Application Operations Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

About Cognitive Medical Systems:

Cognitive is an IT and software engineering services company dedicated to elevating the quality, speed and delivery of today’s US government healthcare programs. With a wealth of clinical expertise and hands-on experience, our team understands the significant challenges our government clients—and their customers—face every day. This real-world experience equips us to develop IT solutions that seamlessly connect all facets of healthcare delivery. At Cognitive, we’re guiding government agencies to the forefront of technology innovation in healthcare delivery.

Position Overview:

The DevOps Engineer is part of the Cognitive team supporting the VA CCN contract for TriWest Healthcare Alliance. This role is responsible for ensuring the reliability, stability, performance, and continuous improvement of enterprise applications supporting critical business operations. 

This individual will serve as the technical lead for application operations, production support, database maintenance, release management, and deployment activities. The role requires a strong operational mindset, the ability to proactively identify and resolve issues, and the technical expertise to support application growth as transaction and claims volumes increase. 

The ideal candidate possesses a blend of operations, DevOps, database administration, deployment management, and software development experience, with working knowledge of JavaScript and modern development practices. 

This is a remote position; however, Cognitive Medical Systems hires only in the following designated U.S. states based on contract and business requirements: VA, DC, MD, TN, FL, AZ, CO, OR, and TX.

Key Responsibilities:

Application Operations & Production Support 

• Monitor, support, and maintain production applications to ensure system availability, reliability, and performance.  
• Review application, server, and system logs to proactively identify, troubleshoot, and resolve issues.  
• Perform root cause analysis and implement corrective actions to prevent recurring incidents.  
• Respond to production incidents, outages, and escalations in a timely manner.  
• Establish operational monitoring, alerting, and support procedures.  
• Partner with development teams to improve application resiliency, observability, and supportability.  

Database Administration & Performance Management 

• Manage and maintain Microsoft SQL Server environments supporting enterprise applications.  
• Monitor database performance, storage utilization, indexing strategies, and query optimization.  
• Develop and execute database maintenance plans to support increasing claims and transaction volumes.  
• Proactively identify capacity constraints and implement scalability improvements.  
• Support database backups, recovery procedures, and data integrity initiatives. 
• Collaborate with development teams on data architecture and performance optimization.  

Deployment & Release Management 

• Lead and manage application deployments across Development, Test, Staging, and Production environments.  
• Develop, document, and continuously improve deployment processes and release procedures.  
• Coordinate release activities across technical teams and stakeholders.  
• Validate deployment readiness and execute rollback procedures when necessary.  
• Maintain deployment schedules and ensure minimal disruption to business operations.  
• Support CI/CD processes and release automation efforts.  

DevOps & Software Engineering Support 

• Support an Agile, Lean, and SAFe-based environment utilizing DevSecOps, CI/CD, and related methodologies. 
• Manage source control repositories using GitHub or Bitbucket. 
• Create, maintain, and optimize automated build and deployment pipelines.  
• Collaborate on policies, standards, governance, and best practices for software development and operational support.  
• Partner with developers to improve application performance, maintainability, and deployment efficiency.  
• Utilize development experience to troubleshoot application issues and support code-level analysis.  
• Contribute to application enhancements and technical debt reduction activities.  
• Support JavaScript-based application development efforts as needed.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor\'s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.  

• Eight (8) years of additional relevant experience may be substituted for education.  
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience supporting enterprise applications in an operations, DevOps, production support, or engineering role. 
• Experience supporting production environments with high-volume transactional systems. 
• Experience leading application deployments and release management activities. 
• Experience supporting Microsoft-based enterprise applications and infrastructure.  
• Experience conducting in-depth troubleshooting, triage, root cause analysis, and continuous service improvement activities. 
• Ability to obtain a Government Public Trust clearance.  
• U.S. Citizenship required.  

Why Join Us?

• Be part of a mission-driven organization making a difference in healthcare IT.

• Collaborate with innovative and passionate professionalsthat are there to support you at every turn.
• Enjoy a supportive work/life balance with the flexibility of a 100% remote company.
• Benefit from opportunities for growth and development in a dynamic environment.