Operations Lead

Key Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership & Program Oversight Lead daily operations for a large federal IT program ensuring delivery excellence, timeliness, and contract compliance. Oversee operational workflows, governance processes, performance metrics, and reporting. Partner with Program Manager, Technical Leads, and client stakeholders to resolve issues and maintain alignment with strategic priorities. Develop and maintain SOPs, operational dashboards, weekly/monthly reporting, and KPIs. Coordinate resource planning, forecasting, and staffing alignment across agile teams and workstreams. Ensure continuity of operations, risk mitigation, and escalation management. Oversee onboarding/offboarding processes, system access requests, training plans, and compliance documentation. Introduce AI-enhanced tools for workforce planning, capacity forecasting, and real-time operational monitoring. Contract, Compliance, & Governance Serve as the key point of contact supporting contract administration, SLAs, and deliverable tracking. Ensure operational documentation meets agency standards, audit requirements, and contractual expectations. Support financial governance: reporting, burn rate tracking, and budget alignment. Manage risk logs, action items, compliance checklists, and audit responses. Leverage AI tools to support compliance automation, audit readiness, document generation, and anomaly detection. Security Operations & Compliance Requirements Apply FISMA and NIST 800-53 frameworks to system architecture, development, evaluation, and integration. Develop and maintain IT Security Plans and security documentation. Provide vulnerability scan reports and assist in remediation tracking. Deliver POA&M updates and corrective action documentation. Review/update SSPs, Contingency Plans, user access reviews, and SoD matrices. Provide security and role-based training documentation. Support FISMA assessments, penetration test coordination, configuration management, and incident response documentation. Maintain ISAs, MOAs, ROEs, and operational security policies. Evaluate and integrate AI-based tools for security event analysis, predictive risk scoring, threat-hunting assistance, and compliance automation—consistent with federal security guidelines. Team Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement Lead cross-functional teams including analysts, engineers, developers, and security specialists. Serve as primary liaison to client leadership for operational updates, issue resolution, security deliverables, and performance metrics. Lead recurring client meetings, operational reviews, and strategy sessions. Foster a culture of continuous improvement, customer service, accountability, and operational excellence. Champion responsible AI and automation adoption across teams, including training, upskilling, and process integration. Continuous Improvement & Operational Strategy Identify operational bottlenecks and implement process improvements for efficiency and quality. Develop performance dashboards, automated reporting, and workflow optimization strategies. Drive operational readiness for audits, assessments, and program reviews. Design and promote AI-enabled operational enhancements such as predictive analytics, automated workflow triage, intelligent documentation, and improved decision support. DevSecOps, Cloud, AI, and Automation Knowledge of CI/CD, DevSecOps, and operational automation. Understanding of Change Management processes and best practices. Experience with cloud platforms and mixed datacenter environments. Understanding of networking concepts and technologies. Drive cloud enhancements and automation initiatives. Lead efforts to identify, test, implement, and scale AI-driven capabilities to reduce cost, accelerate delivery, and increase reliability of operational processes, procedures, or assets. Collaborate with technical teams to incorporate machine learning, generative AI, and automation into operational tooling and program workflows—while ensuring compliance with federal AI governance standards.