Senior Cloud Engineer

Forge  Forward Inc.•North Charleston, SC

28d•Onsite

About The Position

Forge Forward is seeking a Senior Cloud Engineer for an on-site position supporting a client in Charleston, SC. This role requires US citizenship with a Secret clearance. The Senior Cloud Engineer will be responsible for designing, deploying, securing, and sustaining mission-critical cloud and hybrid-cloud infrastructure within regulated DoD and Navy environments. The ideal candidate will possess deep Microsoft Azure experience, particularly Azure Government, with a strong understanding of Impact Level 5 (IL5) and ideally IL6 environments. The role involves designing solutions within mission, security, connectivity, and platform constraints, integrating on-premises services with cloud capabilities, and serving as a technical authority across various Azure services including architecture, networking, identity and access management, security, virtual desktop, virtual machines, containers, and Infrastructure as Code automation. AWS or commercial cloud experience is relevant, but Azure Government experience is preferred.

Requirements

Minimum seven (7) years of experience supporting enterprise IT or C4I systems, with substantial hands-on cloud architecture and engineering experience.
Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field desired. Relevant technical experience may be considered in lieu of a degree, subject to contract labor category requirements.
CompTIA Security+ or equivalent certification meeting DoD Cybersecurity Workforce IAT Level II requirements.
US citizen with a Secret clearance and current SSBI/T5 investigation. TS/SCI desired.

Nice To Haves

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
Experience supporting Navy C4I or comparable DoD mission environments.
Azure Government and classified-cloud engineering experience at IL6.
Advanced Azure architecture experience with Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure Arc, ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Microsoft Defender, VPN Gateway, virtual machines, containers, and role-based access control.
Hybrid-cloud architecture spanning on-premises infrastructure and Azure services.
Terraform integrated with Azure Automation, Git-based version control, and CI/CD pipelines.
Experience with Azure Kubernetes Service or other Kubernetes/container platforms.
Familiarity with DISA STIGs, ACAS/SCAP remediation, RMF controls, POA&Ms, and continuous monitoring.
Strong communication, technical documentation, collaboration, and leadership skills in a multi-disciplinary Agile environment.

Responsibilities

Design, deploy, secure, and sustain Microsoft Azure architectures, with preference for Azure Government over commercial cloud and Azure over AWS.
Apply experience in DoD Impact Level environments; IL5 experience is strongly desired, and IL6 experience is ideal.
Design hybrid-cloud solutions that run complementary services on premises and in Azure, including integration and management through Azure Arc.
Engineer external connectivity and direct-connect solutions, including Azure ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, routing, and connectivity to on-premises networks.
Design and manage internal networking, including virtual networks, subnets, network security groups, VLANs, routing, and network segmentation.
Implement cloud security using Microsoft Defender, Azure Firewall, VPN Gateway, secure baselines, least-privilege access, and Zero Trust principles.
Design and administer Azure identity, role-based access control, privileged access, and service identities, including integration with program-provided NIS tools.
Architect and support Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows and Linux virtual machines, and containerized workloads.
Evaluate technical, cybersecurity, mission, and cost constraints and develop resilient Azure solution architectures and implementation plans.
Develop repeatable infrastructure provisioning and configuration using Azure Automation integrated with Terraform; PowerShell, Bash, Python, and CI/CD experience is valuable.
Troubleshoot complex cloud, network, identity, security, compute, and hybrid-integration issues across lab and production environments.
Produce architecture diagrams, implementation plans, test artifacts, operating procedures, and RMF/ATO compliance evidence; participate in technical reviews and change management.