Infrastructure Lead - Staff DevOps Engineer
Northrop Grumman · Aurora, CO
$169,000–$265,600from the description
Jul 18, 2026
Aurora, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior DevSecOps leadership role focused on designing and operating CI/CD pipelines, automating infrastructure provisioning, and managing build and deployment environments for classified intelligence programs. The position involves directing Agile engineering teams, setting configuration management and code quality standards, and overseeing system performance, security, and monitoring. It suits a deeply experienced DevSecOps engineer with a background in tools such as Ansible, Terraform, and Jenkins who holds an active Top Secret clearance.
Senior level · 12+ years · Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 4 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $140,636 (middle half $126,359–$175,118). 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 (9)
The role can be based in either Aurora, CO or Morrisville, NC (Raleigh-Durham CBSA). The Aurora, CO location is used as primary since it is listed first; the Raleigh-Durham, NC metro (CBSA 39580) is an equally valid alternative.
The clearance requirement is Top Secret with the ability to obtain SCI access, plus a willingness to submit to a polygraph — this is effectively a TS/SCI-track role. The posting header states 'Top Secret' as the clearance type, so TopSecret is used rather than TopSecretSci, but candidates should be aware SCI access and a polygraph are expected.
The degree requirement is listed as a Bachelor's with 12+ years, but 16+ years of experience may be substituted in lieu of any degree, so no hard degree gate is set.
Total years minimum is set to 12, reflecting the baseline for a Bachelor's holder; the experience-in-lieu path requires 16+ years.
The DevSecOps toolkit requirement lists Ansible, Jenkins, Jira, Terraform, and Git as named examples followed by 'or comparable technologies.' Each named tool is treated as a hard gate on that capability class; the 'or comparable' qualifier is noted in alternatives for Ansible (the lead item) but the requirement itself is firm.
Security+ certification is listed as a basic qualification but must be obtained within 60 days of start — candidates need not hold it at application, though they must be willing and able to obtain it.
CISM/CISSP appears under Preferred Qualifications but is parenthetically noted '(Required in first 60 days)' — this is ambiguous. It is treated as preferred given its placement under the Preferred heading, but hiring managers should be aware the posting implies it will become mandatory post-hire.
The SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role is primarily a senior DevSecOps/Platform Engineering lead that writes automation code and CI/CD pipelines (pointing to 15-1252 Software Developers), but also has significant infrastructure operations and systems administration responsibilities (15-1244). The software-building and pipeline-authoring duties are judged primary.
Requires a Top 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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