Principal Cloud Architect - Azure & DevOps (Remote)

Syms Strategic Group, LLC (SSG); Newport News (VA); Remote; USD 110,000 - 127,000; Full time

Job summary

Syms Strategic Group (SSG) seeks a Cloud Computing Engineer Principal to lead Azure cloud architecture, security, and DevOps efforts for VA healthcare systems from a remote US-based position. The role emphasizes enterprise-scale design, governance, and secure modernization across multi-subscription environments.

Qualified candidates have 20+ years of experience, U.S. citizenship, and a Public Trust (MBI) clearance readiness, with strong Azure proficiency and experience in HIPAA/FedRAMP/NIST

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing, deploying, and managing Azure infrastructure and services.
• Experience with large-scale, high-availability cloud architecture.
• Expertise in core Azure services including Azure VMs, Blob Storage, SQL, VNet, Functions, Entra ID, ARM, Monitor, and DNS.
• Experience with Azure security practices including Entra ID, RBAC, DDoS protection, and WAF.
• Proficiency in Azure networking components and secure, scalable cloud infra design.
• Experience governing multi-subscription Azure environments with Management Groups, Azure Policy, and Landing Zones.
• Knowledge of cloud cost management and FinOps practices.
• Scripting for automation in Python/PowerShell/Bash/NodeJS.
• Experience with IaC tools like ARM templates and Ansible; GitOps practices.
• Proficiency with monitoring and observability tools including Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, App Insights, and Prometheus/Grafana.
• Experience improving performance, availability, and resiliency of Azure resources.
• Strong understanding of Azure security and compliance frameworks (HIPAA, FedRAMP, NIST, GDPR, PCI DSS).
• Experience encryption, key management, secrets, and Entra ID integration.
• Knowledge of Azure database services (Azure SQL DB/Managed Instance, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL).
• Experience with database tuning, backups, high availability, and disaster recovery.
• Familiarity with CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab).
• Experience with Docker and orchestration (AKS, Container Apps).
• Ability to mentor engineers and contribute to cloud governance.
• Leadership in cloud modernization and migrations.

Responsibilities

• Create data flow and cloud diagrams, high-level architectures for VA Cloud environments.
• Develop and operate automation for CI/CD in cloud infrastructure.
• Manage permissions for cloud apps and storage.
• Design and implement monitoring for cloud architectures to meet VA policies.
• Provide cloud support for VAEC environments and VIP documentation requirements.
• Support VAEC Azure GovCloud deployments with compliance focus.
• Adopt DevOps mindset with CI/CD tooling.
• Produce cloud security provider documentation.
• Design VAEC/cloud-hosted solutions and address readiness gaps.

Skills

Azure architecture

Azure security

Azure networking

Multi-subscription governance

FinOps

Scripting: Python

IaC: ARM templates

IaC: Ansible

CI/CD tooling

Monitoring: Azure Monitor

Containerization

AKS

Cloud governance

HIPAA/FedRAMP/NIST

Encryption / Key Vault

Azure DB services

Performance tuning

CI/CD tooling: Azure DevOps

CI/CD tooling: GitHub Actions

CI/CD tooling: Jenkins

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Cloud Engineering or related field

Tools

Azure DevOps Pipelines

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Docker

AKS

Job description

Syms Strategic Group (SSG) seeks a Cloud Computing Engineer Principal to lead Azure cloud architecture, security, and DevOps efforts for VA healthcare systems from a remote US-based position. The role emphasizes enterprise-scale design, governance, and secure modernization across multi-subscription environments.

Qualified candidates have 20+ years of experience, U.S. citizenship, and a Public Trust (MBI) clearance readiness, with strong Azure proficiency and experience in HIPAA/FedRAMP/NIST