which Colorado cities have the most principal devops engineer jobs?
Colorado Springs, Aurora, and Boulder have the most principal devops engineer openings in Colorado. Denver anchors the market as the state's primary technology and financial services hub, while Boulder draws cloud-native and software-focused teams, and Colorado Springs is home to a dense cluster of defense contractors and military technology organizations that require senior infrastructure engineers with security clearance eligibility.
Are there remote principal devops engineer jobs in Colorado?
Yes, and more than most fields, since devops work is inherently infrastructure-driven and often fully executable from any location with reliable connectivity. About 60% of principal devops engineer openings tied to Colorado are remote or hybrid as of September 2026, though roles tied to classified government or defense programs typically require on-site presence at a Colorado facility. Cloud platform and SRE-focused positions tend to have the most remote flexibility.
How can I get hired as a principal devops engineer in Colorado with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is through a junior site reliability or systems administrator role at one of Colorado's large technology or defense employers, then building toward senior and staff-level positions over time. Organizations like Lockheed Martin and DISH Network run technical associate programs and hire early-career engineers into infrastructure teams. Earning a cloud certification from AWS or Google Cloud, contributing to open-source infrastructure projects, and building a GitHub portfolio of Terraform or Kubernetes work gives candidates a measurable edge even before accumulating years of professional experience.
Where can I find and apply to principal devops engineer jobs in Colorado?
You can find and apply to principal devops engineer jobs in Colorado on Migrate Mate, which lists current Colorado openings. Search the listings to find roles that match your experience level, technical stack, and preferred location or work arrangement, then apply directly to the ones that fit.
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