Role Overview:
This role focuses on Tier III application operations and technical support for a large-scale, data-intensive federal system built on a LAMP stack. You’ll own the operational health, deployments, data integrity, and release coordination of a production application, acting as the technical bridge between development, infrastructure, security, and end users.
This is not a development role and not a traditional systems administrator role. You will not be building new application features or provisioning infrastructure. Instead, you’ll be responsible for resolving complex application and data issues, supporting deployments, maintaining documentation, and ensuring system reliability in a compliance-driven environment.
Role Highlights:
Title: Senior Application Operations & Support Engineer (Tier III)
Location: Falls Church, VA (Hybrid, currently ~2 days onsite; subject to change)
- DMV area preferred; non-DMV-based remote Eastern or Central Time Zone candidates considered
Employment Type: Long-Term Contract
Compensation: Up to $135,000
Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship or required
Clearance: Ability to pass a federal background verification
• Occasional after-hours deployments (planned, no overtime)
• Low team turnover and long-term program stability
Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior Application Operations & Support Engineer (Tier III) to support a mission-critical, data-intensive federal application built on a LAMP stack. This role sits at the intersection of application support, data troubleshooting, release coordination, and DevSecOps-enabled deployments.
This is not a development role and not a traditional systems administrator role. You will not be writing new application features or provisioning infrastructure. Instead, you will own the technical health, stability, deployments, data integrity, and operational readiness of a production application used by business stakeholders who depend on accurate data and predictable system behavior.
If you enjoy solving complex data and business-rule issues, working close to production systems, and acting as the technical bridge between developers, infrastructure, security, and end users — this role is a strong fit.
Support Model (Important Context)
- Tier 1: Basic end-user support (separate contract)
- Tier 2: Application help desk, workflows, user guidance
- Tier 3 (This Role):
- Deep technical application support
- Backend, configuration, and data issue resolution
- Final escalation point before development teams
- Responsible for deployments, documentation, and security remediation coordination
Key Responsibilities
Application Operations & Tier III Support
- Diagnose and resolve complex production issues across application, database, and data layers
- Troubleshoot configuration, account, and data integrity issues
- Analyze data discrepancies and reconcile business-rule-driven results
- Escalate code defects to development teams with clear technical findings
Data & ETL Support
- Support high-volume data ingestion pipelines
- Troubleshoot ETL failures, partial loads, and data inconsistencies
- Validate payroll or financial modeling outputs against source data
- Perform SQL-based analysis to confirm accuracy and reconciliation
Deployments & Release Support
- Perform application deployments using Git and Ansible within an established DevSecOps pipeline
- Deploy fixes and feature bundles across non-production and production environments
- Coordinate releases, including release notes, stakeholder communications, and post-deployment validation
- Support Dev/Test/Train activities during release cycles
Security & Compliance
- Support quarterly security scans and remediation timelines
- Coordinate vulnerability fixes with development and security teams
- Apply application-level patches and security mitigations on provisioned servers
- Maintain security-related documentation and SOPs
Documentation & Communication
- Maintain and update:
- System specifications
- Database documentation
- Configuration and security SOPs
- Create clear, template-based documentation (accuracy over creativity)
- Produce system change communications for technical and non-technical audiences
- Deliver product demos and assist with training materials as needed
Coordination & Ownership
- Act as the technical “quarterback” between:
- Development teams
- Infrastructure teams
- Security teams
- Business users
- Track work and incidents using Jira, ServiceNow, and related SDLC tools
- Document task status and operational updates consistently
Required Qualifications
Education & Experience (Labor Category Driven)
- Bachelor’s degree + 10+ years relevant experience
OR equivalent combinations: - Master’s + 8 years
- Associate’s + 12 years
- No degree + 14 years
Technical Requirements
- A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field and 10+ years of experience are required.
- Strong hands-on experience with LAMP stack production environments
- Advanced MySQL skills, including data analysis and troubleshooting
- Experience supporting data-heavy systems with frequent ingestion cycles
- ETL experience (Pentaho strongly preferred)
- Linux administration experience (RHEL strongly preferred)
- Linux administration experience (permissions, SE Linux, running scripts, cron jobs, mounting drives, Firewall rules).
- Experience deploying applications using Git and Ansible
- Familiarity with PHP-based applications in production
- Experience working in load-balanced environments
- Strong technical documentation skills
Operational & Process Experience
- Tier III production support and incident resolution
- SDLC and Agile methodologies
- Experience working within compliance-driven federal environments
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting financial, payroll, or budgeting systems
- Familiarity with Redis, Apache Solr, SQLyog, DBeaver, or Microolap
- Exposure to IT service management frameworks (ITIL / ITSM)
- Experience with quarterly security scans and vulnerability remediation workflows
- Federal enterprise application support experience
Never miss an opportunity! Create an alert based on the job you applied for.
