We are seeking an experienced, hands-on
AWS Government Cloud Architect Engineer to own the design and implementation of a new AWS government cloud environment. This is a greenfield buildout. The selected candidate will personally build, configure, automate, secure, document, and operationalize the environment rather than serve only in an advisory or oversight capacity.
The environment will be built in deliberate phases, and progress may be measured while foundational requirements, access, security decisions, and technical dependencies are resolved. The successful candidate must be comfortable with evolving priorities, remain productive during slower periods, and balance thoughtful architecture with hands-on execution.
Hard requirements: Hands-on AWS government cloud experience, practical NIST SP 800-171 implementation experience, and U.S. citizenship. An active U.S. Secret clearance is not required at hire, but the candidate must be able to obtain and maintain one.
Key Responsibilities - Own the hands-on architecture and implementation of a new AWS government cloud environment from initial foundation through operational readiness.
- Build and configure AWS account structures, networking, identity and access management, security services, encryption, logging, monitoring, backup, recovery, and shared platform capabilities.
- Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CDK, or comparable technologies.
- Translate applicable NIST SP 800-171 requirements into implemented, tested, documented, and maintainable AWS technical controls for the protection of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).
- Define and document system boundaries, approved data flows, network segmentation, access paths, shared responsibilities, and inherited controls.
- Implement least privilege, privileged-access protections, multifactor authentication, secure configuration baselines, audit logging, continuous monitoring, and configuration-drift controls.
- Contribute technical content and evidence for the System Security Plan (SSP), control implementation statements, Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms), architecture diagrams, data-flow diagrams, asset inventories, and assessment-readiness activities.
- Identify technical control gaps, implement remediation, validate corrective actions, and support authorized compliance assessments.
- Build automation and CI/CD capabilities that improve security, consistency, repeatability, and operational support.
- Troubleshoot complex cloud infrastructure, networking, identity, security, automation, and integration issues.
- Create architecture diagrams, implementation records, operating procedures, and technical decision documentation.
- Maintain forward progress through documentation, automation, testing, design refinement, and risk reduction when implementation dependencies slow deployment activity.
- Coordinate with security, compliance, networking, DevSecOps, engineering, and operations stakeholders while retaining technical ownership of the AWS implementation.
Required Qualifications Required Education and Experience Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
- Minimum 9 years of relevant experience designing, implementing, and supporting AWS cloud infrastructure, or equivalent qualifying experience.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience designing, building, securing, and operating AWS government cloud environments. Commercial AWS experience alone does not satisfy this requirement.
- Experience taking a greenfield cloud environment, landing zone, or shared-services platform from architecture through implementation and operational readiness.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience implementing technical controls aligned with NIST SP 800-171 for environments intended to protect CUI.
- Experience translating compliance requirements into cloud architecture, AWS configurations, Infrastructure as Code, monitoring, operational procedures, remediation, and assessment evidence.
- Ability to work independently, resolve ambiguity, and own technical outcomes in a deliberately phased environment.
Required Citizenship and Clearance Eligibility - U.S. citizenship is required.
- The selected candidate must be eligible and able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance if required for assigned work.
Required Technical Experience - Deep knowledge of AWS compute, storage, networking, identity, security, encryption, monitoring, logging, automation, governance, backup, and recovery capabilities.
- Hands-on experience with services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, AWS Lambda, Amazon VPC, AWS IAM, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, and AWS Key Management Service.
- Strong experience with VPC design, routing, segmentation, security groups, network access control lists, endpoints, connectivity, and hybrid-cloud integration.
- Hands-on experience with Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CDK, or comparable Infrastructure as Code technologies.
- Experience with scripting, automation, and CI/CD using PowerShell, Python, Bash, or similar technologies.
- Experience producing architecture, security, implementation, operations, and compliance documentation.
- AWS certification such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate or Professional, or equivalent demonstrated technical experience.
Preferred Qualifications - Experience implementing capabilities across AWS government cloud and Azure Government environments.
- Experience with Docker, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, or Kubernetes.
- Experience with government cloud security, compliance-readiness, and technical assessment support.
- Additional AWS, Azure, security, networking, automation, or DevOps certifications.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions, constraints, risks, and implementation progress.
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