Senior DevSecOps Engineer - Velocity Platform

Nelnet is a diversified and innovative company committed to enriching lives through the power of service as a student loan servicer, professional services company, consumer loan originator and servicer, payments processor, renewable energy solutions, and K-12 and higher education expert. For over 40 years, Nelnet has been serving its customers, associates, and communities.

The perks of working at Nelnet go beyond our benefits package. When you join the Nelnet team, you're part of a community invested in the success of each individual. That support comes through in our work, as we are united by our mission of creating opportunities for people where they live, learn, and work.

We are looking for a Senior DevSecOps Engineer to own the infrastructure, deployment automation, and security posture of Velocity, Nelnet's cloud-native loan servicing platform and the company's first major enterprise system to run entirely in AWS.
Velocity is a fully serverless platform. Roughly 50 to 60 Node.js/TypeScript microservices run on AWS Lambda behind API Gateway, an event-driven backbone is built on SNS/SQS with namespace-based filtering, data lives in Aurora PostgreSQL with read-replica clusters, and infrastructure is provisioned through CloudFormation. We deliver through GitHub and GitHub Actions across four environments (Dev, QA, Train, Production), and we monitor through CloudWatch and Datadog.
We believe the full lifecycle of a cloud system, including provisioning, deployment, maintenance, and retirement, belongs in code. We believe security controls belong in the pipeline, not in a checklist at the end of it. And because Velocity operates in the financial services sector, we are held to defined vulnerability remediation commitments by our clients and to a growing set of audit and compliance obligations, including SOC 2.
This is a senior, high-autonomy role. You will be handed problems, not specifications. Much of what needs to be built here has never been built here before, and there is no one to hand you a finished requirements document. You will be expected to define the problem, propose the approach, socialize it with architecture and delivery teams, and then go build it. You will also be one of the most senior technical voices on the team, setting standards other engineers follow and raising the technical ceiling of everyone around you.

Nelnet believes in a hybrid work environment that accommodates both in-office and remote work. This model promotes a positive work-life balance and culture, enabling in-person collaboration when possible while also providing benefits associated with remote work. The standard hybrid work schedule includes 24 hours of in-office work each week, for associates that reside within 30 miles of an office. This is subject to change, based on manager discretion.
At this time, we are unable to consider external candidates that reside in these states: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.

NOTE: Internal Associates working in a remote capacity may be considered for this position.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

An ideal team member will be a DevSecOps engineer that has solid experience with many of these technologies, however select specialization in just a few will also be considered with great interest.

• Monitor and support all installed systems and infrastructure.

• Evaluate system performance, identify potential bottlenecks, develop solutions, and implement change via the change management process

• Design, implement and monitor enterprise-grade secure fault-tolerant infrastructure

• Define and evolve Build & Release best practice by working within teams and educating the other stakeholder teams. These best practices should support traceability & auditability of change.

• Ensure continuous availability of various DevOps tools supporting SCM & Release Management including Source Control, Continuous Integration, & Change Management.

• Work with cross-functional teams in design, development and implementation of enterprise scalable features related to enabling higher developer productivity, environment monitoring and self-healing, and facilitate autonomous delivery teams.

• Build infrastructure automation tools and frameworks

• Integrate newly developed and existing applications into cloud environments

• Automate deployment pipelines in a scalable, secure and reliable manner

• Leverage application monitoring tools to troubleshoot and diagnose environment issues

• Have a culture of automation where any repetitive work is automated

• Work closely with Cloud Infrastructure and Security teams to ensure organizational best practices, policies, and procedures are followed

•  Automation of security controls

EXPERIENCE:

• 1-3+ years of experience with AWS DevOps, cloud architecture, networking, deployment processes, and infrastructure as code tools
• Experience solving complex problems, creating algorithms, and working through challenging requirements
• Experience creating software in an agile, iterative environment
•  Experience with source control (Git, branching, merging, etc.)

COMPETENCIES – SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/ABILITIES:

• Contributes to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement

• Educates teams on adoption and support of DevSecOps practices and tooling

• Takes individual initiative to follow industry thought leaders, maintain professional qualifications, and participate in company as well as global communities of interest

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; with the ability to communicate technical concepts and strategies at all levels of the organization

• Must be detail oriented, critical thinker, possess excellent problem-solving skills

• Ability to coach, mentor, and teach team members

• Ability to handle a dynamic work environment

• Effective organization and time management skills

• Ability to obtain a security clearance

• Knowledge in the area of Federal Government NIST compliance preferred

Annual compensation range for this role is $120,000 - $158,000 depending on experience.

Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position. To be considered, candidates must already be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

Our benefits package includes medical, dental, vision, HSA and FSA, generous earned time off, 401K/student loan repayment, life insurance & AD&D insurance, employee assistance program, employee stock purchase program, tuition reimbursement, performance-based incentive pay, short- and long-term disability, and a robust wellness program. Click here to learn more about our benefits: Benefits & Perks - Nelnet Inc.

Nelnet is committed to providing a welcoming and respectful workplace where all associates have the opportunity to succeed. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we ensure that all qualified applicants are considered for employment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion/creed, national origin, gender, sex, marital status, age, disability, use of a guide dog or service animal, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law. We value the unique contributions of every team member and believe that a positive work environment benefits everyone.  

Qualified individuals with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations in order to apply or compete for positions at Nelnet may request such accommodations by contacting Talent Acquisition at 402-486-5725 or [email protected].

Nelnet is a Drug Free and Tobacco Free Workplace.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring

We may use automated or artificial intelligence enabled tools to assist with the initial review of applications, such as identifying relevant skills or experience. These tools are used to support human review and do not make hiring decisions. A recruiter reviews applications and determines which candidates move forward in the hiring process. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Pre-Use Notice: Automated Tools in Hiring