AWS Security Engineer

Peraton; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Peraton is seeking an AWS Security Engineer to secure cloud infrastructure with hands-on work on AWS security services, risk assessments, incident response, and continuous monitoring. You will partner with Cloud Engineering, DevOps, and Applications teams to embed security into CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code.

The role requires strong scripting, Terraform expertise, and ability to implement guardrails, threat modeling, and audits aligned with NIST, FISMA, and FedRAMP.

Qualifications

• 8+ years experience with BS/BA or 12+ years with HS/equivalent
• 6 years in cloud security or cybersecurity
• Proficient in Python and Bash
• Hands-on with ECS, EKS, EC2, Lambda
• Proficient in Git and CI/CD pipelines
• Strong Terraform proficiency with modules, variables and workspaces
• Knowledge of AWS security services (IAM, KMS, GuardDuty, Security Hub, CloudTrail, Config Rules)
• IAM policy and permissions audits to enforce least privilege
• Ability to read and interpret access logs, cloud configurations, and IAM policies
• Strong written and verbal communication for technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Must be a US Citizen and able to obtain Public Trust clearance
• Preferred certifications in cloud (AWS Cloud Practitioner, Security Specialty) or security compliance/audit

Responsibilities

• Lead vulnerability scanning and remediation for cloud resources
• Understand IAM Roles/Policies, Identity Federation, Encryption, KMS, secrets management
• Provision AWS infrastructure using Terraform IaC
• Write CloudWatch scripts for custom metrics and alarms
• Implement alerting and remediation automation based on probe output
• Assist in incident response, investigation and root cause analysis of cloud security events
• Develop and maintain security architecture docs, runbooks and procedures
• Run AWS security posture assessments with automated tools
• Experience with AWS cloud security monitoring and detection tooling
• Contribute to DevOps best practices and embed security in CI/CD and IaC
• Implement and improve AWS security controls, guardrails and baseline configurations
• Continuously evaluate AWS environments for cost-effective security improvements
• Conduct threat modeling, vulnerability analysis and remediation coordination
• Support audits by gathering evidence and validating configurations
• Maintain cloud compliance with NIST, FISMA and FedRAMP
• Assist in risk assessments and security control testing
• Support change control and documentation ownership
• Evaluate merging cloud security tools and propose enhancements
• Maintain security standards compliance across environments
• Participate in on-call rotations for 24/7 production support

Skills

Python

Bash

CI/CD

Git

Cloud security

IAM

Incident response

Vulnerability analysis

Communication

Analytical thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Master's degree in related field

Tools

Terraform

CloudWatch

Job description

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of 8 years with BS/BA; Minimum of 6 years with MS/MA or 12 years of experience with HS Diploma/equivalent
• 6 years of experience in cloud security or cybersecurity
• Proficient in scripting languages like Python and Bash
• Hands-on experience with ECS, EKS, EC2, Lambda
• Proficient in Git and CI/CD pipelines
• Strong Terraform proficiency, writing modules, variables and workspaces
• Deep knowledge of AWS security services, including IAM, KMS, GuardDuty, Security Hub, CloudTrail and Config Rules
• Perform IAM policy and permissions audits to enforce least privilege
• Ability to read and interpret access logs, cloud account configurations and IAM policies
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Must be a US Citizen.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

• Cloud certification (AWS Cloud Practitioner, Security Specialty)
• Security compliance or audit certification

The AWS Security Engineer is responsible for ensuring the security, compliance and protection of our cloud-based infrastructure. The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience with AWS security services, cloud risk assessments, incident response and continuous security monitoring. This role partners with Cloud Engineering, DevOps and Application teams to maintain a secure and resilient cloud environment.

Day to Day Work Responsibilities:

• Lead and support vulnerability scanning and remediation efforts for cloud resources
• Strong understanding of IAM Roles/Policies and Identity Federation, Encryption, KMS, secrets management
• Provision and manage AWS infrastructure using infrastructure as code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform
• Write custom scripts for CloudWatch custom metrics and alarms based on application specific probes
• Implement alerting and remediation automation based on probe output
• Assist in incident response, investigation and root cause analysis of cloud security events.
• Develop and maintain security architecture documentation, runbooks and procedure documents
• Run AWS security posture assessments using automated tools
• Experience with AWS cloud security monitoring and detection tooling
• Contribute to best practices around DevOps, automation and deployments and work with teams to embed security best practices into CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code
• Implement and improve AWS security controls, guardrails and baseline configurations
• Continuously evaluate AWS environments for cost-effective security improvements
• Conduct threat modeling, vulnerability analysis and remediation coordination
• Support internal and external audits by gathering evidence, validating configurations and preparing documentation
• Maintain cloud compliance requirements, NIST, FISMA and FedRAMP
• Assist in risk assessments and security control testing
• Support change control and documentation to reflect accurate system and process ownership
• Evaluate merging cloud security tools and recommend security enhancements
• Keep cloud environments compliant with security standards and best practices
• Participate in on-call rotations to support 24/7 production systems and respond to incidents as they arise