Part-Time DevOps Engineer

Part-Time DevOps Engineer / Infrastructure Lead Contract | Approximately 5–10 hours per week We are looking for an experienced, hands-on DevOps Engineer / Infrastructure Lead to support the infrastructure behind our growing portfolio of web applications. This is a part-time contract role averaging approximately 5–10 hours per week. You’ll work closely with our development team to move applications from development into stable, secure production environments while helping us establish repeatable DevOps practices across projects. Responsibilities • Set up and configure staging and production environments for web applications • Deploy and manage applications built with Next.js, PostgreSQL, Tailwind CSS, and related technologies • Build and maintain Docker or similar containerized deployment environments • Configure and maintain cloud infrastructure across platforms such as DigitalOcean, Vercel, and other hosting environments • Establish and maintain reliable deployment processes and CI/CD workflows • Manage production PostgreSQL databases, backups, access, and recovery procedures • Configure SSL certificates, environment variables, networking, and related infrastructure • Implement monitoring, logging, uptime checks, and alerting • Review infrastructure and applications for security vulnerabilities and configuration issues • Implement security best practices for production applications and cloud infrastructure • Manage application secrets, credentials, permissions, and access controls • Troubleshoot production and deployment issues • Monitor application performance and infrastructure utilization • Optimize infrastructure for reliability, performance, and cost • Maintain documentation for infrastructure, deployments, and recovery procedures • Develop repeatable processes and templates that allow new applications to be deployed efficiently Required Experience • Excellent written and spoken English • Ability to collaborate approximately 2-3 times per week via Zoom (US Central Time) • Strong hands-on experience deploying and managing modern web applications in production • Experience with Next.js and Node.js production environments • Strong experience with Docker or similar containerized environments • Experience managing PostgreSQL databases in production • Experience with DigitalOcean, Vercel, or comparable cloud hosting platforms • Working knowledge of Linux server administration • Experience establishing and maintaining CI/CD workflows • Strong understanding of production application and infrastructure security • Experience implementing backups, monitoring, logging, and recovery processes • Ability to troubleshoot production and deployment issues independently • Ability to communicate technical decisions clearly and maintain useful infrastructure documentation Nice to Have Experience with any of the following would be a plus: • DigitalOcean Droplets, App Platform, Managed PostgreSQL, and Spaces AWS services such as EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, CloudFront, and IAM Vercel • GitHub and GitHub Actions • Docker Compose and container registries • DNS configuration and management • Nginx or similar reverse proxies • Cloudflare • Sentry or similar application monitoring platforms • Automated database and infrastructure backups • Vulnerability scanning and security auditing tools Role Structure This is a part-time independent contractor role expected to average approximately 5–10 hours per week. Hours may vary somewhat depending on project needs, deployments, and new application launches. We are looking for someone who can take hands-on ownership of our production infrastructure. Some weeks may involve setting up a new staging or production environment, while others will focus on monitoring, maintenance, security, troubleshooting, and infrastructure improvements. The role offers flexibility in when most work is completed, but reasonable responsiveness is important when production or deployment issues arise. What Success Looks Like Our goal is to create a production environment where deployments are predictable, infrastructure is secure and well documented, backups are tested, applications are monitored, and new projects can move from development to production without reinventing the deployment process each time. We’re looking for someone who can build that foundation and take ongoing ownership of keeping it healthy.