Cloud Operations Engineer

Empower AI Inc.•, DC

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Empower AI is seeking a Cloud Engineer for an exciting opportunity at the Department of State. This role is responsible for the development and maintenance of cloud engineering services supporting the hybrid VPC and global IT infrastructure for the customer. The position involves comprehensive engineering, design, and implementation services for core physical and virtual hosting environments, including cloud, supporting all customer systems domestically and internationally, in compliance with DoS data sovereignty and security requirements. Services cover the full life cycle of infrastructure design, deployment, management, and modernization, ensuring alignment with DoS security, operational, and performance requirements. The role also includes designing and implementing physical and virtual hosting environments (IaaS/PaaS and cloud), planning and executing infrastructure modernization, utilizing containerization and automated deployment strategies, implementing automated provisioning (IaC), auditing managed assets, providing end-to-end engineering support for various platforms, reviewing and recommending new equipment and services, ensuring hosting environments conform to FedRAMP standards, maintaining system integrity, coordinating with SaaS vendors, and supporting the adoption of converged/hyperconverged hardware.

Requirements

6+ years of experience
Bachelor's in IT or related field
AWS SysOps or Azure Administrator Associate Certification
Secret Security Clearance

Nice To Haves

COMP TIA Sec +
ITIL4 Foundation Certification(s)

Responsibilities

Provide comprehensive engineering, design, and implementation services for core physical and virtual hosting environments (including cloud) supporting all customer systems, both domestically and internationally, in compliance with DoS data sovereignty and security requirements.
Cover the full life cycle of infrastructure design, deployment, management, and modernization, ensuring alignment with DoS security, operational, and performance requirements.
Design and implement physical and virtual hosting environments (including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)/Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and cloud) that support all customer systems, ensuring full compliance with DoS data sovereignty, security requirements, and physical/information security standards.
Plan and execute infrastructure modernization by transitioning decentralized resources to centralized or cloud-oriented environments.
Utilize containerization (e.g., Docker) and automated deployment strategies to improve scalability, system portability, and operational efficiency.
Implement automated, rapid provisioning (Infrastructure as Code (IaC)) to minimize manual intervention and capacity-related downtime.
Audit managed assets to detect and remediate configuration drift, ensuring strict adherence to baseline integrity and DoS security templates.
Provide end-to-end engineering support for Windows, UNIX/Linux, and virtual platforms, ensuring ongoing availability, performance, and capacity.
Continuously review and recommend new equipment, hardware/software, and cloud services for Government approval.
Ensure all hosting environments (on-premises and cloud) strictly conform to Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) standards and customer security requirements.
Maintain system integrity through rigorous lockdown protocols, regular security audits, and compliance validation.
Coordinate with SaaS vendors and internal stakeholders to ensure seamless user experience, data integration, and life cycle management of cloud-agnostic solutions.
Support the adoption of converged/hyperconverged hardware deployments where feasible to optimize performance and reduce footprint.