Senior AWS Cloud Engineer- VDI Platform

PEAK6; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare benefits

401k match

Parental leave

HSA contribution match

Calm app subscription

Tuition reimbursement

Competitive PTO

Job summary

Apex Fintech Solutions is hiring a Senior AWS Cloud Engineer to own the platform architecture for a production-grade, multi-region AWS WorkSpaces-based VDI system. You will design, build, and automate critical components, and serve as the go-to expert for day-to-day incidents.

You will bring a security- and compliance-first mindset for a regulated fintech environment, mentoring engineers and owning Datadog monitoring integration for observability.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on AWS experience in production.
• 3+ years with serverless or event-driven architecture in production.
• 2+ years with Amazon WorkSpaces in a production environment.
• Must demonstrate writing, deploying, and debugging Python Lambda functions in production.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture, code quality, and evolution of the platform — driving decisions on new capabilities, DR testing, scaling, and Terraform IaC.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for engineering questions related to the system.
• Diagnose and resolve production incidents quickly, tracing failures end-to-end across Lambda, SQS, DynamoDB, SNS, and CloudWatch Logs.
• Mentor junior engineers on AWS serverless architecture, operational best practices, and production troubleshooting.

Skills

AWS

Serverless

Python

Terraform

Lambda

API Gateway

DynamoDB

SQS

CloudWatch

Ansible

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Datadog

CloudWatch

Route53

SNS

SQS

API Gateway

WorkSpaces

AWS IAM

KMS

Job description

WHO WE ARE

Apex Fintech Solutions (Apex) powers innovation and the future of digital wealth management by building tech-forward solutions that help simplify, automate, and facilitate access to financial markets for all. Our robust suite of fintech software enables us to support clients such as Stash, Betterment, SoFi, Webull, and eToro, amongst many others; collectively, Apex powers access to the stock market for over 22+ million end customers. At Apex, we are changing how the securities industry operates by reinventing the status quo, which was manual, slow, and accessible only by the ultra-wealthy. We're digitizing and democratizing systems so that everyone has an opportunity to invest. When you're at Apex, you drive this change. You're part of a global team with a clear vision: to be the trusted technology that powers the digital economy. Our offices in Austin, Dallas, Chicago, New York, Portland, Belfast, and Manila are home to over 1,000 employees. Together, we’re shaping the future of financial innovation. Embrace change. Solve big. Win together. And be G.R.E.A.T. — grit, results, empathy, accountability, and teamwork — with Apex. We’re proud to be recognized for the innovative work we do, the purpose-driven nature of our work, and the collaborative culture we’ve created. Here are just a few of the many awards we’ve recently received: Best Places to Work 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 - Presented by BuiltIn WealthTech of the Year 2025 - Presented by US FinTech Awards The World’s Top 250 Fintech Companies 2024 - Presented by CNBC

ABOUT THIS ROLE

APEX Fintech's AWS WorkSpaces platform is a production-grade, multi-region AWS serverless system that automates the full lifecycle of Amazon WorkSpaces virtual desktops for a multi-tenant VDI program spanning hundreds of active desktops. We're hiring a Senior AWS Cloud Engineer who will take full ownership of the platform's architecture — designing, building, and automating the systems that keep it running — while serving as the go-to expert for day-to-day production incidents. You'll bring a security- and compliance-first mindset to every decision, ensuring the platform holds up to the standards our regulated fintech environment demands.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Own the architecture, code quality, and evolution of the platform — driving decisions on new capabilities, DR testing, scaling, and Terraform IaC.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for engineering questions related to the system.
• Diagnose and resolve production incidents quickly, tracing failures end-to-end across Lambda, SQS, DynamoDB, SNS, and CloudWatch Logs.
• Support day-to-day VDI operations: image builds, bundle management, directory configuration, client connectivity, and user-facing troubleshooting.
• Bridge the gap between infrastructure automation and end-user desktop experience.
• Mentor junior engineers on AWS serverless architecture, operational best practices, and production troubleshooting.
• Own the deployment and integration of Datadog monitoring for the AWS VDI stack, including metrics, logs, traces, dashboards SLOs, and alerting.

