DescriptionReports to: Vice President, Talent Operations
StatFLSA: Temporary, 1099 contract
Location: In person, St. Louis, MO. Candidates must live in the St. Louis area.
Engagement: Approximately 1-2 weeks of curriculum development, 3 weeks of full-time, in-person instruction (up to 8 hours per day, 120 instructional hours), and 1 week for post-cohort assessment. November 2026 - January 2027
The Technical Instructor, Cloud & DevOps Support at LaunchCode connects talent to opportunity by leading an intensive, short-term cohort that prepares employees of an employer partner to move from geospatial roles into tier-0/tier-1 technical support roles. Teaching in person in downtown St. Louis, the Technical Instructor takes adult learners with little or no infrastructure background to a working understanding of Linux, Git, networking, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD and GitOps in approximately 120 hours.
Before the cohort begins,the Technical Instructor will assist LaunchCode with building a course and hands-on labs that reflect the partner's tools and tier-0/tier-1 support workflows. The work is hands-on: labs, troubleshooting practice and realistic support scenarios built from the partner's own logs, tickets and runbooks.
The Technical Instructor tracks every learner's progress, provides weekly updates to the program team, and produces the ranked results and written strengths-and-gaps summaries the partner will use to decide who advances. This role suits an experienced cloud infrastructure practitioner who can explain complex systems to someone seeing them for the first time and who wants to help adult learners change careers in a matter of weeks.
Essential Duties/Responsibilities:
- Advise on technical accuracy, scope and sequencing of lessons, labs and exercises across Linux, Git, networking, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD and GitOps
- Help translate the partner's tier-0/tier-1 support work into realistic exercises and troubleshooting scenarios built from its mock logs, tickets and runbooks
- Review and test labs in the provided environment before the cohort, flagging gaps or errors to the curriculum team
- Share feedback with the curriculum team during the cohort on what is and isn't working, based on learner progress
- Deliver the full curriculum in person, up to 8 hours per day, using a mix of direct instruction, lab work, troubleshooting practice, Q&A and assessment
- Teach Linux and Git fundamentals: filesystem navigation, processes, system and application logs, permissions and ownership, exit codes and error output, commits, branches and remotes
- Teach networking and containers: the client-server model, IP addresses, ports and DNS, network testing utilities, containers versus virtual machines, and running, inspecting and debugging Docker containers
- Teach Kubernetes and AWS: desired state and reconciliation, pods, deployments, services and nodes, kubectl troubleshooting (CrashLoopBackOff, Pending, ImagePullBackOff), IAM roles and policies, and how EKS relates to EC2 and AWS identity
- Teach delivery and troubleshooting: CI/CD pipeline stages and failed-job analysis, GitOps concepts, Argo CD application states, and structured investigation of simulated tier-0/tier-1 tickets and runbooks
- Lead hands-on labs in the provided lab environment, mirroring real tier-0/tier-1 support work
- Explain technical concepts in plain language so learners can both perform a task and explain why it works
- Adjust pacing and provide individual support for adult learners with varied technical backgrounds, keeping all learners progressing on a compressed timeline
- Track each learner's progress on hands-on exercises and supply weekly progress data to the LaunchCode program manager for partner updates
- Score learners, produce a ranked list of all learners, and write a short summary of each learner's strengths and gaps
- Coordinate with the LaunchCode program manager on schedules, attendance and reporting
RequirementsRequired Skills/Abilities:
Technical
- Comfort working on the Linux command line and with Git
- Solid grasp of networking fundamentals (IP, ports, DNS, client-server)
- Practical experience with containers and Kubernetes
- Working knowledge of AWS, especially IAM
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and deployment tooling
- A methodical approach to troubleshooting: finding the symptom, isolating the cause, and knowing when to escalate
Non-technical
- Ability to explain technical concepts in plain language to beginners
- Confidence leading full-day, in-person instruction
- Patience and adaptability with adult learners of varied backgrounds
- Clear written communication and fair, objective judgment when assessing learners
- Ability to collaborate with a curriculum team and program staff on a tight timeline
Required Experience:
- Professional, hands-on experience in DevOps, site reliability, cloud infrastructure, systems administration, technical support or a similar technical role
- Hands-on experience with Linux, containers (Docker and/or Kubernetes) and AWS in a work setting
- Experience teaching, training or mentoring adults in technical subjects, in any format (for example bootcamp instruction, corporate training, workshops, or onboarding engineers or support staff)
- Experience evaluating learner or team-member performance and providing written feedback
- Availability to start no later than November 16, 2026 and commit to the full engagement
Preferred Experience:
- Experience in a tier-1 (or higher) technical support, escalation or on-call role, including writing or following runbooks
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitOps workflows and Argo CD
- Experience contributing subject matter expertise to technical training materials, documentation, labs or curriculum
- Experience teaching intensive, accelerated programs (for example coding bootcamps or multi-week corporate upskilling cohorts)
- Experience teaching career changers or learners moving from non-infrastructure roles into technical roles
- Relevant certifications such as AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or Solutions Architect, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), or Linux Foundation certifications
Candidates who meet most, but not all, of these qualifications are encouraged to apply. Skills will be evaluated during the interview process.
Physical Requirements/Travel Requirements:
- Must reside in the St. Louis area and be able to work on site in downtown St. Louis for the teaching portion of the engagement
- Prolonged periods of standing, presenting and moving around a classroom to support learners during labs, alternating with periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
- Visual acuity for focusing on computer screens, projected displays and documents, as well as manual dexterity for operating standard office and presentation equipment
- Occasional lifting of light to moderate objects up to 15 pounds
- No travel outside the St. Louis area is expected
