DevOps Engineer

Swarmaero is currently seeking a highly skilled DevOps Engineer to join their team in a remote capacity. This role is central to the development of Legion, the company’s sophisticated command and control platform designed to coordinate autonomous UAV swarms. As a member of this forward-thinking organisation, you will be responsible for the integrity, scalability, and efficiency of the infrastructure that powers these mission-critical systems.

About the role

This position offers a rare opportunity to operate at the intersection of defence technology and advanced robotics. You will serve as the backbone of the engineering effort, ensuring that the Legion platform remains robust and reliable under demanding operational conditions. The role is heavily focused on hands-on infrastructure management, requiring a candidate who is comfortable bridging the gap between high-level architectural planning and the practical, day-to-day requirements of production environments.

Because Swarmaero operates within the defence sector, the position requires a professional who is not only technically proficient but also capable of navigating the compliance and security frameworks inherent in national security projects. You will be expected to travel periodically to customer sites or testing facilities to oversee deployments, ensuring that the technology is performing optimally in the field.

The core of this role involves streamlining the development lifecycle to allow the wider engineering team to ship features faster without sacrificing security or system stability. Your daily responsibilities will include:

• Designing, maintaining, and optimising CI/CD pipelines to facilitate seamless code deployment from initial commit to live production environments.
• Managing infrastructure as code (IaC) across both cloud-based and on-premises setups to ensure consistent configuration management.
• Scaling and orchestrating containerised services within Kubernetes clusters to meet operational demands.
• Implementing comprehensive observability solutions, including advanced monitoring, centralised logging, and automated alerting systems.
• Collaborating directly with the DevSecOps lead to integrate security protocols and regulatory compliance into the platform’s architectural core.
• Overseeing the packaging and physical deployment of the Legion software to various client locations.

What they're looking for

Swarmaero is looking for an experienced engineer, ideally with 4 to 8 years of relevant background in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or platform architecture. You should have a deep understanding of the Linux operating system and networking fundamentals. Furthermore, you will need to be proficient in scripting languages such as Python, Go, or Bash to automate repetitive tasks and improve developer tooling.

Technical requirements include:

• Demonstrated experience managing containerisation and orchestrating services in Kubernetes.
• Strong competency in infrastructure as code tooling, such as Terraform.
• A proven track record of managing production CI/CD pipelines.
• The ability to obtain and maintain a US security clearance (existing Secret clearance or higher is a significant advantage).
• A pragmatic mindset, with the willingness to travel to testing or customer sites as necessitated by the project.

In the South African tech landscape, roles of this calibre often sit within the specialist defence-tech, aerospace, or high-end fintech sectors. While the US security clearance requirement is specific to this international employer, the technical stack—Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD automation—is highly transferable. Professionals with this skill set in South Africa typically see strong compensation packages due to the scarcity of high-level SRE talent, with growth paths often leading into Lead DevOps or Platform Engineering Management roles. Prior experience with high-availability systems is generally the most significant salary driver for this profile locally.

• 4 to 8 years in DevOps, platform, SRE, or infrastructure engineering
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes, containers, and infrastructure as code (Terraform or similar)
• Experience building and owning CI/CD pipelines in a production environment
• Solid Linux and networking fundamentals
• Scripting in Python, Go, or Bash
• Active Secret clearance or higher strongly preferred; must be able to obtain and maintain a US security clearance
• Willingness to travel to customer and test sites