Education and Experience

• At least 5 years of hands-on AWS experience, including 3+ years with serverless or event-driven architecture in production.
• 2+ years of experience with Amazon WorkSpaces in a production environment.
• Multi-region AWS deployment experience; CCR or active-active DR experience is a strong plus.
• Must have written, deployed, and debugged Python Lambda functions in production.
• 2+ years of work experience with Terraform to manage real production AWS infrastructure, including remote state.
• Must demonstrate working experience with WorkSpaces lifecycle management, including create, update, delete, and rebuild operations.
• Expertise with Python 3.14 Lambda development — handlers, environment variables, error handling.
• Experience with Lambda concurrency, timeouts, retries, and DLQ behavior.
• Ability to create, update, and troubleshoot AWS Step Functions, including STANDARD workflows, states, Wait, Choice, and Task.
• API Gateway — EDGE endpoints, SQS service integration, API key authentication.
• Experience with DynamoDB single-table design, including partition keys, sort keys, GSIs, and related access patterns.
• Must demonstrate expertise with SNS, including topic subscriptions, message filtering, and error notification patterns.
• Experience working with Terraform in multi-region deployments and provider configuration.
• Configuration management using Ansible, including playbooks, roles, inventory management, idempotent task design, and Ansible Vault.
• Hands-on experience with observability and resilience tooling (CloudWatch Logs Insights/metrics/alarms, Route53 health checks/failover routing) as well as Datadog for serverless observability.
• AWS KMS Multi-Region Keys, including replication, key policy, and encryption context.
• AWS IAM administration — users, groups, roles, permission boundaries, and cross-account role assumption.

Ways to Stand Out

• VPC design for WorkSpaces (subnets, route tables, NAT Gateway, Transit Gateway, security groups)
• Custom domain management (Route53, ACM certificates, API Gateway custom domains)
• Cost optimization for WorkSpaces.
• Infrastructure security scanning (Checkov, tfsec)
• Knowledge of security frameworks and controls, including CIS benchmarks, NIST, device compliance, and conditional access.
• Experience supporting regulated environments, such as FINRA, SEC, FedRAMP, NIST, or SOC environments.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain technical decisions to both engineering peers and non-technical stakeholders.

Other Preferred Qualifications

• AWS Solutions Architect– Professional
• AWS DevOps Engineer– Professional
• AWS SysOps Administrator– Associate
• Cross-Region Replication (CCR) design patterns / multi-region DR architecture
• Experience with ITIL practices, service management tooling, and building actionable SLOs and SLIs.
• Familiarity with compliance and regulatory requirements in financial services.
• Experience with DLP (Data Loss Prevention) and endpoint security in regulated environments.

Work Environment

This job operates in a hybrid office environment three days per week.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee for this job.

Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Our Rewards

• healthcare benefits (medical, dental and vision, EAP)
• competitive PTO
• 401k match
• parental leave
• HSA contribution match
• paid subscription to the Calm app
• generous external learning and tuition reimbursement benefits

EEO Statement

Apex Fintech Solutions is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other protected characteristic. Our hiring practices ensure that all qualified applicants receive fair consideration without regard to these characteristics.

Disability Statement

Apex Fintech Solutions is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible workplace for all candidates, including those with disabilities. We are dedicated to ensuring equal employment opportunities and providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require reasonable accommodations to participate in the application or interview process, please submit your request via the Candidate Accommodation Requests Form. We will work with you to provide the necessary accommodations to ensure your full participation in our hiring process.

At Apex, we aim to enable frictionless investing for everyone. At Apex, we stand for efficiency and transparency. In every office, you’ll find passionate, committed, dedicated teams driven to find smart solutions to solve our clients’ toughest challenges. We are passionate about our employees, providing the benefits and perks that elevate you, reward you, and help you give back. We provide great flexibility, a collaborative, open work space, and real potential to grow with the firm.