Job Title: Cloud SME
Job Title: Cloud SME
Location: Dallas, TX (Hybrid)
Job Type: Contract to Hire
Duration: 6 Months
Experience: 8+ years
Our client is seeking an experienced Cloud Subject Matter Expert to serve as the go-to authority for AWS and Azure cloud platforms. This individual will design, review, and support cloud solutions ensuring they are secure, reliable, cost-effective, and compliant - while guiding engineering teams, resolving complex issues, and advising leadership on cloud best practices.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and review AWS and Azure cloud architectures (IaaS, PaaS, limited SaaS) with emphasis on security, scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery
- Act as Level-3 / SME escalation point for complex AWS and Azure infrastructure issues (Compute, Storage, Networking, Identity & Access)
- Support 24x7 operations model on an on-call or advisory basis
- Enforce least-privilege access, IAM best practices, and RBAC; implement and review network security, encryption, and key management controls
- Drive infrastructure automation using Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM, or Bicep; integrate with CI/CD pipelines
- Monitor and optimize cloud spend using budgets, alerts, tagging, and chargeback/showback models
- Support cloud migration strategies including lift-and-shift, re-platform, and refactor
- Mentor engineers, review architecture designs, create SOPs, runbooks, and operational documentation
Required Skills
- AWS: EC2, S3, IAM, VPC, RDS, CloudWatch, Route53, Lambda
- Azure: Azure VMs, VNets, Azure AD, Storage, Azure Monitor, Key Vault
- Security: NSG, Security Groups, NACLs, KMS, CloudTrail, RBAC, least-privilege IAM
- IaC: Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM Templates, Bicep
- Core Disciplines: Networking, Backup & DR, Monitoring & Logging, Cost Optimization, High Availability
Preferred Skills
- Experience with containers and cloud-native modernization (Kubernetes, Docker)
- Familiarity with multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments
- Background in cloud migration planning and execution
Location & Work Model
Dallas, TX - Hybrid
Engagement Details
6-Month Contract to Hire engagement. Candidates must be available to support a 24x7 operations model on an on-call or advisory basis.