Cloud Computing Engineer Principal

Syms Strategic Group, LLC (SSG)•Tallahassee, FL

1d•$109,623 - $126,790•Remote

About The Position

Syms Strategic Group is hiring a Principal Cloud Computing Engineer to support the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is a 100% U.S.-based remote, full-time W-2 position supporting VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) Azure GovCloud environments. The role focuses on designing, deploying, operating, securing, and modernizing cloud infrastructure, applications, and systems in accordance with VA and federal requirements. The position requires Public Trust (MBI) clearance or eligibility and U.S. citizenship. Candidates residing in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, or Washington will not be considered. The engineer will provide cloud services and customer-focused support for VA product lines, including environment setup, configuration, and provisioning. They will create architecture and transition diagrams, develop and operate CI/CD automation, manage cloud permissions, establish monitoring and observability, document cloud security controls, and design cloud-hosted solutions while addressing cloud-readiness gaps. The role also involves technical leadership, mentoring, participation in complex modernization and migration efforts, and operational response, including on-call support when required. The required education and experience are a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Cloud Engineering, or a related technical discipline with 20 years of experience, or a master's degree in those fields with 10 years of experience. Desired qualifications include hands-on Edifecs experience with healthcare X12/EDI transactions and advanced Azure certifications. Salary range: $109,623–$126,790.

Requirements

20 or more years of professional experience, with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Cloud Engineering, or a related technical discipline; alternatively, a master's degree in those fields with at least 10 years of experience.
U.S. citizenship.
Must possess or qualify for Public Trust (MBI).
Proven experience designing, deploying, and managing Azure infrastructure and services.
Experience with large-scale, highly available, scalable cloud architecture.
Expertise in Azure services including Virtual Machines, Blob Storage, SQL Database, Virtual Network, Functions, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Monitor, and Azure DNS.
Experience with Azure security services and practices, including Microsoft Entra ID, Azure RBAC, DDoS Protection, and Web Application Firewall.
Proficiency with Azure networking components, including VNet Peering, ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Private Endpoints, and Azure Load Balancer.
Ability to design, deploy, and manage scalable, secure, highly available Azure cloud infrastructure.
Experience establishing and governing multi-subscription Azure environments using Management Groups, Azure Policy, and Azure Landing Zones.
Knowledge of cloud cost management, FinOps, budgeting, tagging, and resource optimization using Azure Cost Management.
Proficiency in scripting languages such as Python, PowerShell, Bash, or JavaScript/NodeJS for automation and cloud operations.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as ARM Templates and Ansible, and with GitOps methodologies.
Proficiency with monitoring, logging, and observability tools, including Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Azure Activity Log, Prometheus, Grafana, or New Relic.
Experience optimizing Azure resource and service performance, availability, and resiliency.
Understanding of Azure security best practices and compliance frameworks, including HIPAA, FedRAMP, NIST, GDPR, and PCI DSS.
Experience implementing encryption, key management, secrets management, and identity solutions using Azure Key Vault, customer-managed keys, and Microsoft Entra ID.
Knowledge of Azure database services, including Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and Azure Database for MySQL.
Experience with database performance tuning, backup and recovery, high availability, and disaster recovery strategies.
Familiarity with CI/CD tools and practices, including Azure DevOps Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and GitLab CI.
Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Container Apps, and Kubernetes.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to prioritize tasks, manage competing priorities and time effectively, and meet project deadlines.
Strong attention to detail to support system stability, security, operational excellence, and data integrity.
Ability to mentor engineers and provide technical leadership and guidance.
Ability to lead technical projects and collaborate across cross-functional teams.
Willingness to provide on-call and emergency support or maintenance when required.
Strong verbal and written communication and documentation skills.
Ability to manage and contribute to multiple projects simultaneously.
Commitment to staying current with Azure technologies, cloud-native architectures, tools, trends, and industry best practices.

Nice To Haves

Deep hands-on Edifecs experience with Electronic Data Interchange X12 transaction standards and key healthcare workflows, including medical claims transactions 837, 834, 835, and 277; 270/271 and 278 transactions; and 999 transactions.
Experience with Edifecs.
Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification.
Azure Administrator Associate certification.
Azure Security Engineer Associate certification.

Responsibilities

Create data flow, cloud, transition, and high-level architecture diagrams for cloud infrastructure, applications, and systems.
Design, develop, deploy, and operate automation technologies for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).
Manage and control cloud service provider permissions for hosted applications, storage, and services.
Design, implement, and manage monitoring capabilities for cloud architecture and hosted systems and applications to support performance and compliance with VA and federal policies.
Provide customer-focused support to product lines and services, including setup, configuration, and provisioning of VA Enterprise Cloud environments.
Provide cloud support for systems and applications in VAEC Azure GovCloud environments and ensure compliance with Veterans Independence Program development, release, and documentation requirements.
Apply DevOps practices and CI/CD tooling.
Provide cloud security provider documentation.
Design VAEC and cloud-hosted solutions and address cloud-readiness gaps.
Lead and contribute to cloud modernization, migration, and transformation initiatives in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership and guidance.
Participate in on-call support and operational response activities when required.
Create and maintain architecture, operational, security-control, configuration, process, and procedure documentation.
Manage multiple projects and competing priorities while meeting deadlines and delivering quality results.
Troubleshoot complex cloud issues and support system stability, security, operational excellence, and data integrity.