DevOps/Platform Engineer II at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
$109,000–$163,600from the description
Jul 10, 2026
Richland, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A DevOps/Platform Engineer role focused on building and maintaining AI and machine learning infrastructure for national security applications. Day-to-day work involves designing cloud-native platforms, data pipelines, containerized environments, and CI/CD systems, with some involvement in deploying large language models and agentic AI tools. Suited to early- or mid-career engineers with hands-on Python experience and an interest in cloud and distributed systems.
Mid level · 2+ years · Kennewick-Richland, WA · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $130,610 (middle half $99,920–$168,281). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The title is 'DevOps/Platform Engineer' but the role's primary work — building AI platforms, data pipelines, microservices, and CI/CD systems — is software development (15-1252). 15-1244 (Systems Administrators) is listed as a runner-up given the platform/infrastructure framing, but the JD clearly emphasizes writing and shipping code.
The posting frames this as 'early- to mid-career,' and the only hard experience gate is a BS/BA plus 2 years of professional software development (or a higher degree with no experience required). Seniority is assessed as Mid.
Degree requirement is set to None: the JD accepts a BS/BA with 2 years of experience OR an MS/MA OR a PhD — equivalent experience paths exist at each level, and a specific degree field is only listed under Preferred Qualifications.
Clearance: the JD states the role 'requires the ability to obtain and maintain a federal security clearance' but does not specify the level. Given the national security mission context (DOE/NSD), a Secret-level clearance is the most reasonable minimum interpretation; the actual level may be higher.
All skills beyond Python appear under 'Preferred Qualifications' and are framed with softening language ('experience with,' 'familiarity with,' 'exposure to') — none are hard gates.
The 'data pipelines' skill is listed as preferred because it appears only under Preferred Qualifications ('Exposure to AI/ML workflows, data pipelines, or model deployment'); the role does describe building pipelines in the responsibilities section, but the JD does not gate candidates on prior pipeline experience.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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