Lead Cloud Engineer

Socket.dev; Bethesda (MD); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Professional development

Job summary

Avyanna LLC in Bethesda, MD is seeking a Lead Cloud Engineer to provide technical leadership for cloud design, migration, and operations on a large-scale federal IT program. This senior role guides cloud strategy, mentors engineers, and acts as the technical authority for multi-cloud environments operating under FedRAMP and FISMA requirements.

This position requires extensive federal cloud experience, strong leadership, and relevant certifications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years IT engineering with 5+ years cloud-focused federal experience.
• Proven experience leading enterprise-scale cloud architecture and migration programs.
• Active AWS Solutions Architect Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.
• Deep IaC, cloud networking, identity federation, and security architecture expertise.
• Strong FedRAMP, NIST 800-53 knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead cloud architecture strategy across AWS GovCloud and Azure Government.
• Oversee cloud migration initiatives — assess on-premises workloads, develop migration wave plans, and lead execution across application, database, and infrastructure teams.
• Establish and enforce cloud engineering standards: IaC conventions, tagging policies, security baselines, and operational runbooks.
• Lead cloud cost optimization initiatives: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, workload right-sizing, and showback/chargeback reporting.
• Serve as escalation point for cloud incidents; lead root cause analysis and post-incident reviews.
• Collaborate with security teams to maintain FedRAMP authorization boundaries; support continuous monitoring and ATO renewals.
• Mentor and provide technical oversight to a team of cloud engineers; conduct design reviews and enforce engineering quality standards.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Leadership

Federal IT programs

Migration programs

Security architecture

NIST 800-53

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Terraform

AWS GovCloud

Azure Government

Identity federation

Networking

Job description

POSITION SUMMARY

We are seeking a Lead Cloud Engineer to provide technical leadership for cloud infrastructure design, migration, and operations on a large-scale federal IT program. This senior role guides cloud strategy, mentors engineering staff, and serves as the technical authority for multi-cloud environments operating under FedRAMP and FISMA requirements.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Define and lead cloud architecture strategy across AWS GovCloud and Azure Government; drive multi-cloud design standards and governance frameworks
• Oversee cloud migration initiatives — assess on-premises workloads, develop migration wave plans, and lead execution across application, database, and infrastructure teams
• Establish and enforce cloud engineering standards: IaC conventions, tagging policies, security baselines, and operational runbooks
• Lead cloud cost optimization initiatives: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, workload right-sizing, and showback/chargeback reporting
• Serve as escalation point for cloud incidents; lead root cause analysis and post-incident reviews
• Collaborate with security teams to maintain FedRAMP authorization boundaries; support continuous monitoring and ATO renewals
• Mentor and provide technical oversight to a team of cloud engineers; conduct design reviews and enforce engineering quality standards

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of IT engineering experience with 5+ years of cloud-focused engineering in federal environments
• Demonstrated experience leading cloud architecture and migration programs at enterprise scale
• AWS Solutions Architect Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification (active)
• Deep expertise in IaC (Terraform), cloud networking, identity federation, and security architecture
• Strong understanding of FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, and cloud security boundary management

Clearance: Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a federal Public Trust background investigation (MBI or HBI). U.S. citizenship or permanent residency required.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer or Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert certification
• Experience with FinOps practices and cloud financial governance
• Experience at NIH, HHS, or similar IT programs

BENEFITS

Avyanna LLC offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off, and professional development support.

Avyanna LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or veteran status.