Cloud Computing Engineer Principal

Syms Strategic Group, LLC (SSG)•Silver Spring, MD

1d•$109,623 - $126,790•Remote

About The Position

Syms Strategic Group is hiring a Principal Cloud Computing Engineer to support Veterans Affairs healthcare systems. This 100% U.S.-based remote, W-2 role supports VA Enterprise Cloud environments in Azure GovCloud. The position designs, deploys, operates, and governs secure, scalable, highly available cloud infrastructure and applications, supports cloud modernization and migration, and ensures adherence to VA and federal security, compliance, release, and documentation requirements. U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain or qualify for a Public Trust (MBI) are required. Candidates located in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, or Washington will not be considered. The engineer provides technical leadership and mentorship, supports CI/CD and DevOps operations, manages cloud permissions and monitoring, provides customer-focused setup and provisioning support, and creates architecture and security documentation. The role requires 20+ years of professional experience and a bachelor’s degree in a related technical discipline, or a master’s degree with the specified alternative experience requirement. Desired experience includes hands-on Edifecs and healthcare EDI X.12 workflows, along with advanced Azure certifications.

Requirements

20+ years of professional experience.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Cloud Engineering, or a related technical discipline and 20 years of experience, or a master’s degree in the same fields and 10 years of experience.
Proven experience designing, deploying, and managing Azure infrastructure and services.
Experience with large-scale, highly available, and scalable cloud architecture.
Expertise in Azure services including Virtual Machines, Blob Storage, Azure 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, Azure DDoS Protection, and Azure 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, and highly available Azure infrastructure.
Experience governing multi-subscription Azure environments using Management Groups, Azure Policy, and Azure Landing Zones.
Knowledge of cloud cost management and FinOps, including budgeting, tagging, and resource optimization with Azure Cost Management.
Proficiency in scripting languages such as Python, PowerShell, Bash, or JavaScript/NodeJS.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Azure Resource Manager templates and Ansible, and with GitOps methodologies.
Proficiency with monitoring, logging, and observability tools, including Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Azure Activity Log, and third-party tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and New Relic.
Experience optimizing Azure resource performance, availability, and resiliency.
Strong understanding of Azure security practices and compliance frameworks, including HIPAA, FedRAMP, NIST, GDPR, and PCI DSS.
Experience implementing encryption, key and 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 troubleshoot complex cloud issues and 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 maintain stability, security, operational excellence, and data integrity.
Ability to mentor engineers and provide technical guidance to junior engineers and team members.
Ability to lead technical projects and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
Willingness to provide on-call support for emergency maintenance and operational response when required.
Strong written and verbal communication and documentation skills.
Commitment to staying current with emerging Azure technologies, cloud-native architectures, tools, and industry best practices.
U.S. citizenship is required.
Must possess or qualify for a Public Trust (MBI).

Nice To Haves

Deep hands-on Edifecs experience with Electronic Data Interchange X.12 transaction standards and key 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 permissions in the cloud service provider for hosted applications, storage, and services.
Design, implement, manage, and monitor cloud architectures and hosted systems and applications for 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, ensuring compliance with Veterans Independence Program development, release, and documentation requirements.
Apply DevOps practices and 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, provide technical leadership, and contribute to cloud architecture governance.
Provide on-call support and participate in operational response activities when required.
Document architecture, operational procedures, security controls, system configurations, and processes.
Manage multiple projects and competing priorities while meeting deadlines and maintaining high-quality deliverables.