AWS Cloud Engineer

Compunnel, Inc.; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Compunnel, Inc. is seeking an experienced Cloud DevOps Engineer to support an AWS-hosted third-party application as a non-associate contractor.

The role emphasizes operations, maintenance, and enterprise compliance, with a focus on vulnerability remediation and robust secrets management within the financial sector security framework. The candidate will maintain infrastructure on AWS, update IaC and Chef cookbooks, and ensure 100% policy-compliant operation.

Qualifications

• Deep familiarity with core AWS services (Secrets Manager, KMS, IAM, ELB, EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, DMS, CloudWatch).
• Ability to read and debug PowerShell and/or Python scripts to diagnose errors and modify automation.
• Proven patching across systems, apps and Docker containers based on security scans.
• Hands-on with Chef cookbooks and IaC for patches and config changes.
• Experience troubleshooting live production issues with New Relic and CloudWatch.
• Proficient in GitHub workflows and enterprise PR processes.

Responsibilities

• Maintain high availability and performance of the existing AWS-hosted app.
• Drive compliance initiatives and update infrastructure/config templates.
• Identify, prioritize and patch vulnerabilities across systems and containers.
• Manage automated secrets rotation policies and credential cycles.
• Update IaC and Chef cookbooks for patches and config changes.
• Monitor health and resolve production issues using New Relic and CloudWatch.

Skills

AWS Ops

Code literacy

Vuln mgmt

IaC (Chef)

Observability

GitHub

Tools

Chef

New Relic

CloudWatch

Docker

GitHub

Job description

Job Summary

Client is seeking an experienced Cloud DevOps Engineer to join our team as a non‑associate contractor. This position is strictly focused on operations, maintenance, and enterprise compliance for an existing, critical third‑party application deployed within our AWS environment. The core mission is to keep this existing application running smoothly, optimize its infrastructure, and ensure it remains 100 % compliant with Client’s rigorous enterprise security standards and initiatives. The ideal candidate will have a strong operational mindset, thriving in environments that require rapid vulnerability remediation, robust secrets management, and meticulous adherence to financial sector compliance.

Key Responsibilities

• Application & Infrastructure Maintenance: ensuring the high availability, stability, and optimal performance of the existing third‑party application hosted on AWS.
• Compliance & Enterprise Initiatives: actively managing and executing compliance mandates driven by Client enterprise initiatives, including updating infrastructure and configuration templates to meet evolving corporate security policies.
• Vulnerability Remediation: identifying, prioritizing, and patching vulnerabilities within the application ecosystem, container images, and underlying OS layers.
• Secrets & Certificate Management: maintaining and troubleshooting automated secrets rotation policies using AWS Secrets Manager to ensure zero downtime during credential cycles.
• Environment Configuration: managing and updating existing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Chef cookbooks to support patches, upgrades, and configuration changes.
• Monitoring & Incident Response: utilizing New Relic and AWS CloudWatch to monitor application health, analyze logs, troubleshoot production issues, and proactively resolve infrastructure bottlenecks.

Required Qualifications

• AWS Operational Experience: deep familiarity with managing and supporting existing infrastructure across core AWS services, including Secrets Manager, KMS, IAM, ELB, EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, DMS, and CloudWatch.
• Code Literacy: ability to read and debug PowerShell and/or Python code to diagnose application errors, analyze stack traces, or modify automation scripts.
• Vulnerability Management: proven track record of interpreting security scan results and executing rapid patching across systems, applications, and Docker containers.
• Configuration Management & IaC: hands‑on experience maintaining and updating existing Chef cookbooks and Infrastructure as Code frameworks.
• Observability Tools: strong experience troubleshooting live production issues using New Relic and AWS CloudWatch logs and dashboards.
• Version Control: proficiency with GitHub for maintaining configuration code and following standard enterprise pull‑request/approval workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Recent financial client experience: highly preferred. Prior experience navigating Client’s internal compliance frameworks, enterprise security initiatives, and delivery processes is a massive advantage.
• Third‑Party Software Support: experience managing and maintaining vendor‑provided applications (specifically Actimize or similar financial crime/compliance platforms, Tomcat, Oracle) is highly valued.

Certifications

• AWS Certifications: active AWS certifications, such as AWS Certified Security – Specialty or AWS Certified DevOps Engineer.