Cloud Engineer

This position may be filled prior to the posted deadline.Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Koniag IT Systems, LLC a Koniag Government Services company, is seeking a Cloud Engineer to support KITS and our government customer. The position is remote. This position requires the candidate to be able to obtain a Public Trust.

Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid time off, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement. Koniag Government Services is seeking a highly skilled AWS Engineer to support the Global Public Affairs Office of the US Department of State. The duties of this project team include the Cloud & Security Engineering & Operations, of their web assets hosted on Cloud Architecture running a Content Management System (WordPress).

The Cloud & Security Engineer will be responsible for configuration management, deployments, pipeline automations, as well as security-aspects of system design, security tool/service analysis and selection, and subsequent implementation. Individuals will configure tools to meet the business, policy and security risk tolerance of customers.

Responsibilities:

• Serve on the engineering team to support a WordPress site on AWS running a Kubernetes CI/CD pipeline and work with the cloud architect to implement, support and maintain all environments across the web assets to include lower environments. Achieve uptime, monitoring, and business continuity goals of the enterprise.
• Manage a production environment running WordPress on AWS that will handle a high volume of traffic and traffic spikes to include establishing monitoring and operational procedures to ensure business continuity.
• Be available to help outside 9-to-5 hours for infrequent production troubleshooting when necessary.
• Maintain, support, and troubleshoot all other environments, including developer environments, testing environments, and pre-production environments using Kubernetes (EKS) or other AWS utilities.
• Work closely with the AWS Architect, Product Owner, Scrum Master, engineers, and security engineers to define and build the initial service offering as well as the roadmap for future releases.
• Possess in-depth knowledge of AWS services and cloud computing, and the ability to communicate architectural trade-offs/design options so that the Product Owner can make informed decisions.
• Be a motivated team-player with the desire and ability to work in a fast-paced, exciting environment.
• Participate in and support a team that is charged with coordinating and implementing various solutions required to support the AWS Cloud.
• Implement proof of concepts/pilots for various solutions, develop operational plans for supporting all the solutions developed, and create documentation and implementation plans for various solutions used to access and leverage AWS.
• Build and implement all cloud infrastructure to be the first field of any production support calls.
• Engineer and design solutions on cloud platforms such as AWS.
• Run risk logs and collaborate with the ISSO and System Owner to manage risk
• Be the main point of contact for providing responses on Common Vulnerability Reports
• Collaborate with technology team to document system boundaries and install controls in place germain to the technology and document with supporting evidence
• Provide recommendations to meet relevant security regulations, controls and policy.
• Implement the design by installing, configuring and testing cloud services and associated 3rd party services and software.
• Determine how to leverage services from cloud providers and identify gaps that must be met through other tools, software, or 3rd party services.
• Participate in assessment of system security controls to validate control implementation and identify weaknesses.
• Perform continuous monitoring using the solutions and tools.
• Perform security impact assessment of proposed changes to the environment to identify adverse changes in security risk posture or compliance.
• Identifying new and innovative ways to use existing tool sets to automate security management, monitoring and related processes to reduce risk and costs.

Qualifications:

