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Lead Systems Engineer

  • Annapolis Junction, MD

Lead Systems Engineer

An active TS//SCI clearance with polygraph is required for this role



👋🏼 Hey!

Bitwise is a leading provider of mission-focused intelligence solutions that advance national security for the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. We're a small and growing company, so you can expect to hop in on the ground floor with us and be a consequential member of the team. You'll be more than a contract performer for us — you'll also be asked for ideas to improve our company and improve your career, and you'll contribute to our team culture. We value growth and community above almost all else, so we gather regularly for game nights, happy hours, tech talks, and plenty more. We think you'll like it here!

Remember, Bitwise is not a cult. 🖖🏼

🎯 What We Look For

Bitwise hires talented engineers who are driven by purpose and who value a culture of technical excellence, growth, and overall wellness. We deliver new and innovative intelligence solutions to our customers at the very forefront of our country's national security missions. And we do it every single day. Our work matters, and so will you.

We ask that every new hire be able to:

  • Contribute meaningful thought leadership — if not right away, over time
  • Interact with our customers and earn their confidence in your abilities
  • Be detailed, even if that means taking a little more time to get it right
  • Contribute their ideas and ideals to improve all aspects of our company
  • Allow us to invest in their education so we both grow together
  • Know and live our core values every single day

💡 About this Role

You will lead a small, agile DevOps/SysAdmin team embedded within a larger engineering organization of 25+ developers, managing the stability, security, and scalability of systems that power complex data transformation workflows and a widely used web-based user interface. This is your opportunity to architect and maintain robust infrastructure spanning bare-metal and AWS environments to Kubernetes deployments, while collaborating with software engineering teams on system design and implementation.

As Lead Systems Engineer, you will:

  • Lead, mentor, and direct the daily tasks of two system administrators
  • Collaborate with and support a larger team of 25+ software engineers
  • Provide guidance, advice, and assistance for overall system design and setup in conjunction with software engineering teams
  • Maintain system platforms and health of all servers (EC2, MASH, bare metal), production systems, and development environments
  • Oversee system maintenance, security, and SSP accreditations
  • Develop and implement observability strategies including automation, monitoring, alerting, backup, and disaster recovery procedures for all development, staging, and production environments
  • Maintain deployment automation processes and CI/CD pipelines in GitLab
  • Ensure system documentation is up to date and conduct regular technical reviews and post-mortems to drive continuous improvement in team operations
  • Maintain base Linux kickstart images (RHEL9)

This is a mature project known for its technical stability, team cohesion, and deep integration into mission-critical systems—offering you the opportunity to make meaningful contributions in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

📋 Requirements

  • 12 years of experience in systems engineering and administration, OR a B.S. in a technical discipline with 8 years of experience
  • Strong Linux system administration experience (RHEL9)
  • Proficiency in system automation and scripting tools including Ansible (including Semaphore), Terraform, Packer, Bash, and Python
  • Knowledge of SSP compliance and processes, including STE/STN
  • Experience with containerization technologies such as Podman and Kubernetes
  • Amazon AWS experience including EC2 instance setup, S3 buckets, VPCs, and IAM
  • Proficiency with metrics and observability platforms such as Kibana, Grafana, and Prometheus
  • Familiarity with database administration across databases such as Elasticsearch, MongoDB, Redis, or graph databases (e.g., DGraph)

🌟 Preferred Skills

  • NiFi dataflow experience
  • Elastic stack experience (logstash, filebeat, etc.)
  • Graph database experience
  • Experience with additional AWS tools such as EKS, ECS, Lambdas, and Secrets Manager
  • CI/CD pipeline experience in GitLab
  • CNO experience
  • Experience facilitating low-to-high development
  • Cisco networking experience

🏝️ Benefits at Bitwise

  • Top salaries because we're top performers
  • Pick your PTO — Everyone values time and money differently, so we give you the flexibility to choose between 3 and 5 weeks of PTO with a corresponding adjustment to your pay. Your choice, your balance.
  • All 11 federal holidays, paid!
  • Up to 2 snow days, paid!
  • We'll quadruple (4x!) the first 6% you contribute to your 401(k), giving you up to a 24% company match. Contributing less than 6%? Unclaimed matches come right back to you as extra income, giving you a guaranteed 24% that goes to your retirement, to your paycheck, or both. C'mon now! 🚀
  • 100% employer-paid medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurances. That's a lot. Already covered on health insurance? No problem — we'll trade you this benefit for a boost to your salary instead.
  • $5,250 annual education assistance for training, certifications, tuition, and even student loan repayments.
  • Spot bonuses for obtained certifications, customer recognition, and just about anything else that makes us go "Hot damn!". We hope to say that many times about you. 🔥

💰 Salary Range

$266,500 – $313,500

This range includes our flex income and depends upon your annual work hours.

Salary is determined on an individual basis following the interview process and considering various factors such as years of experience, skills, education, and certifications.

🛎️ What to Expect After Applying

You'll get an email from us right away to acknowledge your application. After that, we'll:

  • Send over additional company materials for you to review
  • Schedule a video call to talk about you, our company, and your place in it
  • Craft a delightful offer package for you and record a video walkthrough
  • Work closely with you through onboarding. We'll keep it joyful and easy.

ℹ️ Disclaimers

Bitwise is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs.

Compensation for this position, including all compensation options, will be determined on an individual basis following the interview process.

If you require accommodations at any stage of the application or interview process, please reach out to us.