Senior Cloud Engineer

Forge Forward is searching for a Senior Cloud Engineer.
This position will be on-site and support a client in Charleston, SC. Position requires US citizenship with a Secret clearance. Those not meeting these requirements cannot be considered. Minimum seven (7) years of experience supporting enterprise IT or C4I systems, with substantial hands-on cloud architecture and engineering experience is required. The Senior Cloud Engineer is responsible for designing, deploying, securing, and sustaining mission-critical cloud and hybrid-cloud infrastructure in regulated DoD and Navy environments.

The preferred candidate brings deep Microsoft Azure experience, particularly Azure Government. Impact Level 5 (IL5) experience is strongly desired, and IL6 experience is ideal. The role requires the ability to design within mission, security, connectivity, and platform constraints while integrating on-premises services with cloud capabilities.

This engineer will serve as a technical authority across Azure architecture, external and internal networking, identity and access management, security services, virtual desktop, virtual machines, containers, and Infrastructure as Code automation. AWS or commercial-cloud experience is relevant, but Azure Government experience is preferred.

• 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 Express Route, 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;
  Power Shell, 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.

• 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.

• Microsoft Certified:
  Azure Solutions Architect Expert;
  Microsoft Certified:
  Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104);
  Microsoft Certified:
  Azure Security Engineer Associate; and Hashi Corp 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, Express Route, 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,…