8+ years of hands-on experience in site reliability engineering, cloud engineering, or cloud security engineering, including technical leadership.
Strong experience implementing production infrastructure in AWS; AWS GovCloud experience is a plus.
Practical experience configuring AWS services securely, including IAM and network controls.
Hands-on experience with AWS security services like GuardDuty and Security Hub.
Experience automating AWS infrastructure through infrastructure as code (Terraform or CloudFormation).
Strong communication skills for leading technical discussions.
Responsibilities
Build, operate, and improve secure cloud infrastructure in AWS and Azure.
Configure cloud services securely by default, focusing on least-privilege IAM and network segmentation.
Deploy and tune cloud security tooling, acting on findings to enhance security.
Evaluate existing infrastructure, identify gaps, and engineer or recommend fixes.
Automate infrastructure and configuration using infrastructure as code and scripting.
Implement guardrails and automated checks to catch misconfigurations early.
Improve monitoring, alerting, and incident response for quick issue resolution.
Serve as a technical lead, mentoring engineers and reviewing designs.
Benefits
401(k)
401(k) matching
Dental insurance
Flexible spending account
Health insurance
Life insurance
Paid time off
Professional development assistance
Referral program
Tuition reimbursement
Vision insurance
Full Job Description
Ignite IT is seeking a Lead Cloud Engineer (Security / SRE) to support the U.S. Census Bureau as it modernizes its enterprise IT environment ahead of the 2030 Decennial Census. This is a hands-on role for a strong cloud engineer or site reliability engineer with a security mindset. You'll build, run, and secure cloud infrastructure in a hybrid environment built on AWS GovCloud, and help make sure it is reliable and secure at national scale.
We're looking for someone who has implemented and operated real cloud environments and knows how to configure them securely: identity and access, network controls, encryption, logging, and the security tooling that watches over all of it. The work combines evaluating how the current environment is built and configured with hands-on engineering to close the gaps, and you'll serve as a technical lead for the engineers around you.
Your Responsibilities
Build, operate, and improve secure cloud infrastructure in AWS, and Azure where applicable, with a focus on reliability, automation, and security.
Configure cloud services securely by default, including least-privilege IAM, network segmentation, encryption and key management, and centralized logging and monitoring.
Deploy, tune, and act on cloud security tooling, and turn findings into fixes.
Evaluate how existing cloud and on-premises infrastructure is built and configured, identify gaps, misconfigurations, and technical debt, and engineer or recommend fixes.
Automate infrastructure, configuration, and remediation using infrastructure as code and scripting so environments are consistent and stay secure over time.
Implement guardrails and automated checks that catch misconfigurations before or soon after they reach production.
Improve monitoring, alerting, and incident response so issues are detected and resolved quickly.
Support security in deployment pipelines and container platforms where applicable.
Troubleshoot complex infrastructure and security issues across cloud and on-premises environments.
Serve as technical lead: review designs and code, mentor engineers, and explain tradeoffs and recommendations to engineers and leadership.
Requirements
U.S. Citizenship required.
8+ years of hands-on experience in site reliability engineering, cloud engineering, cloud infrastructure engineering, or cloud security engineering, including technical leadership.
Strong hands-on experience implementing and operating production infrastructure in AWS, with a track record of delivered projects. AWS GovCloud experience is a plus.
A security mindset: practical experience configuring AWS services securely, including IAM, network controls (VPCs, security groups, network ACLs), encryption with KMS, and logging with CloudTrail and CloudWatch.
Hands-on experience with AWS security services, such as GuardDuty, Security Hub, AWS Config, or Inspector, including acting on their findings.
Experience automating AWS infrastructure and operations through infrastructure as code (such as Terraform or CloudFormation) and scripting.
Ability to evaluate existing AWS and hybrid environments and turn findings into practical fixes and clear recommendations.
Strong communication skills, with experience leading technical discussions with engineers and leadership.
Preferred Qualifications
Production infrastructure as code experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible, including reusable modules and code review.
Experience hardening systems against CIS Benchmarks or DISA STIGs.
Container and Kubernetes experience.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines in GitLab or GitHub.
Experience with AWS GovCloud environments.
Experience across more than one cloud platform.
Direct federal, government, or large distributed enterprise experience.
Hybrid position based out of the Washington, DC area.
Large-scale, mission-driven work supporting the 2030 Decennial Census.
Modern hybrid cloud environment built on AWS GovCloud.