• Kubernetes and understanding traffic pattern for a high-traffic web site running a Content Management System is preferred.
• Amazon web infrastructure and services including Route53, CloudFormation, OpenSearch, Kinesis Firehose, Config, EKS, WAF, CloudFront, EC2 & EBS, RDS, ALB, Certificate Manager, S3, Secrets Manager, Virtual Private Cloud, Lambda, Inspector, Key Management Service, ElasticCache, SES, CloudShell, ECR, CloudWatch, SNS, GuardDuty, CloudTrail
• Passionate about identifying constraints/bottlenecks in engineering lifecycles and automating them
• Focused on building a culture of collaboration, transparency, and automation
• Experience managing and deploying pipeline solutions as well as containerized applications via tools such as Argo Workflows, ArgoCD, Github Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, Bitbucket pipelines, etc.
• Experience building and supporting Infrastructure as code (IaC), leveraging tools such as AWS CDK, Ack, CloudFormation, Terraform, Pulumi, Ansible, Salt, Chef, etc.
• Proven knowledge in PowerShell, with demonstrable ability to build and understand logical scripts, utilizing statements such as, if/else, foreach, try/catch, etc.
• Deep understanding of IaaS, PaaS, and Serverless services offered on cloud platforms and understand how to use them together to build complex solutions
• Research, analyze, design, propose and support the delivery of solutions that are appropriate for business and technology strategies
• Able to design data, system, and component architectures; and design and share in simple language with executive leadership
• Experienced with Agile methodologies especially TDD and Scrum; Kanban is a plus
• Experience with LEMP & LAMP stacks (Linux, Nginx, Apache, MySQL, PHP), WordPress installation & configuration, MySQL performance and scaling, Elasticpress, Elasticsearch and the ELK stack, Git, Bitbucket.
• Well versed in the DevOps lifecycle and process improvement strategies
• Proven knowledge of Change and Configuration Management best practices
• Partner with development and operations teams to develop practical automation solutions and custom modules. Troubleshoot automation issues and find practical solutions that move projects forward promptly.
• BS in computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, or related IT or security field 5 years of professional experience in IT/network engineering, Cloud, security engineering, system administration or security operations.
• 7 years’ experience in a security related role with experience with FISMA, FedRAMP, and NIST SP 800-53
• Ability to clearly communicate your contributions in activities such as adding controls into an application framework, working with technical leads, responding to security findings, submitting responses to Common Vulnerability Reports, performing Security Impact Assessments and supporting an Authorization-To-Operate.
• Strong analytical skills with solid verbal and written communication skills Shows initiative, presents ideas to overcome challenges, self-starter
• Experience with Okta and/or Keycloak application integrations
• Experience with networking for web applications on AWS, Route53, Certificate Manager
• Experience managing OpenSearch or ElasticSearch including instance provisioning, dashboard design for public traffic WAF data via Kinesis Firehose, and web search capability for WordPress

Desired Skills:

• Experience and Certifications: AWS, CISSP, CISM, CISA, CEH, CCSK, CCSP or related security certifications are nice to have
• Experience with Amazon Web Services, Experience deploying and operating tools such as: Vulnerability Management, Incident Detection, Event/Audit collection and analysis, network and web application firewalls.
• Relevant bachelor’s degree or similar experience
• Expert knowledge of usability and Section 508 compliance on user experience
• Experience with Certification and Accreditation (C&A) of Federal Government systems for FISMA compliance with NIST 800-37.
• Security Test and Evaluation (ST&E) of Federal Government systems.
• Federal IT Security Professional (FITSP) Certification or equivalent.
• Knowledge of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), OMB Circular A-130, and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Security Requirement:

• Must be able to obtain a Public Trust

Our Equal Employment Opportunity Policy The company is an equal opportunity employer. The company shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, color, religion, creed, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity (except where gender is a bona fide occupational qualification), national origin or ancestry, age, disability, citizenship, military/veteran status, marital status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We are committed to equal employment opportunity in all decisions related to employment, promotion, wages, benefits, and all other privileges, terms, and conditions of employment.

The company is dedicated to seeking all qualified applicants. If you require an accommodation to navigate or apply for a position on our website, please get in touch with Heaven Wood via e-mail at or by calling 703-488-9377 to request accommodations.

Koniag Government Services (KGS) is an Alaska Native Owned corporation supporting the values and traditions of our native communities through an agile employee and corporate culture that delivers Enterprise Solutions, Professional Services and Operational Management to Federal Government Agencies. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag, we apply our proven commercial solutions to a deep knowledge of Defense and Civilian missions to provide forward leaning technical, professional, and operational solutions. KGS enables successful mission outcomes for our customers through solution-oriented business partnerships and a commitment to exceptional service delivery. We ensure long-term success with a continuous improvement approach while balancing the collective interests of our customers, employees, and native communities. For more information, please visit www.koniag-gs.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. Shareholder Preference in accordance with Public Law 88-352

Originally posted on Himalayas