IT Spec (ENTARCH) "Platform/site Reliability Engineer", GS-2210-14 FPL GS-14 (DH)
What you'd do
This position is in the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Federal Student Aid (FSA), Technology Directorate (TD). The Technology Directorate provides information technology services for all FSA systems, promoting the effective and secure use of technology to achieve FSA's strategic objectives through sound planning, investments, integrated technology architectures and standards, effective systems development, production support, and cybersecurity services.
Major duties
APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 250 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 250th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first. This position is eligible for Remote/Virtual work. However, this position may fall under the Presidential Memorandum titled "Return to In-Person Work" which will require you to go into the office if you are located within 50 miles of a Department of Education facility in these locations: Washington, DC, Dallas, TX, San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, Kansas City, MO, Chicago, Il, Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA, New York City, NY, and location is negotiable. Actual salary will be based on location of selectee. Locality pay tables available at www.opm.gov . We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application. As a Platform/Site Reliability Engineer, you will lead the design, development, and evolution of the cloud platforms, automation, and reliability systems that power FSA's applications. You will develop infrastructure, tooling, and observability capabilities that enable teams to deliver secure, reliable, and high-performing services at scale. You'll collaborate with cross-functional partners to standardize cloud architectures, improve system reliability, and modernize FSA into a platform-driven, engineering-centric organization. This role blends the mission of public service with the complexity of major commercial cloud and SRE organizations. Your job is to lead the creation of the platforms, guardrails, and reliability practices that let teams ship changes safely and confidently. If you enjoy designing scalable infrastructure, optimizing system reliability, and enabling engineers to move faster, this is the role. As a Platform/Site Reliability Engineer, GS-2210-14, you will be responsible for: Serving as an advisor to the IOG Director and Chief of the Network Support Division, acting as a network architect and engineer to develop and implement solutions across cloud and on-premises environments, while designing reusable platform services, container environments, identity integrations, networking patterns, and infrastructure components. Provide input to design and technical documentation, review final deliverables, and ensure adherence to the enterprise network operations engineering framework through leadership, while serving as a principal-level expert in platform engineering, cloud architecture, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices, and infrastructure automation. Engage with technology leaders, business partners, and contractors to ensure operational requirements and needs are met, while clearly communicating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and producing platform standards, design documents, and technical evaluations. Evaluate system security plans and procedures, manage and direct office support contractors, address IT compliance issues, and oversee project planning and updates, while designing and maintaining continuous improvement/continuous Development (CI/CD) pipelines to support automated testing, deployment, change control, and compliance validation. Drive network engineering direction and response for CISA Binding Operational Directives (BODs) impacting data center operations, developing plans and processes to strengthen security, while implementing secure cloud configurations, identity and access management (IAM) models, encryption, and zero-trust architectural patterns.
What you need to qualify
Minimum Qualification Requirements Specialized Experience for the IT Specialist (INFOSEC), GS-2210-14 One year of experience in either federal or non-federal service that is equivalent to at least a GS-13 performing two (2) out of three (3) of the following duties or work assignments: 1. Direct technical experience designing, deploying, and operating scalable cloud platforms using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD, containers, and automated security controls to accelerate engineering delivery and ensure compliance. 2. Direct technical experience enhancing reliability and observability for distributed systems, including use of tracing/metrics/logs for observability, SLO/SLA development, incident response and analysis, and/or measurable performance/automation improvements. 3. Experience translating platform and reliability engineering concepts into clear documentation, technical standards, and architecture guidance for non-technical audiences, and influencing engineering practices across multiple teams. Basic Experience Requirements You must possess IT related experience (paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (e.g., IT certification), as appropriate) demonstrating each of the nine competencies listed below. 1. Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail. 2. Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services. 3. Decision Making - Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change. 4. Information Management - Identifies a need for and knows where or how to gather information; organizes and maintains information or information management systems. 5. Interpersonal Skills - Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations 6. Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately. 7. Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations. 8. Teamwork - Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity; fosters commitment and team spirit; works with others to achieve goals. 9. Technical Competence – Uses knowledge that is acquired through formal training or on-the-job experience to perform one's job; works with, understands, and evaluates technical information related to the job; advises others on technical issues. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement). 1. Skill in designing and implementing cloud and hybrid network solutions, including reusable platform services, container environments, identity integrations, and infrastructure components. 2. Skill in applying systems engineering and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) concepts to ensure reliability, performance, scalability, security, and maintainability across complex, multi-cloud environments. 3. Knowledge of platform and reliability engineering principles and the ability to apply them through real-world implementation, debugging, optimization, and modernization of cloud environments. 4. Skill in computer engineering cloud automation, observability tooling, testing frameworks, and Continuous improvement/Continuous development (CI/CD) pipelines, including telemetry, logging, alerting, and distributed tracing. 5. Ability to leverage modern cloud, data, and security technologies to design, test, and deploy resilient platform and reliability systems that support mission-critical applications.
Before you apply
Federal applications are different: your resume should be 3–5 pages and mirror the language of this announcement. Read our federal resume guide first — it's the #1 reason qualified people get screened out.
Don't miss the next one.
Get an email the moment a similar federal job opens — postings can close in as little as 5 days.