Senior DevOps Engineer II

Job Description

About Kirkland & Ellis

At Kirkland & Ellis, we don't just meet the standard for legal excellence - we set it. Our culture is built on teamwork, ingenuity and an unwavering commitment to continuous growth. We tackle the most sophisticated legal challenges with bold ideas and innovative solutions, powered by the exceptional experience and ambition of our 7,000+ people, including 4,000+ attorneys, across 23 offices worldwide. Our dedicated professionals share our lawyers' commitment to excellence and show up each day to do meaningful work that helps drive global business, investment and innovation forward.

What You'll Do

Are you passionate about embedding security into every stage of the development lifecycle while building scalable, high-impact cloud solutions?

As a Senior DevSecOps Engineer II, you'll play a critical role within the Practice Solutions team, partnering across development, quality assurance, infrastructure, and security to design and deliver secure, automated, and resilient technology solutions. Reporting to the Director of Technology, this role blends hands-on technical expertise with strategic influence-driving DevSecOps maturity, improving release efficiency, and strengthening the organization's security posture across cloud and delivery pipelines.

This is an opportunity to lead through innovation, mentor peers, and shape how secure software is built and deployed at scale.

Secure CI/CD Enablement: Design, build, and maintain secure continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines that streamline application build, testing, and deployment.

Security Integration: Embed security tooling into the software development lifecycle, including Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), secrets scanning, and infrastructure security scanning.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Develop and manage infrastructure using code with tools such as Terraform, Bicep, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), or CloudFormation.

Cloud Security Management: Administer and secure cloud environments, primarily within Microsoft Azure, ensuring compliance and operational integrity.

Container & Kubernetes Security: Implement and manage container and orchestration security, including image scanning, role-based access control (RBAC), and runtime protections.

Standards & Governance: Establish and enforce secure coding, deployment, and access management standards across teams.

Identity & Secrets Management: Secure and manage certificates, secrets, and identity/access controls using enterprise tools and best practices.

Monitoring & Observability: Track system health and performance using monitoring and alerting platforms to proactively identify and resolve issues.

Vulnerability Management: Coordinate remediation efforts and support compliance and regulatory initiatives.

Troubleshooting & Optimization: Resolve production and deployment challenges and contribute to root cause analysis and continuous improvement.

Automation: Streamline operational processes through scripting using tools such as PowerShell, Bash, or Python.

Collaboration & Influence: Partner cross-functionally to enhance reliability, release quality, and security maturity across the organization.

Mentorship & Advocacy: Guide engineers and champion DevSecOps best practices, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

What You'll Bring

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: 8+ years in DevOps, Cloud Engineering, Systems Engineering, or DevSecOps, including 5+ years integrating security into CI/CD pipelines.

DevSecOps Expertise: Deep experience with CI/CD platforms (e.g., Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab) and embedding security controls throughout development workflows.

Cloud & Infrastructure Knowledge: Strong experience with cloud platforms (especially Microsoft Azure and/or AWS) and Infrastructure as Code practices.

Containerization & Orchestration: Hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes, including security best practices.

Security Fundamentals: Solid understanding of application security concepts, secrets management, authentication protocols, and policy enforcement tools (e.g., Azure Policy, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Sentinel).

Scripting & Automation: Proficiency in scripting languages such as PowerShell, Python, or Bash to drive automation and efficiency.

Systems & Networking: Strong foundation in operating systems, networking, APIs, and distributed systems.

Monitoring & Observability Tools: Experience with platforms such as Dynatrace, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), Splunk, or Azure Monitor.

Collaboration & Communication: Excellent problem-solving, communication, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment.

If you're excited to elevate secure software delivery, mentor others, and drive meaningful impact as a Senior DevSecOps Engineer II, we'd love to hear from you!

Compensation

The base salary range below represents the low and high end of the salary range for this position in Chicago. This range may differ based on your geographic location and cost of living considerations. At Kirkland & Ellis, we consider compensation more than just a base salary. We offer an exceptional range of flexible benefits including comprehensive healthcare, paid time off, and retirement. We also offer personal support and tailored learning and development opportunities all designed to help you realize your full potential both in life and at work.

Compensation Range:

Chicago: $153,000 - $191,000

How To Apply

Thank you for your interest in Kirkland & Ellis LLP. To complete an application and submit your resume, please click "Apply Now."

Don't meet every job requirement? That's okay! If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't perfectly fit every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right person for this role or others at Kirkland.

Equal Employment Opportunity

All employment decisions, including the recruiting, hiring, placement, training availability, promotion, compensation, evaluation, disciplinary actions, and termination of employment (if necessary) are made without regard to the employee's race, color, creed, religion, sex, pregnancy or childbirth, personal appearance, family responsibilities, sexual orientation or preference, gender identity, political affiliation, source of income, place of residence, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military veteran status, unfavorable discharge from military service, physical or mental disability, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.