Lead Cloud Engineer (Security / SRE)
Ignite IT · Suitland
Ignite IT is seeking a Lead Cloud Engineer (Security / SRE) to support the U.S. Census Bureau as it modernizes its enterprise IT environment ahead of the 2030 Decennial Census. This is a hands-on role for a strong cloud engineer or site reliability engineer with a security mindset. You'll build, run, and secure cloud infrastructure in a hybrid environment built on AWS GovCloud, and help make sure it is reliable and secure at national scale.
We're looking for someone who has implemented and operated real cloud environments and knows how to configure them securely: identity and access, network controls, encryption, logging, and the security tooling that watches over all of it. The work combines evaluating how the current environment is built and configured with hands-on engineering to close the gaps, and you'll serve as a technical lead for the engineers around you.
Your Responsibilities
- Build, operate, and improve secure cloud infrastructure in AWS, and Azure where applicable, with a focus on reliability, automation, and security.
- Configure cloud services securely by default, including least-privilege IAM, network segmentation, encryption and key management, and centralized logging and monitoring.
- Deploy, tune, and act on cloud security tooling, and turn findings into fixes.
- Evaluate how existing cloud and on-premises infrastructure is built and configured, identify gaps, misconfigurations, and technical debt, and engineer or recommend fixes.
- Automate infrastructure, configuration, and remediation using infrastructure as code and scripting so environments are consistent and stay secure over time.
- Implement guardrails and automated checks that catch misconfigurations before or soon after they reach production.
- Improve monitoring, alerting, and incident response so issues are detected and resolved quickly.
- Support security in deployment pipelines and container platforms where applicable.
- Troubleshoot complex infrastructure and security issues across cloud and on-premises environments.
- Serve as technical lead: review designs and code, mentor engineers, and explain tradeoffs and recommendations to engineers and leadership.
Requirements
- U.S. Citizenship required.
- 8+ years of hands-on experience in site reliability engineering, cloud engineering, cloud infrastructure engineering, or cloud security engineering, including technical leadership.
- Strong hands-on experience implementing and operating production infrastructure in AWS, with a track record of delivered projects. AWS GovCloud experience is a plus.
- A security mindset: practical experience configuring AWS services securely, including IAM, network controls (VPCs, security groups, network ACLs), encryption with KMS, and logging with CloudTrail and CloudWatch.
- Hands-on experience with AWS security services, such as GuardDuty, Security Hub, AWS Config, or Inspector, including acting on their findings.
- Experience automating AWS infrastructure and operations through infrastructure as code (such as Terraform or CloudFormation) and scripting.
- Ability to evaluate existing AWS and hybrid environments and turn findings into practical fixes and clear recommendations.
- Strong communication skills, with experience leading technical discussions with engineers and leadership.
Preferred Qualifications
- Production infrastructure as code experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible, including reusable modules and code review.
- Experience hardening systems against CIS Benchmarks or DISA STIGs.
- Container and Kubernetes experience.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines in GitLab or GitHub.
- Experience with AWS GovCloud environments.
- Experience across more than one cloud platform.
- Direct federal, government, or large distributed enterprise experience.
- Hybrid position based out of the Washington, DC area.
- Large-scale, mission-driven work supporting the 2030 Decennial Census.
- Modern hybrid cloud environment built on AWS GovCloud.
Benefits
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Referral program
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
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