RRC - Programmer IV

RRC - Programmer IV (00053543)Organization: RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS

Primary Location: Texas-AustinWork Locations: RRC Headquarters 1701 N Congress Avenue Austin 78701

Job: Computer and Mathematical

Employee Status: Regular

Schedule: Full-timeStandard Hours Per Week: 40.00

State Job Code: 0244

Salary Admin Plan: B

Grade: 26

Salary (Pay Basis): 7,377.50 - 10,291.67 (Monthly)

Number of Openings: 1

Overtime Status: Exempt

Job Posting: Oct 21, 2025, 9:19:45 AM

Closing Date: Nov 4, 2025, 11:59:00 PM

Description

The Railroad Commission of Texas is a state agency with primary regulatory jurisdiction over the oil and natural gas industry; pipeline transport and pipeline safety; natural gas utilities; the LP-gas industry, and surface mining operations. You can find more details about us on the Railroad Commission of Texas’ website here https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/.

To support our mission to serve Texas, we need great people to join our team. We provide a great working environment along with outstanding benefits, including:

- Generous paid time off including vacation, sick time, and at least 12 paid holidays per year

- Telework options for eligible positions

- Flexible work schedules

- Retirement pension with a 150% agency match – you can watch this YouTube video that describes this amazing benefit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJI6M7g73-w

- 401(k), 457(b) and Roth

- Health premiums 100% paid for full-time employees

- Tuition Reimbursement

- Wellness and Exercise Leave

- Career development programs/opportunities for advancement

For a complete list of our total compensation package please visit our website at https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/jobs/. To view benefits available to all State of Texas employees visit the Employee Retirement Systems website at https://ers.texas.gov/benefits-at-a-glance.

Job Description

The Railroad Commission of Texas, recognized as a worldwide leader in the regulation of oil and gas exploration and production, seeks a Programmer IV to perform complex project and operational actions and work coordination for the Mainframe Transformation section of the Information Technology Services (ITS) Division.

Major responsibilities include authoring, modifying, and operating Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines written in YAML. Programmer IV will create and configure new Azure environments using Infrastructure as Code (Bicep/Terraform/ARM), resolve build/release issues, implement secure deployment patterns (slots, blue/green, canary), and provide observability for releases and runtime. The role partners closely with application teams, DBAs, security, and operations to accelerate delivery while meeting compliance, reliability, performance, and cost objectives

Essential Job Functions

- Design, author, and refactor multi-stage YAML pipelines in Azure DevOps (build/test/scan/package/deploy), including variable groups, templates, service connections, approvals/gates, and environment-specific substitutions.

- Modify and standardize existing pipelines; create reusable YAML templates and task modules to enforce CI/CD best practices.

- Provision and configure Azure environments (resource groups, App Service/slots, Functions, Azure SQL, Storage, Key Vault, Application Insights, Log Analytics) using Infrastructure as Code (Bicep/Terraform/ARM).

- Document environments, pipelines, and procedures (runbooks, deployment guides, diagrams) in SharePoint/Confluence; participate in change/incident/problem management; conduct knowledge transfer and training.

- Collaborate with developers and operations on capacity, performance, and cost optimization (FinOps); leverage caching, parallelization, and self hosted agents to improve throughput.

- Support database DevOps for SQL Server/Oracle (DACPAC/BACPAC, migration scripts, drift detection) with pre/post deployment validation and safe rollout.

- Deliver observability for releases: configure Application Insights/Monitor and Log Analytics; create dashboards and alerts for deployment health, latency, error budgets, and SLIs/SLOs.

- Integrate quality and security checks (unit/integration tests, code coverage, SAST/DAST/SCA, container scanning) into pipelines; enforce branch policies and PR validation.

- Troubleshoot build and release failures end to end (agent pools, task versions, service connections/RBAC, Key Vault access, configuration drift, YAML syntax) and drive durable corrective actions with runbooks.

- Define and operate environment strategies (Dev/Test/QA/Stage/Prod), deployment rings, and promotion workflows; implement blue/green and canary deployments with rollback.

- Implement secure secrets and identity patterns (Azure Key Vault, managed identities, RBAC) and maintain service principals, approvals, and release gates.

For Military Crosswalk information, please visit:

https://hr.sao.texas.gov/Compensation/MilitaryCrosswalk/MOSC_InformationTechnology.pdf

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical field.

- Five (5) or more years in DevOps/Build & Release engineering within enterprise environments, including production support.

- Five (5) or more years building and operating Azure DevOps YAML pipelines (Repos, Pipelines, Artifacts) with variable groups and service connections.

- Three (3) or more years implementing Infrastructure as Code on Azure with Bicep, ARM templates, and/or Terraform.

- Demonstrated ability to diagnose and resolve pipeline and deployment issues quickly (RBAC, secrets, agent, task, or configuration failures).

- Experience integrating automated tests and security scanning (e.g., MSTest/xUnit, SonarQube, Microsoft Defender for DevOps, or equivalent).

- Proficiency with Git (trunk based or GitFlow), PowerShell and/or Bash for automation, diagnostics, and environment configuration.

