Senior Cloud Engineer

Description

Aptima is a technological leader in the national security industry. Our mission is to drive the future of national security by engineering scalable solutions that fuse technological innovation with human potential to transform how individuals and teams train, develop, and perform in mission‑critical environments.

Aptima is rooted in its core values of Integrity, Ingenuity, Excellence, Respect, Engagement, and Teamwork. We research, develop, and innovate in the human component of engineering, delivering meaningful impact through our technologies.

The Senior Cloud Engineer owns Aptima’s cloud environments across AWS (primary) and Azure, ensuring they are secure, compliant with NIST SP 800‑171, and built to support mission‑critical operations. This includes deploying AI/ML model infrastructure, owning federated identity architecture, partnering with Technical Operations and Cybersecurity teams, and providing local infrastructure support as needed.

• Cloud Environment Ownership: Create, maintain, and secure cloud resources across AWS and Azure. Advise on and implement cloud best practices across compute, storage, networking, and managed services. Support physical and virtual Windows and Linux systems where applicable.
• Infrastructure-as-Code: Architect and maintain IaC frameworks using Terraform and Ansible. Define module standards, enforce code review practices, and drive Git Ops adoption using Git and Git Hub.
• CI/CD & Dev Ops Partnership: Design and optimize CI/CD pipelines (Git Hub Actions, Azure Dev Ops). Serve as the IS technical lead in the Dev Ops partnership with Platform and Development teams.
• AI Model Infrastructure: Deploy, secure, and maintain cloud infrastructure supporting AI/ML workloads on AWS (Sage Maker, EC2) and Azure (Azure ML, Azure OpenAI Service). Own the compute, storage, networking, and access controls these workloads require, in coordination with Platform and Development teams who own the models.
• Federated Identity Management: Own and administer Aptima’s federated identity architecture. Configure and maintain Okta, Keycloak, and Microsoft Entra ; implement SSO, SAML, OAuth 2.0, and OIDC integrations across cloud and on‑premises systems. Enforce least privilege and zero‑trust identity principles aligned with NIST requirements.
• Cloud Security & Compliance: Administer cloud environments in alignment with NIST SP 800‑171 for CUI environments. Lead security reviews, manage IAM governance, and remediate vulnerability assessment findings.
• High‑Availability Services & Containers: Deploy and operate highly available services and databases. Administer containerized environments using Docker and Kubernetes.
• AWS API/CLI & Automation: Use the AWS API and CLI for automation, scripting, and environment management. Build tooling that reduces manual toil and improves operational consistency.
• Fin Ops & Observability: Own cloud cost governance including tagging standards, budget alerting, and rightsizing. Maintain observability frameworks covering log aggregation, distributed tracing, and alerting.
• Mentorship & Technical Advisory: Mentor through code reviews and architecture walkthroughs. Advise IS staff and management within your area of expertise; lead IS projects and provide training as needed.

• Deep AWS expertise (primary); working Azure proficiency. Fluent with the AWS API and CLI.
• IaC framework ownership using Terraform and Ansible;
  Git and Git Hub required.
• CI/CD design experience (Git Hub Actions, Azure Dev Ops, or equivalent).
• AI/ML infrastructure: AWS Sage Maker, EC2 GPU, S3 data pipelines;
  Azure ML or Azure OpenAI Service.
• Federated identity:
  Okta, Keycloak, and/or Microsoft Entra ; SSO, SAML, OAuth 2.0, OIDC.
• Cloud security: IAM design, NIST SP 800‑171, CSPM tooling, secrets management.
• Docker and Kubernetes; highly available service deployment including ELK stack.
• Windows and Linux system administration.
• Scripting proficiency in Python, Bash, or Power Shell.
• Strong problem‑solving and communication skills; effective independently and in a small team.
• Demonstrated mentorship ability and experience leading IS projects.