Job Title: Environment Governance & Operations Lead
Location: McLean, VA (Onsite)
Employment Type: Contract / Full-Time
Role Summary
We are seeking an Environment Governance & Operations Lead to own and govern the lifecycle of enterprise application environments across Development, Test, UAT, Performance, and Production.
This role focuses on standardization, stability, automation, and compliance of environments while working closely with DevOps, Platform, Security, and Product teams.
The ideal candidate will bring a strong background in DevOps and infrastructure, combined with governance, stakeholder management, and strategic leadership.
Key Responsibilities
1. Environment Governance & Standards
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Define and implement governance frameworks for managing environments across Dev, SIT, UAT, Performance, and Production
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Establish policies for:
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Environment provisioning and decommissioning
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Refresh cycles and environment usage
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Security, audit, and regulatory compliance
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Define test data refresh strategies, including just-in-time refresh and data virtualization options
2. Environment Stability & Currency
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Ensure all environments are current with application versions, patches, and infrastructure updates
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Monitor environment health and proactively identify:
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Configuration drift
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Technical debt
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Stability risks
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Build and maintain environment health dashboards to provide real-time visibility into non-production and production environments
3. Strategy, Automation & DevOps Alignment
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Define and oversee strategies for environment build, refresh, and maintenance
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Promote and enforce Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) principles using tools such as Terraform and Ansible
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Partner with DevOps and Platform Engineering teams to:
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Drive standardization across environments to reduce manual effort and errors
4. Accountability & Collaboration
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Act as the subject matter expert for environment governance and operations
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Work closely with product, application, DevOps, infrastructure, and security teams to enforce standards and SLAs
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Influence senior stakeholders and obtain buy-in for governance decisions
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Conduct regular reviews and audits to ensure compliance with environment policies
5. Documentation & Continuous Improvement
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Create and maintain clear environment management documentation, standards, and runbooks
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Continuously improve environment processes based on operational feedback and metrics
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Track and report environment-related KPIs and operational risks
Required Skills & Qualifications
Technical Skills
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Strong understanding of DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines
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Experience with container platforms such as Kubernetes and OpenShift
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Hands-on knowledge of Infrastructure-as-Code tools (Terraform, Ansible)
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Scripting experience with Python and/or PowerShell
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Familiarity with credential and secrets management (HashiCorp Vault, CyberArk)
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Knowledge of monitoring, logging, and observability tools
Professional & Leadership Skills
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Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
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Ability to influence teams and leadership to follow governance standards
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Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities
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Experience working in large, complex enterprise environments
Preferred Qualifications
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Experience managing large-scale non-production environments
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Background in platform engineering, DevOps leadership, or environment management
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Experience with regulated or security-sensitive environments
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