Lead AWS Cloud Platform Engineer - Platform Engineering / Guardrails / IaC

System One; Reston (VA); Hybrid; USD 309,960,000 - 323,736,000; Part time

Job summary

System One is seeking a Lead AWS Cloud Platform Engineer to drive hands-on delivery across its AWS footprint, focusing on platform engineering, security guardrails, automation, reliability, and cloud-native modernization.

You will partner with cloud engineers and technology teams to design and operate scalable, secure, production-grade AWS platforms, mentor engineers, and support enterprise cloud transformation with enhanced developer experiences through automation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, or related field (In lieu of a degree: additional relevant experience may be considered).
• 10+ years of IT/systems engineering experience, including hands-on engineering.
• 5+ years of AWS-focused cloud engineering, automation, and administration.
• AWS certification required (at least one).
• Strong experience with AWS core services: Networking (VPC, subnets, security groups/NACLs, Direct Connect), EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, CloudTrail, CloudWatch, EKS, Lambda.
• Infra as Code/automation (Terraform, CloudFormation, CDK, Ansible) with Python scripting.
• CI/CD and release automation patterns and tools.
• Linux administration + Bash scripting.
• Strong communication skills to lead/drive technical decisions.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and improve AWS platform components with focus on security, stability, and scalability.
• Own and improve the service lifecycle (design, build, deploy & operate).
• Build automation using cloud-native services to improve developer experience and delivery speed.
• Support cloud transformation and migration of legacy applications (including microservices).
• Apply modern cloud-native patterns: containers, immutable infrastructure, service mesh, fault-tolerant design.
• Implement and maintain Infrastructure as Code and provision-with-code practices.
• Strengthen observability, performance, and audit readiness across environments.
• Troubleshoot incidents and perform root cause analysis; update SOPs.
• Mentor team members and lead engineering best practices.

Skills

AWS platform engineering

Automation

Linux administration

Bash scripting

Leadership in tech decisions

Strong communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS or related field

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

CDK

Ansible

Job description

LEAD AWS CLOUD PLATFORM ENGINEER

Location: Hybrid — Reston, VA (20191)
Type: Contract (12 months)
Schedule: 40 hours/week
Pay (W2): USD $109.05/hr

JOB OVERVIEW

We’re seeking an experienced AWS Cloud Platform Engineer to lead hands‑on delivery across our AWS footprint—especially around platform engineering, security guardrails, automation, reliability, and cloud-native modernization.

In this role, you’ll partner with cloud engineers and technology teams to design and operate scalable, secure, production‑grade AWS platforms. You’ll help drive enterprise cloud transformation, improve developer experience through automation, and mentor engineers across the team.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Design, implement, and improve AWS platform components with a focus on security, stability, and scalability
• Own and improve the service lifecycle (design, build, deploy & operate)
• Build automation using cloud-native services to improve developer experience and delivery speed
• Support cloud transformation and migration of legacy applications (including microservices approaches)
• Apply modern cloud-native patterns: containers, immutable infrastructure, service mesh, fault-tolerant design
• Implement and maintain Infrastructure as Code and “provision with code only” best practices
• Strengthen observability, performance, and audit readiness across environments
• Troubleshoot incidents, support root cause analysis, and improve standard operating procedures
• Mentor team members and help set engineering best practices across development and operations

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, or related field
  (In lieu of a degree: additional relevant experience may be considered)
• 10+ years of relevant IT / systems engineering experience, including hands‑on engineering
• 5+ years of AWS‑focused cloud engineering, automation, and administration
• AWS certification required (at least one), such as:
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect, and/or
  • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
• Strong experience with AWS core services, such as:
  • Networking: VPC, subnets, security groups/NACLs, Direct Connect
  • Core: EC2, S3, RDS, IAM
  • Audit/monitoring: CloudTrail, CloudWatch
  • Containers/serverless: EKS, Lambda (ECS a plus)
• Strong skills in Infrastructure as Code / automation, including at least one of:
  • Terraform, CloudFormation, CDK, Ansible
    plus scripting (Python strongly preferred)
• Experience with CI/CD and release automation patterns and tools
• Linux administration + strong Bash scripting
• Strong communication skills and the ability to lead/drive technical decisions and transformations

NICE TO HAVE

• 3–5 years in an SRE‑aligned role (principles, reliability transformation)
• Exposure to Azure or Google Cloud
• Experience with service mesh (e.g., Istio / AWS App Mesh) and container networking (CNI)
• Container security tooling (Twistlock/Prisma, Aqua, Sysdig, etc.)
• Observability tooling (New Relic, AppDynamics, Datadog, Jaeger, etc.)
• AWS AI/GenAI patterns (e.g., Amazon Kendra, Bedrock, RAG)
• Agile/Scrum environment experience

System One, and its subsidiaries including Joulé and Mountain Ltd., are leaders in delivering outsourced services and workforce solutions across North America. We help clients get work done more efficiently and economically, without compromising quality. System One not only serves as a valued partner for our clients, but we offer eligible employees health and welfare benefits coverage options including medical, dental, vision, spending accounts, life insurance, voluntary plans, as well as participation in a 401(k) plan.

System One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, family care or medical leave status, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Ref: #851-Rockville-S1