Senior Principal Cloud Engineer

Jobtailor

Washington (District of Columbia)

On-site

USD 180,000 - 240,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Jobtailor is seeking a Senior Cloud Architect in Washington, DC to lead the hands-on design, build, and deployment of secure cloud solutions on AWS. You will translate customer needs into practical architectures and guide teams through migration, modernization, and DevSecOps practices.

The role emphasizes automation, CI/CD, and secure, scalable cloud-native applications, with senior engineering mentorship and collaboration with executives and stakeholders.

Qualifications

Top-Secret clearance with SCI eligibility.
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field.
10+ years of experience managing complex technical projects or enterprise technology initiatives.
3+ years leading AWS cloud migration and optimization efforts.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional or ability to obtain within 6 months.
Experience leading multiple software development programs or modernization efforts.
Preferred experience with Python or similar languages.
Experience deploying containerized apps using Kubernetes and serverless tech.
Experience with IaC, automation, and CI/CD pipelines.
Ability to balance technical leadership with business judgment for customer-focused decisions.
Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.
Experience engaging with executives and customer leadership.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.

Responsibilities

Lead design, build, and delivery of scalable cloud solutions across AWS and related platforms.
Develop production-ready reference architectures, IaC modules, automation patterns, CI/CD pipelines, and reusable assets.
Translate customer needs into cloud architectures and engineering plans.
Act as senior technical owner for migration, modernization, and optimization initiatives.
Guide teams on cloud-native apps, containers, and DevSecOps practices.
Design automation for provisioning, deployment, monitoring, and security controls.
Make architectural decisions on cloud services, data flows, and security models.
Collaborate with developers, security, and stakeholders to remove blockers.
Perform hands-on reviews of designs, code, pipelines, and runbooks for excellence.
Drive reliability, scalability, performance, cost optimization, observability, and security.

Skills

Exceptional communication

Stakeholder management

Analytical problem-solving

Decision-making

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Python Programming

CI/CD Pipelines

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

DevSecOps

Serverless Technologies

Job description

Lead the hands-on design, build, and delivery of secure, scalable, and resilient cloud solutions across AWS and related cloud-native platforms.
Develop production-ready reference architectures, infrastructure-as-code modules, automation patterns, CI/CD pipelines, and reusable engineering assets that accelerate delivery and improve quality.
Translate customer mission needs, technical requirements, and operational constraints into working cloud architectures and implementable engineering plans.
Serve as the senior technical owner for complex cloud migration, modernization, and optimization initiatives, actively contributing to architecture, implementation, troubleshooting, and release readiness.
Guide engineering teams through the development of cloud-native applications, containerized workloads, serverless solutions, platform services, and DevSecOps practices.
Design and implement automation for provisioning, configuration, deployment, monitoring, security controls, and operational recovery.
Evaluate and make architectural decisions on cloud services, application patterns, data flows, integration approaches, security models, and operational tradeoffs.
Partner directly with developers, architects, security engineers, program leaders, and customer stakeholders to resolve technical blockers and keep delivery moving.
Perform hands‑on technical reviews of designs, code, pipelines, infrastructure definitions, deployment patterns, and operational runbooks to ensure engineering excellence.
Drive improvements in reliability, scalability, performance, cost optimization, observability, and security posture across cloud environments.
Mentor senior engineers and technical leads through complex design and implementation challenges while raising the organization’s cloud engineering standards.
Support solution shaping, technical capture, and growth activities by contributing practical architecture, implementation strategies, estimates, and delivery approaches.

Requirements

Active Top-Secret Security Clearance with SCI eligibility
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
Minimum of 10 years of experience managing complex technical projects, programs, or enterprise technology initiatives.
Minimum of 3 years of experience leading AWS cloud migration and optimization efforts.
Active AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification, or ability to obtain within 6 months of hire.
Demonstrated experience leading multiple simultaneous software development programs, technology modernization efforts, or enterprise initiatives.
Preferred experience with developing solutions using Python or similar programming languages
Experience deploying and managing container-based applications using Kubernetes and serverless technologies
Experience with software development tools, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, and CI/CD processes and pipelines
Proven ability to balance technical leadership with sound business judgment to drive customer-focused decisions.
Exceptional communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
Experience engaging with senior executives, customer leadership, and technical teams.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.

Core Competencies

Demonstrates expertise in designing and implementing secure, scalable cloud solutions on AWS, with a strong focus on automation, CI/CD processes, and cloud-native application development. Proven ability to lead complex technical projects and mentor engineering teams while ensuring high standards of quality and security.

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