Freelance Developer Operations Engineer Jobs in Des Plaines, IL

Itron is innovating new ways for utilities and cities to manage energy and water. We create a more resourceful world to protect essential resources for today and tomorrow. Join us.

At Itron, we help utilities modernize critical infrastructure through digital solutions that connect the field, office, and enterprise. As part of our Locusview product line, our fast-growing Resiliency Solutions business, you'll combine the agility of a startup with the scale of an industry leader while helping drive the future of utility infrastructure.
Position OverviewThe DevOps Engineer plays a critical role in designing, building, and maintaining the cloud infrastructure, automation frameworks, and deployment pipelines that power our technology platform. This individual partners closely with software engineering, product, and operations teams to deliver scalable, secure, and highly available solutions that support utility and energy customers. Success in this role requires a customer-centric mindset, strong technical expertise, continuous improvement, and a commitment to collaboration, accountability, and innovation.
Duties & Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and continuously improve CI/CD pipelines to accelerate software delivery while maintaining quality, security, and reliability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to design, deploy, and optimize cloud-native infrastructure solutions that support business growth and customer success.
• Own and support production-grade environments, ensuring high availability, resiliency, performance, and operational excellence.
• Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using Terraform and industry best practices.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize cloud infrastructure and services to proactively identify and resolve issues.
• Automate operational processes and repetitive tasks to improve efficiency, consistency, and scalability.
• Partner with development teams to enhance application deployment strategies, system architecture, and operational readiness.
• Support security, compliance, and infrastructure governance initiatives across cloud environments.
• Contribute to a culture of continuous learning, innovation, accountability, and agile delivery.
• Act as a trusted technical partner, helping deliver reliable solutions that enable utility customers to modernize and strengthen critical infrastructure.
  

Required Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 4+ years of experience in DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Cloud Engineering, or a related role supporting production environments.
• Hands-on experience with Docker and containerization technologies.
• Experience with container orchestration platforms, including Amazon ECS and/or Kubernetes (EKS).
• Strong knowledge of AWS services, including VPC, ECS, EKS, EC2, Route 53, S3, SQS, SNS, ElastiCache, OpenSearch, and AWS Transfer Family.
• Proven experience developing and managing Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, including creating and implementing reusable modules.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline, or similar technologies.
• Experience supporting and maintaining production infrastructure with a focus on reliability, scalability, and performance.
• Knowledge of cloud monitoring and security tools such as CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and GuardDuty.
• Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language, such as Python, Bash, Groovy, or similar.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, agile environment and communicate technical concepts clearly to diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated commitment to accountability, customer focus, and delivering high-quality results.
  

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience supporting SaaS platforms and large-scale cloud-native applications.
• Knowledge of observability, monitoring, and logging best practices.
• Experience implementing DevSecOps practices and cloud security frameworks.
• Familiarity with microservices architectures and distributed systems.
• Experience working within the Utilities, Energy, Infrastructure, Telecommunications, or related industries.
• Knowledge of application performance monitoring and incident management processes.
• AWS certifications (e.g., Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer, SysOps Administrator) or equivalent cloud certifications.
• Experience optimizing infrastructure costs and improving operational efficiency.
• Passion for technology innovation and helping customers solve complex operational challenges.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment while fostering authentic and collaborative relationships.

Benefits Info: This position also includes a competitive benefit package including; financial, social, health and wellbeing programs, paid vacation, 401k matching, employee stock purchase program, hybrid work schedule, and more!
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Itron is committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce and providing an authentic workplace experience for all employees. If you are excited about this role but your past experiences don't perfectly align with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. In the end, you may be just who we are looking for!
The successful candidate's starting wage will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills and experience.
Itron is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. If you require an accommodation to apply, please contact a recruiting representative at 1-800-635-5461 or email Accessibility@itron.com.

Itron is transforming how the world manages energy, water and city services. Our trusted intelligent infrastructure solutions help utilities and cities improve efficiency, build resilience and deliver safe, reliable and affordable service. With edge intelligence, we connect people, data insights and devices so communities can better manage the essential resources they rely on to live. Join us as we create a more resourceful world: www.itron.com