External Operations Manager Jobs in Annapolis, MD

Company Overview
By Light Professional IT Services LLC readies warfighters and federal agencies with technology and systems engineered to connect, protect, and prepare individuals and teams for whatever comes next. Headquartered in McLean, VA, By Light supports defense, civilian, and commercial IT customers worldwide.
Cole Engineering Services (CESI), a By Light company, is recognized as a premier provider of modeling and simulation (M&S) training solutions to the Federal Government and industry. Since 2004, CESI has been at the forefront of developing, maintaining, and integrating simulation-based training, serious gaming, technical services, training and other support in live, virtual, constructive, and gaming (LVCG) domains. CESI also designs, builds and runs infrastructure, platforms, applications and processes that enable cyber training for the integrated multi-domain force. Our vision is to become a worldwide full spectrum LVCG and cyber training/analysis developer, integrator and services provider.
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Position Overview
Cole Engineering Services Inc. (CESI) is seeking a highly motivated Cyber Range Operations Manager to support the Persistent Cyber Training Environment Operations Group (PCTE-OG). The Cyber Range Operations Manager will provide direct people management and day-to-day operational management for assigned Range Operations pods, ensuring that exercise delivery, testing validation, project development, engineering execution, and personnel readiness remain aligned to customer objectives, technical standards, and organizational priorities.
This role serves as the first formal management layer within the Range Operations organization. The Cyber Range Operations Manager is responsible for first-level people escalations, performance management, timesheet review and approval, employee mentoring, professional development, workload management, and team accountability. The manager will work closely with the Range Operations Lead and Deputy Range Operations Lead to maintain consistent standards for execution, communication, personnel readiness, and employee performance across assigned pods.
The Cyber Range Operations Manager also coordinates directly with customers, exercise planners, technical leads, test teams, and external stakeholders to understand requirements, assign work, track execution, manage risks, and report status. The manager is responsible for leading agile execution using Atlassian tools, maintaining pod-level accountability, and ensuring assigned teams deliver range builds, validation activities, project tasks, and operational support on schedule.
The Cyber Range Operations Manager may support exercise delivery pods or testing and project development pods. In the Exercises area, the manager oversees assigned exercise builds, coordinates with exercise planners, manages tasking across senior and junior/mid range engineers, and ensures delivery milestones are met. In the Testing & Projects area, the manager coordinates structured validation cycles, project priorities, research efforts, tool development, and agile execution across test engineers and range engineers.
This is a full-time on-site position located in Annapolis Junction, MD, Ft. Meade, MD, or as specified by the task order.
Responsibilities

• Provide direct people management for assigned Range Operations personnel, including senior/mid/junior engineers and senior/mid/junior test engineers.
• Serve as the first-level escalation point for personnel matters, team conflicts, workload concerns, performance issues, and day-to-day employee support needs.
• Conduct performance management activities, including setting expectations, providing feedback, documenting performance, supporting goal development, and contributing to formal performance reviews.
• Review, validate, and approve employee timesheets in accordance with company policy, contract requirements, and assigned work activities.
• Mentor assigned personnel and support employee development through coaching, technical growth planning, training recommendations, and regular feedback.
• Monitor team workload, availability, morale, skill gaps, and operational readiness to ensure assigned personnel are properly aligned to mission needs.
• Manage day-to-day execution for assigned Range Operations pods, including exercise delivery, testing validation, project development, and operational support activities.
• Coordinate directly with customers, exercise planners, PCTE-OG teams, and external stakeholders to understand scope, requirements, milestones, dependencies, and risks.
• Translate customer and leadership priorities into actionable team tasks, sprint objectives, Jira issues, Confluence documentation, and delivery schedules.
• Assign exercise and project epics and user stories to range engineering pods based on skill set, availability, priority, and operational need.
• Lead agile execution using Atlassian tools, including backlog management, sprint planning, daily task tracking, risk management, status reporting, and after-action inputs.
• Track range build progress, validation progress, project progress, blockers, defects, and delivery risks across assigned teams.
• Support the planning, build, configuration, testing, validation, and execution of cyber training environments within complex virtualized infrastructures.
• Ensure assigned range environments meet established design guidance, technical standards, security requirements, validation procedures, and customer objectives.
• Coordinate with pod senior engineers and technical leads to resolve technical issues, performance concerns, schedule conflicts, and resource constraints.
• Manage exercise readiness activities, including environment readiness checks, access coordination, validation status, customer communications, and execution support.
• Monitor testing and validation cycles to ensure network integrity, service functionality, training content accuracy, and operational readiness are confirmed and documented.
• Support project development efforts by coordinating research priorities, identifying capability gaps, tracking tool development, and helping teams deliver improvements to range operations.
• Maintain clear communication with the Range Operations Lead and Deputy Range Operations Lead regarding status, staffing, risks, issues, metrics, personnel concerns, and operational tempo.
• Ensure technical documentation, build notes, runbooks, validation records, diagrams, and after-action inputs are complete, accurate, and repeatable.
• Identify process gaps and recommend improvements to increase consistency, quality, delivery speed, and user experience across Range Operations.
• Support performance metric collection, analysis, and reporting across assigned range operations activities.

