AWS Cloud Engineer

The AWS Cloud Engineer (Expert) will lead the architecture, engineering, and operational stewardship of AWS-based infrastructure supporting the NMMES program in Norfolk, VA. The role owns the cloud foundation on which NMMES applications, data pipelines, and AI/ML workloads are built, with a strong emphasis on security, cost efficiency, and compliance with DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG) Impact Levels.
This is a senior, hands-on engineering role. The engineer will translate Navy mission requirements into well-architected, automated, and repeatable cloud solutions in AWS GovCloud (US), and will mentor mid-level engineers on infrastructure-as-code, resilience, and secure DevSecOps practices.
Key Responsibilities
• Design and implement multi-account AWS GovCloud environments using AWS Organizations, Control Tower patterns, landing zones, and account-vending automation.
• Author and maintain infrastructure-as-code using Terraform and/or AWS CloudFormation/CDK; enforce change control through Git-based workflows.
• Architect networking (VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, PrivateLink), identity (IAM, IAM Identity Center, federation with DoD identity providers), and data-protection controls (KMS, S3 encryption, Macie).
• Build and operate CI/CD pipelines (CodePipeline, CodeBuild, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) supporting containerized and serverless workloads.
• Implement observability using CloudWatch, X-Ray, and third-party tooling (e.g., Splunk, Datadog) to meet Navy monitoring and audit requirements.
• Support the Assessment & Authorization (A&A) / RMF process: produce architecture diagrams, control implementation statements, and evidence artifacts aligned to NIST SP 800-53 and DoD SRG.
• Optimize cost and performance through right-sizing, reserved capacity / Savings Plans, and workload placement analysis.
• Lead incident response and root-cause analysis for cloud-hosted workloads; drive continuous improvement of runbooks and automated remediation.
• Partner with the AI, data, and application teams to ensure their workloads land on a compliant, resilient, and cost-effective platform.
Required Qualifications
• 7+ years of professional IT experience, with 5+ years designing and operating production AWS environments.
• Demonstrated expertise across core AWS services: VPC, EC2, S3, IAM, KMS, RDS, Lambda, ECS/EKS, CloudWatch, and CloudTrail.
• Strong infrastructure-as-code skills with Terraform (preferred) and/or CloudFormation/CDK.
• Proven experience in AWS GovCloud (US) or another regulated cloud environment (FedRAMP High, DoD IL4/IL5).
• Practical scripting proficiency in Python, Bash, or PowerShell for automation and tooling.
• Working knowledge of DoD RMF, NIST SP 800-53, and DoD Cloud Computing SRG.
• Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (ECS, EKS, or Kubernetes).
• Active DoD Secret clearance at time of hire.
Preferred Qualifications
• Prior experience supporting Navy, NAVSEA, Marine Corps, or other DoD programs in Norfolk / Hampton Roads.
• Familiarity with Platform One, Iron Bank, or other DoD DevSecOps reference implementations.
• Experience integrating with DoD PKI, CAC-based authentication, and ICAM services.
• Multi-cloud exposure (Azure Government, Oracle Government Cloud).
• TS/SCI clearance.
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical field. Additional years of directly relevant experience may substitute for the degree in accordance with contract labor-category definitions.
Certifications
Required
• DoD 8570 / 8140 IAT Level II baseline certification (Security+ CE minimum); IAT Level III (CISSP, CASP+, or CCSP) required for privileged access to accredited systems.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (minimum).
Preferred
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty
• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)