Freelance Data Platform Engineer Jobs in Utah (NOW HIRING)

A leading Consulting Firm is seeking a DevOps & Platform Engineer for a 6 month contract to hire role based onsite in Salt Lake City, UT.
Job Description:
Are you passionate about building resilient, scalable platforms that power mission-critical applications? Do you enjoy solving complex technical challenges through automation, cloud technologies, and modern DevOps practices?
The client is seeking a **DevOps & Platform Engineer** to join our growing team in **Salt Lake City, UT**. In this role, you'll collaborate with software engineers, solution architects, infrastructure specialists, and client stakeholders to design, automate, and optimize enterprise platforms that enable secure, reliable, and scalable application delivery.
As a trusted technical consultant, you'll leverage cutting-edge technologies including **Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Neo4j Graph Database, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, Docker, Terraform, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC)** to build modern platform solutions, automate deployment pipelines, and improve engineering productivity across enterprise environments.
You'll have the opportunity to solve meaningful business challenges, expand your technical expertise, and grow your career within a collaborative culture that values innovation, continuous improvement, and your unique perspective.
**Location:** This position is based onsite at a client location in the **Salt Lake City, UT** area.
If you're passionate about building scalable platforms, automating complex environments, and helping organizations deliver secure, reliable technology solutions, we'd love to hear from you.
Your future duties and responsibilities
How you'll make an impact
As a **DevOps & Platform Engineer**, you will play a key role in designing, automating, and supporting enterprise platforms that enable secure, reliable, and scalable software delivery. Working across development, infrastructure, and operations teams, you'll help establish best practices that improve deployment velocity, platform stability, and operational excellence.
You will:
* Design, implement, and support enterprise DevOps platforms that improve software delivery, operational excellence, and engineering productivity
* Administer and optimize enterprise Source Code Management (SCM) platforms, including Git repositories, branching strategies, version control, merge workflows, and release management
* Design, deploy, administer, and optimize **Neo4j Graph Database** environments, including installation, upgrades, clustering, performance tuning, backup/recovery, monitoring, and production support
* Develop and optimize graph data models, Cypher queries, indexes, and graph traversal strategies to support high-performance, relationship-driven enterprise applications
* Build reusable platform services, automation frameworks, APIs, integrations, plug-ins, and microservices that streamline development and operational workflows
* Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines using **Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD**, or similar platforms to accelerate software delivery while maintaining security and quality
* Deploy, manage, and support containerized applications using **Docker, Kubernetes, Helm**, and enterprise Kubernetes platforms such as **OpenShift, Tanzu, Rancher (RKE),** or equivalent
* Implement cloud-native infrastructure on **Google Cloud Platform (preferred)** or AWS using Infrastructure as Code and DevOps automation best practices
* Develop Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using **Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, Chef**, or similar technologies to automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration management
* Implement enterprise monitoring, logging, and observability solutions using technologies such as **AppDynamics, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch**, or similar platforms
* Troubleshoot complex platform, application, infrastructure, and deployment issues while driving root cause analysis and continuous improvement
* Create and maintain technical documentation, engineering standards, deployment procedures, and operational runbooks
* Collaborate with software engineers, architects, infrastructure teams, and client stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and highly available platform solutions
* Participate in Agile delivery ceremonies, technical design discussions, code reviews, and continuous improvement initiatives
Required qualifications to be successful in this role
What you'll bring
* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline
* 3+ years of experience in DevOps Engineering, Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure Engineering, Cloud Engineering, or a related role
Strong programming and scripting experience using one or more of the following:
* Python
* Java
* TypeScript
* JavaScript
* Groovy
* Bash
* PowerShell
* YAML
* Ruby
* Experience developing and supporting REST APIs, microservices, and modern build frameworks such as **Maven** and **Gradle**
* Hands-on experience administering **Neo4j Graph Database**, including installation, upgrades, clustering, backup/recovery, performance tuning, and production support
* Strong knowledge of **Cypher Query Language**, graph data modeling, query optimization, and graph database best practices
* Advanced experience with Git and enterprise Source Code Management (SCM) best practices
* Proven experience designing, implementing, and supporting CI/CD pipelines using **Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab**, or comparable DevOps platforms
* Experience deploying and managing containerized applications using **Docker, Kubernetes, Helm**, and enterprise Kubernetes platforms such as **OpenShift, Tanzu, Rancher (RKE)**, or equivalent
* Experience working with **Google Cloud Platform (preferred)** or AWS in cloud-native enterprise environments
* Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code using **Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, Chef**, or comparable automation tools
* Experience supporting both Linux and Windows server environments
* Experience implementing monitoring, logging, and observability solutions using AppDynamics, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch**, or similar technologies
* Working knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases, including **SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB**, and database migration/versioning tools such as **Liquibase**
* Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and collaboration skills
* Experience working within Agile methodologies including **Scrum, Kanban,** or **SAFe**
Desired Skills:
* Google Cloud Professional, AWS, Kubernetes (CKA/CKAD), Terraform, or Azure DevOps certifications
* Experience supporting highly available, mission-critical production environments
* Familiarity with security automation, vulnerability management, and DevSecOps practices
* Experience mentoring junior engineers and promoting DevOps best practices across engineering teams