AWS Cloud Subject Matter Expert

Air InfoSec•Jackson, MS

13h•Hybrid

About The Position

The AWS Cloud Subject Matter Expert will support the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) on the CCOE project. ITS serves as the central IT organization for the state of Mississippi, functioning as both a service provider and service broker for state agencies. Over the past two years, ITS has implemented an AWS Organization with Control Tower and is actively building internal cloud expertise to support this environment and future agency AWS projects. This role will be central to maintaining the AWS environment, supporting agency troubleshooting, and developing a Cloud Center of Excellence. The selected contractor will also provide mentorship, training, and governance support across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Requirements

Deep knowledge of key AWS services, including EC2, S3, RDS, VPC, IAM, Lambda, and CloudFormation.
Experience leading cloud migrations or implementations in a complex multi-account environment.
Strong network troubleshooting capabilities to resolve connectivity issues within the AWS cloud environment and across ingress/egress paths to on-premises infrastructure.
Familiarity with AWS Landing Zone implementations and management using AWS Landing Zone Accelerator.
Proficiency with infrastructure as code tools (CloudFormation, Terraform, AWS CDK) and CI/CD pipelines.
Experience implementing security best practices, including IAM policies, encryption, network segmentation, and Service Control Policies (SCPs).
Familiarity with DevOps principles, containerization technologies (Docker, ECS, EKS), and serverless architectures.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Proven experience mentoring staff and fostering a collaborative, learning-focused environment.
Effective problem-solving skills with the ability to remain calm and focused under pressure.
Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
Ability to lead architectural reviews and navigate ambiguity in designing solutions to complex business problems.
Candidates must be able to pass a fingerprint background screen prior to placement.
On-call availability is required on an as-needed basis to support cloud troubleshooting.

Nice To Haves

AWS Professional-level certification, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional or AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional.
Experience working in a government or highly regulated environment subject to HIPAA, CJIS, or IRS 1075 compliance requirements.
Knowledge of ITIL, project management methodologies such as PMP or Agile, and enterprise IT governance frameworks.
Familiarity with other public cloud providers and hybrid-cloud environments.
Working knowledge of common scripting and programming languages, including Python, Bash, or PowerShell.

Responsibilities

Oversee and maintain the existing AWS Organization, ensuring adherence to industry best practices and operational standards.
Design, review, and implement AWS solutions for ITS and partner agencies that meet performance, security, and scalability requirements.
Serve as the senior point of contact for complex AWS-related issues, including network connectivity, and coordinate root cause analysis and remediation with internal teams and agencies.
Manage vendor relationships with AWS and third-party providers to integrate products into the overall AWS ecosystem.
Provide knowledge transfer, training, and coaching to internal staff to build cloud expertise and foster a collaborative, learning-focused environment.
Create and maintain technical documentation, standards, and operational playbooks.
Work with ITS and agency security teams to enforce industry best practices and meet applicable compliance requirements.
Lead architectural reviews and design solutions to complex business problems, navigating ambiguity where needed.
Manage multiple concurrent projects and priorities with strong organizational discipline.
Support on-call troubleshooting of cloud issues on an as-needed basis.