Senior Microsoft Cloud Operations Engineer

Senior Microsoft Cloud Operations Engineer

Engineering Contract On-site, Washington, DC

XCell was born out of a passion for using the power of design to transform organizations in ways that build up our communities. We work in small, fast-paced agile teams that use Design Thinking to help Government, Non-Profit and Educational organizations solve complex challenges. We value our team and culture — finding the right fit takes time, and we believe in hiring slow.

• U.S. citizenship is required.
• Must be U.S.
  
  -based and able to work on-site in Washington, DC.
• Must be able to pass a federal background investigation and suitability determination for access to the customer’s systems and facilities.

What it looks like

We are looking for a Senior Microsoft Cloud Engineer to run and secure an enterprise Microsoft 365, Azure, and Microsoft Security environment for a federal customer in Washington, DC. You will operate, harden, and advance the tenant, lead on identity and Zero Trust, and keep the environment secure, resilient, and audit-ready. This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who can operate independently and advise stakeholders.

Candidates must be U.S. citizens, U.S.

-based, and able to work on-site in DC.

In this role you will:

• Identity and access:administer Microsoft Entra , Conditional Access, privileged access, and least-privilege models; manage MFA including provider transitions, third-party MFA, and Smart Card and FIDO2 authentication.
• Endpoints at scale:manage Windows, macOS, and iOS devices through Microsoft Intune and Autopilot across 700+ endpoints, including compliance and policy delivery.
• Security operations:run Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, and Purview; manage Sentinel data sources and monitor ingestion and log-quality health; support incident response readiness.
• Collaboration and Azure:support Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint Online, and provide Azure infrastructure, networking, and hybrid integration.
• Automation:build and lock down Power Shell and Microsoft Graph automation across the relevant APIs.
• Reporting and cost:build Power BI dashboards for systems health, compliance, spend and forecast, and utilization; configure Azure budgets with early overage alerting.
• Compliance and continuity:align configurations to NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust, and FedRAMP Moderate; keep the tenant audit-ready and support incident and disaster recovery.
• Change and advisory:work through formal change management, maintain documentation, SOPs, and runbooks, and serve as a senior technical advisor to the team.

What we are looking for

• Current Microsoft certifications (hard requirement):you must currently hold, and have maintained for about five years, the following active certifications. Expired certifications, or certifications never used professionally, will not qualify.
• Microsoft 365 Certified:
  Administrator Expert
• Microsoft Certified:
  Cybersecurity Architect Expert
• Microsoft Certified:
  Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Microsoft Certified:
  Identity and Access Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Certified:
  Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate
• Microsoft 365 Certified:
  Teams Administrator Associate
• Microsoft Certified:
  Information Security Administrator Associate
• Senior, independent operator:able to run an enterprise Microsoft cloud environment with minimal supervision and sound technical judgment.
• Deep hands-on experience:across Entra, Intune and Autopilot, Defender, Sentinel, Purview, Exchange Online, and Azure.
• Strong communication:able to advise stakeholders and collaborate across network, cybersecurity, and cloud teams.

Nice-to-have

• Experience in a federal or highly regulated environment.
• Hybrid Active Directory, M365, and Entra tiered-security experience.
• Experience preparing for…