Cloud Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

We are Skyward.

That is, a love for people, for improvement, for human advancement through information technology. We are a people-centered business with a desire to serve others. We are diverse and unified; creative and collaborative; a collection of complementary, not competing talents. And though on the surface we remain relaxed, beneath, a torrent of energy links us to our civic tech mission.

We stand by our values, and we won’t compromise on any of them.

Integrity: We’re conscientious, intentional, and empathetic. Our words and actions align. That’s our character. Please don’t ask us to play another part, we’re poor actors.

Compassionate: If we may borrow a quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Because our team is thoughtful and supportive, caring deeply for each other, our clients, and our work, this comes naturally.

Inquisitive: We remain students by failing openly and turning lessons into solutions.

Unconventional: For us, life isn’t what happens outside of work. Work happens inside of life and our culture erases the line often dividing the two.

Authentic: Made possible only because we embody the values listed above. We’re relaxed and fun yet intensely curious and driven. Team members are placed with thought, care, and precision to ensure that Trust, Truth, and Transparency continue to represent our brand.

Because of that, we continue Onward, Upward, and Skyward.

We need a Cloud Engineer.
Do you name your VPCs like they’re your children and feel a physical pang when you spot an over-provisioned instance just sitting there, eating budget, doing nothing? Do you read the AWS bill line by line, not because anyone asked, but because waste genuinely keeps you up at night?

Good. Same. We believe the best cloud environment is the one nobody notices - secure, scalable, and humming along while everyone else gets to focus on the mission. If that made you nod, stop reading the fine print and apply.

Come join us if you're motivated to learn from others, to learn from mistakes, to be part of a future-looking and growth-oriented team.

Let's go Skyward together.

What you’ll do:

• Build the cloud where the magic lives. Design, deploy, and operate secure, scalable AWS environments (EC2, VPC, IAM, S3, Aurora, and Neptune) that keep our systems fast and our data exactly where it belongs, supporting CMS as it merges systems into one AI-driven platform.
• Respect the pillars. Build to the AWS Well-Architected Framework, balancing performance, reliability, security, and cost like they actually matter (because they do).
• Give AI a home. Stand up the cloud environment for AI, hosting open-source LLMs and ML workloads (think SageMaker, Glue, DataBrew) entirely within CMS’s AWS account, so sensitive data never wanders off.
• Keep the lights on. Implement high availability, disaster recovery, and COOP continuity so we hit our SLAs even on a genuinely bad day.
• Make security non-negotiable. Wire up AWS Security Hub, Config, and Audit Manager to keep us continuously compliant inside a FISMA Moderate boundary aligned to RMF, ARS, and IS2P2.
• Run a tidy multi-tenant house. Build isolated, segregated, quota-managed spaces where different teams can experiment with AI without elbowing each other.
• Be the bouncer. Design least-privilege IAM and role-based access controls, then keep them honest with regular access reviews and audits.
• Make it observable. Set baselines, configure monitoring and alerting, and turn system health into something the whole team can actually see, ideally before a user files a ticket.
• Chase the waste. Model cloud costs, hunt down savings with tools like AWS Trusted Advisor, and help keep our AI workspace financially sane.

What we’d like you to have:

• 3-5 years of hands-on AWS experience. You’ve built and run real environments, not just collected exam badges (though we like those too).
• Solid comfort with core AWS services: compute, networking (VPC), IAM, storage, and managed databases.
• A security-first reflex and familiarity with cloud-native security and compliance tooling (Security Hub, Config, Audit Manager, or similar).
• Automation instincts. Python, Bash, and a genuine fondness for Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible), because clicking around the console doesn’t scale.
• An eye for cost optimization. You know the cheapest architecture and the best architecture are usually closer than people think.
• All the curiosity. You’d rather understand why something broke than just restart it and hope.
• A sense of humor and a calm head. When something’s on fire at 2 a.m., you’re the person everyone’s relieved is on the call.

What would blow us away:

• You’ve hosted AI/ML or LLM workloads in the cloud - SageMaker, GPU instances, or self-hosted open-source models.
• You have a few AWS certifications (Solutions Architect, SysOps, or Security Specialty) and the scars that come with real-world use.
• You’ve got federal or civic-tech experience. Bonus points if you’ve operated inside a FISMA boundary, navigated an ATO, or survived a cATO effort.

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply. At Skyward, we’re focused on hiring individuals with the right skills and passion to grow, not just checking off every box.

And now the important part. What we offer you:

• Medical, dental, vision insurance
• 15 days of paid leave
• 7 days of sick leave
• 2 days bereavement leave
• 11 paid Federal holidays
• Up to 40 hours for jury duty
• 401K with 4% employer contribution (and no vesting period)
• Up to 4 weeks of paid paternity and maternity leave
• Company provided laptop
• $5,000 per year for professional development
• $600 per year for technical supplies and equipment
• $2,000 referral bonus
• Life and disability insurance
• HSA and FSA
• Legal Shield and ID Shield Voluntary Benefits
• Opportunity to work in a collaborative, motivated team focused on modernizing government services with cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions. Who says government work can't be exciting!

We believe great work deserves great pay. That’s why we ensure our compensation is not only competitive but also fair and transparent, as required by Maryland law. Expect a salary that matches your skills, experience, and the value you bring to the table — because you’re worth it!

At Skyward, we support flexible working hours and remote opportunities to help maintain a healthy work-life balance for all employees.

Offers of employment with Skyward are contingent upon acceptable results of a background investigation.

 

Applicants must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance due to the nature of our work as a government contractor.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.