Vault Application Engineer/Administrator (Hashicorp)

Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is actively looking for a skilled Hashicorp Vault Application Engineer/Administrator to join our team, focusing on the design and implementation of on premises and cloud HashiCorp Vault clusters. You will play a critical role in ensuring secure secret management, identity-based access, and seamless integration within our onprem and cloud-native (AWS and GCP) hybrid infrastructure. This position requires expertise in Hashicorp Vault, and Zero Trust security principles, along with a passion for building reliable and scalable systems. This opportunity is full time and onsite at the NIH-NCBI in Bethesda, MD and/or remote work.

NCBI is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at NIH. NCBI is the world's premier biomedical center hosting over six million daily users that seek research, clinical, genetic, and other information that directly impacts biomedical research and public health – at NCBI you can literally help to accelerate cures for diseases! NCBI's wide range of applications, platforms (node, python, Django, C++, you name it) and environments (big data [petabytes], machine learning, multiple clouds) serve more users than almost any other US Government Agency according to https://analytics.usa.gov/.

We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition and conference reimbursement. If you enjoy being a part of a high performing, professional service and technology focused organization, please apply today!

Duties & Responsibilities:
  • Design, deploy, and manage HashiCorp Vault for secret management, encryption, and access control in a zero trust environment.
  • Implement and maintain secure, scalable, and highly available Vault Primary, DR, and Performance Replica clusters.
  • Integrate Vault with Kubernetes for dynamic secrets, authentication, and workload identity management.
  • Collaborate with DevOps and security teams to enforce zero trust security policies and best practices.
  • Develop and maintain automation scripts and tools for Vault administration and Kubernetes orchestration.
  • Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Vault performance and security in production environments.
  • Ensure compliance with industry standards for data protection and security (FISMA).
  • Contribute to the design and implementation of CI/CD pipelines for secure application deployments.
  • Document processes, configurations, and architecture for knowledge sharing and compliance.

Required Skills:

  • 3+ years of experience as a Web Application Engineer, DevOps Engineer, or similar role.
  • Hands-on experience administering HashiCorp Vault in production environments.
  • Deep understanding of zero trust security principles and their application in cloud-native platforms.
  • Proficiency in scripting and automation using languages such as Python or Bash.
  • Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Puppet, Ansible).
  • Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., TeamCity, GitLab CI, ArgoCD).
  • Knowledge of cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP) and their Kubernetes offerings (e.g., EKS, GKE).
  • Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot complex issues in distributed systems.

Benefits and Salary

We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition reimbursement.

We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience and location. The targeted range for this position is $130,000 - $180,000.

If you enjoy being a part of a high performing, professional service and technology focused organization, please apply today!

Back to blog

Common Interview Questions And Answers

1. HOW DO YOU PLAN YOUR DAY?

This is what this question poses: When do you focus and start working seriously? What are the hours you work optimally? Are you a night owl? A morning bird? Remote teams can be made up of people working on different shifts and around the world, so you won't necessarily be stuck in the 9-5 schedule if it's not for you...

2. HOW DO YOU USE THE DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION TOOLS IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS?

When you're working on a remote team, there's no way to chat in the hallway between meetings or catch up on the latest project during an office carpool. Therefore, virtual communication will be absolutely essential to get your work done...

3. WHAT IS "WORKING REMOTE" REALLY FOR YOU?

Many people want to work remotely because of the flexibility it allows. You can work anywhere and at any time of the day...

4. WHAT DO YOU NEED IN YOUR PHYSICAL WORKSPACE TO SUCCEED IN YOUR WORK?

With this question, companies are looking to see what equipment they may need to provide you with and to verify how aware you are of what remote working could mean for you physically and logistically...

5. HOW DO YOU PROCESS INFORMATION?

Several years ago, I was working in a team to plan a big event. My supervisor made us all work as a team before the big day. One of our activities has been to find out how each of us processes information...

6. HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE CALENDAR AND THE PROGRAM? WHICH APPLICATIONS / SYSTEM DO YOU USE?

Or you may receive even more specific questions, such as: What's on your calendar? Do you plan blocks of time to do certain types of work? Do you have an open calendar that everyone can see?...

7. HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE FILES, LINKS, AND TABS ON YOUR COMPUTER?

Just like your schedule, how you track files and other information is very important. After all, everything is digital!...

8. HOW TO PRIORITIZE WORK?

The day I watched Marie Forleo's film separating the important from the urgent, my life changed. Not all remote jobs start fast, but most of them are...

9. HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A MEETING AND PREPARE A MEETING? WHAT DO YOU SEE HAPPENING DURING THE MEETING?

Just as communication is essential when working remotely, so is organization. Because you won't have those opportunities in the elevator or a casual conversation in the lunchroom, you should take advantage of the little time you have in a video or phone conference...

10. HOW DO YOU USE TECHNOLOGY ON A DAILY BASIS, IN YOUR WORK AND FOR YOUR PLEASURE?

This is a great question because it shows your comfort level with technology, which is very important for a remote worker because you will be working with technology over time...