- Hands on experience with Azure services: App Service (slots), Functions, Azure SQL, Storage, Key Vault, Application Insights/Monitor, Log Analytics.

- Proven ability to work independently on technical tasks from design to delivery, with minimal oversight.

- Strong understanding of RESTful APIs, microservices architecture, and integration patterns.

- Hands-on experience with version control systems (e.g., Git) and Azure DevOps for source control, pipelines, and deployments.

Preferred Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university, preferably with major coursework in information systems, computer science, data processing, communications, business, or a related field.

- At least eight (8) years of hands-on web development or closely related experience.

- At least four (4) years of hands-on experience in production support, bug fixes, root cause analysis and handling high prority production support tickets.

- At least six (6) years of experience using one or more of .NET Core, JSON, XML, Docker, iText, GoAnyWhere, Azure, SQL Server, Mulesoft, Informatica, and other RRC approved and cloud friendly/native technologies/tools to design, develop, test, troubleshoot, and repair enterprise-class applications.

- At least four (4) years of experience performing analysis and maintenance of customer critical .NET based applications in a high-visibility production environment.

- At least two (2) years of experience in developing, enhancing, maintaining applications in Azure, Amazon and/or Google cloud platforms.

- At least two (2) years of experience developing, enhancing, maintaining application user experiences using iText, GoAnyWhere, HTML5, CSS3, Angular, React, and similar technologies.

- At least one (1) year of experience in data focused projects, like moving from Legacy to newer systems.

- At least one (1) year of experience in projects using Informatica (on-prem or cloud) or Mulesoft ESB to move data.

- At least one (1) year of experience in Data Warehouse projects.

- Experience in working in fast-paced and ever-changing environments; establishing project’s goals and objectives; exercising sound judgment in making critical decisions; analyzing complex information and developing plans to address technical issues.

- Experience with the RBDMS platform.

- Total years of experience may run concurrently.

- Experience and education may be substituted on a year for year basis.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

- Knowledge of the principles, practices, and techniques of computer programming and systems analysis of computer operations, data flow, and of computer programming languages.

- Skill in problem solving, in critical thinking, in programming, in the use of hardware and software, and in modifying or developing software for applications.

- Skill in scheduling, testing, installing, and implementing programs, and in troubleshooting computer systems.

- Skill using .NET, JSON, XML, Docker, iText, GoAnyWhere, Azure, Azure DevOps, SQL Server, Mulesoft, Informatica, and other RRC approved and cloud friendly/native technologies/tools to design, develop, test, troubleshoot, and repair enterprise-class applications.

- Ability to process information logically, to design programs and systems logic, and to prepare program specifications.

- Ability to code, test, and debug software.

- Ability to interpret technical information related to programming and other areas of data processing.

- Ability to analyze systems and procedures, to write and revise standards and procedures, to handle multiple projects, to communicate effectively, and to supervise the work of others

- Ability to manage multiple technical project activities so the project teams may achieve ever-changing deadlines.

- Ability to identify technical project risks and gaps, to prepare documentation of those risks and gaps; to communicate effectively; and to plan, assign, and/or supervise the work of others.

- Ability to exercise sound judgment in making critical technical decisions in concert with the RRC Enterprise Architect.

- Ability to analyze complex information and develop plans for teams and individuals to implement, including the ability to interpret complex data.

- Ability to communicate complex technical information clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, to diverse audiences.

- Ability to maintain working relationships with internal/external stakeholders.

- Ability to take initiative and work independently.

- Ability to work effectively on a team as a member and leader.

- Ability to plan, assign, and/or supervise the work of others.

- Ability to address issues/concerns in a professional manner.

Miscellaneous Requirements:

Ability to work a consistent schedule, such as Monday through Friday, 8AM—5 PM Central Time, with occasional flexible hours, after-hours, weekends, and holidays.

Note: Salary will be determined based on education and experience.

Work Hours: Standard office hours for Commission employees are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Our agency offers alternate schedules for employees, as long as it does not adversely affect operations and service levels, and standard hours of operation are maintained. The Commission may also offer telework based on the agency’s approved Telework Plan. Alternate work schedules may be discussed with the hiring manager during the interview process.

APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED THROUGH WORK IN TEXAS: Work In Texas (WIT) applicants must complete the CAPPS Recruit Prescreening Questionnaire to be considered for the posting. To complete the Prescreening Questionnaire, go to CAPPS Recruit to register or login: https://capps.taleo.net/careersection/ex/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en

Remarks:

- There is one available position.

- Official transcripts, DD214 or DD1300, copies of license/certifications, or other minimum requirement validations will be requested at the time of the job offer.

- Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa.

- Criminal background checks will be conducted on all final candidates. An applicant who has been convicted of a criminal offense relevant to the position may be disqualified from employment.

THE RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS ONLY ACCEPTS ONLINE APPLICATIONS FOR THIS POSTING.

Due to the high volume of applications we do not accept telephone calls. Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted. Notifications to applicants are sent electronically to the email address you provide.

The Railroad Commission of Texas is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not

discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age

or disability in employment or in the provision of services.

The Railroad Commission of Texas is a tobacco-free workplace.