Cloud Systems Engineer

EDP Cloud Systems Engineer – Washington, DCCreative Information Technology Inc (CITI) is an esteemed IT enterprise renowned for its exceptional customer service and innovation. We serve both government and commercial sectors, offering a range of solutions such as Healthcare IT, Human Services, Identity Credentialing, Cloud Computing, and Big Data Analytics. With clients in the US and abroad, we hold key contract vehicles including GSA IT Schedule 70, NIH CIO-SP3, GSA Alliant, and DHS-Eagle II. Join us in driving growth and seizing new business opportunities.Role and ResponsibilitiesThe Cloud Engineer is a hands-on technical resource responsible for supporting the implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of the Enterprise Data Platform (EDP). EDP is hosted on AWS GovCloud and provides secure, scalable cloud infrastructure supporting enterprise data, analytics, and AI/ML workloads. This role will work closely with senior platform engineers, cloud infrastructure, security, and application teams to provision and maintain cloud infrastructure, automate repeatable platform operations, monitor platform health, troubleshoot issues, and support secure delivery of EDP capabilities. The position is intended for a candidate with foundational cloud engineering skills who demonstrates strong technical aptitude, problem-solving ability, and a willingness to learn and expand their cloud engineering expertise on the job.Minimum QualificationWorking knowledge of core AWS services and concepts, including VPC, EC2, S3, IAM, EKS, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store. Foundational understanding of AWS networking concepts, including VPCs, subnets, routing, security groups, and connectivity between cloud resources. Familiarity with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), including roles, policies, permissions, and least-privilege access concepts. Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts and experience or familiarity with AWS CloudFormation. Experience using source/version control systems such as GitLab, GitHub, or Bitbucket, with GitLab preferred. Familiarity with CI/CD concepts and tooling, including automated build, test, deployment, and environment promotion processes. Familiarity with cloud monitoring and logging concepts using services such as CloudWatch and CloudTrail. Ability to troubleshoot technical issues, analyze logs and system behavior, and work collaboratively with other engineering teams to resolve problems. Ability to learn new cloud technologies, tools, and engineering practices and apply them under guidance from senior engineers. Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to document technical configurations, procedures, and troubleshooting steps. Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent practical experience. Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems or IT-related discipline. Experience with the Scrum framework, Agile engineering, Lean methodologies or DevOps. Minimum of 7 years' experience in Information Technology in an Enterprise environment. Experience with one or more of the following: system development, software development, hardware development or mission support. Experience working with DevOps CI/CD related technologies (Azure DevOps, Git, Jenkins, Puppet, Docker, Confluence, Sonar Lint, and JUnit). At least one of the following certifications or its equivalent is preferred: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate, Cloud-related (e.g., DevOps, Security, and/or ML).Preferred QualificationBasic understanding of containerization and container orchestration concepts; familiarity with Amazon EKS/Kubernetes is preferred. Basic understanding of cloud security practices, including secrets/configuration management, secure access, logging, and encryption. Hands-on experience provisioning AWS infrastructure using CloudFormation or another Infrastructure as Code technology. Experience developing or maintaining CI/CD pipelines, preferably using GitLab CI/CD. Familiarity with Terraform or other infrastructure automation frameworks. Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts and Amazon EKS administration. AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate or Professional.The Contractor shall deliver, but not limited to, the following: Provision, configure, and maintain AWS infrastructure components supporting EDP environments, including networking, compute, storage, identity and access management, and logging/monitoring services. Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and other approved automation tools to enable repeatable and consistent infrastructure deployments. Support CI/CD pipelines used to deploy infrastructure and platform configurations across development, testing, and production environments. Maintain source-controlled infrastructure code and configuration using Git-based repositories, preferably GitLab. Assist with configuration and administration of AWS networking components including VPCs, subnets, route tables, security groups, and related connectivity. Support cloud infrastructure associated with containerized workloads running on Amazon EKS, including basic troubleshooting and operational support. Configure and maintain platform monitoring, alerting, dashboards, and health checks using AWS monitoring and logging capabilities. Monitor and analyze CloudWatch logs, metrics, and alarms and CloudTrail events to identify operational or security issues. Assist with implementing standardized secure cloud configurations aligned with organizational security requirements and engineering standards. Troubleshoot infrastructure, deployment, connectivity, permissions, and platform issues in coordination with senior engineers and other technical teams. Assist with cloud infrastructure upgrades, configuration changes, feature deployments, and environment maintenance activities. Support implementation and maintenance of audit logging and operational visibility required for security reviews and compliance activities. Assist with secure cloud connectivity patterns, including private connectivity, service endpoints, egress controls, and integration with enterprise network services. Build and maintain development, sandbox, and proof-of-concept cloud environments using repeatable infrastructure configurations. Support cost management activities by identifying unused or underutilized AWS resources and assisting with implementation of cost-control measures. Assist with automation of routine platform administration and operational activities using Infrastructure as Code, scripting, APIs, and command-line tools. Maintain technical documentation including infrastructure configurations, deployment procedures, operational runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and architecture diagrams. Support integrations between AWS infrastructure and enterprise data, analytics security, and monitoring platforms. Participate in incident troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and implementation of corrective actions. Participate in platform capacity planning, infrastructure scaling, and performance monitoring activities. Support onboarding of new applications, development teams, and platform users by provisioning required infrastructure, permissions, and environment configurations. Work with senior engineers to continuously improve platform automation, reliability, security, and operational processes.