Principal AWS Cloud Engineer

MANTECH; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

MANTECH seeks a motivated Principal AWS Cloud Engineer to serve as the primary AWS technical authority on an enterprise cloud team in Chantilly, VA. This role leads security-focused AWS infrastructure, design, and automation across multi-account environments.

You will architect and deploy automated monitoring pipelines, enforce Zero Trust architectures, and collaborate with teams to ensure audit readiness and compliance with DoD and federal standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or 4+ years IT/engineering experience in lieu of a degree.

Responsibilities

• Serving as principal SME for administration, security hardening, and management of AWS enterprise infrastructure.
• Architecting, deploying, and optimizing automated cloud security monitoring, threat detection, and event-driven logging pipelines using AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, AWS Config, CloudTrail, CloudWatch, EventBridge, and Lambda.
• Leading the deployment of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Configuration as Code (CaC) solutions using Terraform or AWS CloudFormation following a code-first, audited workflow.
• Enforcing IAM governance, Service Control Policies (SCPs), least-privilege access, permission boundaries, and Zero Trust security architectures across multi-account AWS Organizations.
• Providing Tier 3 escalation support to diagnose and resolve complex technical, network, security, and performance challenges across AWS and connected environments.
• Writing and maintaining robust automation scripts in Python, Bash, or PowerShell to streamline operations, vulnerability remediation, and system health telemetry.
• Collaborating across engineering and operational teams to align AWS security baselines with secondary cloud environments (Azure, OCI) and documenting automated workflows and Service Design Packages to ensure audit readiness.

Skills

AWS Cloud

Terraform

CloudFormation

Python scripting

Bash

PowerShell

IAM governance

Zero Trust

Multi-account governance

Security monitoring

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

AWS CLI

GuardDuty

AWS Security Hub

CloudWatch

Lambda

Job description

MANTECH seeks a motivated, career-driven Principal AWS Cloud Engineer to serve as the primary AWS technical authority on an enterprise cloud team in Chantilly, VA.

Responsibilities Include But Are Not Limited To

• Serving as the principal subject matter expert for the administration, security hardening, and management of AWS enterprise infrastructure and cloud footprint.
• Architecting, deploying, and optimizing automated cloud security monitoring, threat detection, and event-driven logging pipelines using AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, AWS Config, CloudTrail, CloudWatch, EventBridge, and Lambda.
• Leading the deployment of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Configuration as Code (CaC) solutions using Terraform or AWS CloudFormation following a code-first, audited workflow.
• Enforcing IAM governance, Service Control Policies (SCPs), least-privilege access, permission boundaries, and Zero Trust security architectures across multi-account AWS Organizations.
• Providing Tier 3 escalation support to diagnose and resolve complex technical, network, security, and performance challenges across AWS and connected environments.
• Writing and maintaining robust automation scripts in Python, Bash, or PowerShell to streamline operations, vulnerability remediation, and system health telemetry.
• Collaborating across engineering and operational teams to align AWS security baselines with secondary cloud environments (Azure, OCI) and documenting automated workflows and Service Design Packages to ensure audit readiness.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or an additional 4+ years of IT/engineering experience in lieu of a degree
• 7+ years of cloud computing/engineering experience.
• Active DoD 8570/8140 IAT Level II certification (e.g., Security+ CE, CCNA Security, CySA+, SSCP, GSEC) or the ability to obtain with 30 days of hire.
• Experience designing, building, and securing enterprise AWS environments leveraging EC2, S3, IAM, VPC, Route53, RDS, CloudFront, and Lambda.
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation) and scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell) executing via AWS CLI.
• Proven expertise in configuring multi-account governance, Zero Trust security architectures, and automated cloud security monitoring pipelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced experience with AWS-native security services (Security Hub, Config, GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, Detective, IAM Access Analyzer).
• Active AWS Certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional or AWS Certified Security - Specialty).
• Hands-on familiarity or adaptability with secondary cloud platforms (Azure or OCI).
• Solid understanding of federal compliance frameworks, including NIST SP 800-53, FIPS-199, RMF, and DoD Cloud Security Requirements Guide (SRG).
• Experience with container security and orchestration platforms (Docker, Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift) and modern CI/CD or Atlassian toolsets.

Clearance Requirements

• An active TS/SCI with Polygraph.

Physical Requirements

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position 50–75% of the time.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery.
• Frequently communicates with co-workers, leadership, and customers; must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.