Jira Technical Specialist Lead Engineer

Job Title : Jira Technical Specialist Lead Engineer

Location : Chicago, Illinois

Experience : 12+ Years

Employment Type : Contract

Interview Type : In-Person or Webcam

Job Description

We are seeking a highly experienced Jira Technical Specialist Lead Engineer to oversee enterprise-level Atlassian environments, primarily focusing on Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Confluence. The ideal candidate will bring deep hands-on expertise in Jira customization, integration, workflow automation, performance optimization, and platform governance. This role requires strong technical leadership, the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams, and responsibility for guiding large-scale Jira transformation initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the administration, configuration, customization, and optimization of Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Confluence for enterprise environments.

Design and implement complex workflows, custom fields, screens, permission schemes, automation rules, and integrations with external systems.

Provide expert-level support for Jira and Confluence upgrades, patching, performance tuning, and security configuration.

Work closely with business stakeholders to gather requirements and translate them into scalable solutions.

Manage Jira plugins and marketplace apps, including procurement, evaluations, troubleshooting, and licensing.

Develop dashboards, reporting solutions, and data analysis for project tracking and performance metrics.

Implement best practices, governance standards, and usage guidelines across multiple development and support teams.

Oversee and mentor junior administrators and provide guidance on Atlassian platform usage and optimization.

Drive automation initiatives using Jira Automation, ScriptRunner, REST APIs, and integration platforms.

Partner with DevOps, Infrastructure, and Application teams to integrate Jira with CI / CD pipelines, version control tools, and enterprise systems.

Manage system backups, disaster recovery planning, and environment migration activities.

Document system configurations, processes, and standard operating procedures.

Required Qualifications

Minimum 12 years of IT experience with at least 8 years focused on Jira / Atlassian administration and engineering.

Deep hands-on experience with Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and related Atlassian ecosystem tools.

Expertise with complex workflow configuration, automation rules, scripting (ScriptRunner Groovy preferred), REST APIs, and webhooks.

Strong experience performing upgrades, scaling Jira instances, and optimizing performance in enterprise settings.

Solid understanding of Agile and ITSM frameworks including Scrum, Kanban, and ITIL.

Demonstrated experience integrating Jira with CI / CD, Git, Jenkins, ServiceNow, and other enterprise tools.

Strong SQL, database concepts, and data analytics capabilities.

Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and communicate effectively with both technical and business stakeholders.

Hands-on experience managing plugins and marketplace applications.

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Skills

Atlassian Certifications such as ACP-620, ACP-120, ACP-400, or equivalent.

Experience with Atlassian Cloud migration, Data Center administration, or hybrid environments.

Knowledge of incident, problem, change, and service request management processes.

Experience with Linux / Windows server administration and infrastructure automation tools.

Understanding of security architecture, SSO, SAML, and identity access management.

Familiarity with reporting tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or advanced Jira dashboarding.