Required Experience/Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in technical disciplines such as information technology, computer science, systems engineering, software engineering, cybersecurity, or a related field from an accredited college or university, or 6+ years of relevant experience in lieu of degree requirements.
• Minimum 6-8 years of systems engineering, cyber range operations, technical project management, test engineering, or related experience with progressively increasing responsibility.
• Current DoD 8570 IAT Level II/III certification, such as Security+, CCNA, CISSP, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated experience leading people, managing technical teams, assigning work, resolving first-level personnel issues, and supporting employee development.
• Experience supporting performance management activities, including feedback, coaching, goal setting, performance documentation, and formal review input.
• Experience reviewing employee work, managing competing priorities, and balancing workload across multiple technical staff members.
• Demonstrated experience supporting cyber range design, cyber training environments, cyberspace training operations, cybersecurity exercises, or mission rehearsal events.
• Experience using Atlassian tools such as Jira and Confluence to manage agile execution, document requirements, track tasks, and report progress.
• Working knowledge of virtualized infrastructure, Windows and Linux systems, networking concepts, DNS, TCP/IP, routing, switching, and cybersecurity tooling.
• Ability to coordinate across engineering, testing, customer, leadership, and external stakeholder groups.
• Experience identifying and managing project risks, dependencies, blockers, defects, and schedule impacts.
• Strong written and oral communication skills with the ability to brief technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks, projects, personnel needs, and operational demands in a fast-paced environment.
• Must be a self-starter and able to manage teams with varied technical backgrounds and experience levels.

Preferred Experience/Qualifications

• Experience supporting the Joint Event Life Cycle (JELC), cyber training exercises, Cyber Protection Team training, or large-scale DoD cyber events.
• Experience managing agile teams using Scrum, Kanban, or similar execution methods.
• Experience with range validation, structured test procedures, quality assurance, issue tracking, and operational readiness reporting.
• Experience with cyber range tools, SIEMs, intrusion detection systems, threat intelligence platforms, red team tools, defensive sensors, or supporting applications.
• Experience with scripting, automation, or tool development using Python, Bash, PowerShell, Ansible, or similar technologies.
• Familiarity with hosted application deployment, system testing, load testing, performance monitoring, and system integration.
• Project management, Agile, Scrum Master, SAFe, PMP, or related certification/training.

Special Requirements/Security Clearance
Please note that pursuant to a government contract, this specific position requires U. S. Citizenship status and a TS/SCI security clearance with the ability to pass a CI polygraph if requested by the customer. Security Clearance requirements will be specified in the Government's Task Order.
This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. The above is intended to describe the general contents of and requirements for the performance of this job.
Occasional travel may be required up to 10% of the time.
Salary Range
Salary Range: Salary Minimum: $165,000 , Salary Maximum: $185,000
The annual base salary provided is a guideline for this position and is not a guarantee of compensation or salary. When extending an offer, CESI also considers other variables such as (but not limited to) work experience, education, training, skill set, internal peer equity, clearance level, and market conditions. In addition, CESI provides an extensive selection of benefits and offerings to our employees.
Benefits Overview
CESI recognizes that our strength is our people. We support every employee as an individual to build strong teams across the enterprise. Our benefit package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage
• Wellness Program
• 401(k) Matching
• Disability (Short Term & Long Term)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Life Insurance
• Education & Training
• Generous Leave Policy (11 Federal Holidays, PTO, Military Leave, Bereavement and Jury Duty)

CESI is committed to principles of inclusion and equal employment opportunity. We foster a non-discriminatory, professional work environment for all our teams. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status.