Senior Cloud Engineer

Syms Strategic Group, LLC (SSG)•Ann Arbor, MI

2d•$109,623 - $126,790•Remote

About The Position

Syms Strategic Group (SSG) is hiring a Senior Cloud Engineer for the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is a full-time, 100% U.S.-based remote W-2 position supporting VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) Azure GovCloud environments. Candidates residing in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, or Washington will not be considered. U.S. citizenship is required, and candidates must possess or qualify for a Public Trust (MBI). Applicants selected will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information and the ability to obtain a government-granted security clearance. The stated salary range is $109,623–$126,790. The Senior Cloud Engineer designs, deploys, operates, and supports cloud infrastructure and hosted systems and applications. The role creates architecture and data-flow diagrams, develops CI/CD automation, manages cloud permissions, and implements monitoring to support performance and compliance with VA and federal policies. The engineer provides customer-focused setup, configuration, provisioning, and cloud support for VAEC environments, follows VIP development, release, and documentation requirements, supplies cloud security provider documentation, and designs cloud-hosted solutions while addressing cloud-readiness gaps. The position calls for extensive Azure infrastructure and architecture experience, including security, networking, governance, cost management, automation, monitoring, databases, and container technologies. The engineer is expected to lead complex modernization and migration efforts, provide technical guidance and mentorship, collaborate across teams, document architecture and operations, manage multiple projects, and participate in on-call and operational response activities when required. The posting specifies 20+ years of professional experience and a bachelor's degree in a relevant technical discipline.

Requirements

20+ years of professional experience.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Cloud Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
U.S. citizenship is required for this opportunity.
Must possess or qualify for a Public Trust (MBI).
Proven experience designing, deploying, and managing Azure infrastructure and services.
Experience with large-scale, highly available, and scalable cloud architecture.
Expertise in Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Blob Storage, Azure SQL Database, Azure Virtual Network (VNet), Azure Functions, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Azure Monitor, and Azure DNS.
Experience with Azure security practices and services, including Microsoft Entra ID, Azure RBAC, Azure DDoS Protection, and Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF).
Proficiency with Azure networking components, including VNet Peering, Azure ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Private Endpoints, and Azure Load Balancer.
Ability to design, deploy, and manage scalable, secure, and 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 practices, budgeting, tagging strategies, and resource optimization using Azure Cost Management.
Proficiency in scripting with Python, PowerShell, Bash, or JavaScript/NodeJS for automation and cloud operations.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools and approaches, including ARM Templates, Ansible, and 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 performance, availability, and resiliency of Azure resources and services.
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 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 (AKS), Azure Container Apps, and Kubernetes.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and troubleshoot complex cloud issues.
Ability to prioritize tasks, manage competing priorities and time, 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 to junior engineers and team members.
Ability to lead technical projects and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
Willingness to provide on-call support and participate in operational response, emergency support, and maintenance when required.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Strong documentation skills.
Ability to manage and contribute to multiple projects simultaneously and deliver high-quality work on time.
Commitment to staying current with Azure technologies, cloud-native architectures, tools, industry trends, and best practices.

Nice To Haves

Deep hands-on EDIFECS experience with Electronic Data Interchange X.12 transaction standards and workflows.
Experience with X.12 medical claims transactions, including 837, 834, 835, and 277.
Experience with 270/271, 278, and 999 transactions.
Experience with Edifecs.
Advanced Azure certifications, including Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert, Azure Administrator Associate, and Azure Security Engineer Associate.

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-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 setup, configuration, provisioning, and support for VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) environments and services.
Support systems and applications in VAEC Azure GovCloud environments in accordance with Veterans Independence Program (VIP) development, release, and documentation requirements.
Apply DevOps practices and CI/CD tools and methods.
Provide cloud security provider documentation.
Design VAEC and cloud-hosted solutions and address cloud-readiness gaps.
Lead or contribute to cloud modernization, migration, and transformation initiatives in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership and guidance.
Document architecture, operational procedures, security controls, system configurations, processes, and procedures.
Manage and contribute to multiple projects while meeting deadlines and quality expectations.
Provide on-call and emergency operational support when required.