Lead Systems Engineer

Title: Lead Systems Engineer (AWS)

Location: Arlington, VA (3 days a week)

Terms: Full Time/Permanent

Clearance: All qualified applicants must possess a minimum of a DoD Secret level clearance. By virtue of that, all must be US citizens.

Our client is hiring a Lead Systems Engineer to play an important role in the development and support of mission and operational solutions for our Federal Government customer. The Lead Systems Engineer is a hands-on role, where you will develop innovative solutions and provide expertise in the design, implementation, configuration, and optimization of our client’s AWS cloud environment. You will improve automation and systems performance and be responsible for designing, building, testing, implementing, and supporting cloud server and services technologies to meet functional, technical, operational, security, and performance requirements.

We are looking for a proactive, motivated individual with experience leading a small technical team supporting Federal Government clients. You must possess excellent communication and writing skills and love working in a strong team atmosphere.

Please Note: On-site work at the customer location is required 3-days per week in Arlington, VA.

Responsibilities

• As the Lead Systems Engineer your primary responsibility is to work closely with our customer’s CIO and technical team, influence technical roadmap, provide collaborative hands-on team leadership and expertise in the design, implementation, configuration, and optimization of our client’s AWS cloud environment:
  

• Analyze, design, implement, document, and maintain AWS Cloud environment and cloud servers.
  

• Maintain, monitor, and administer AWS environment to include EC2 instances, IAM, NACLs, Subnets, Security Groups, RDS, Lambda, VPN connections, CloudWatch, and CloudTrail.
  

• Conduct testing and integration of applications/databases within AWS.
  

• Analyze AWS Cloud requirements for organization and information systems and provide, in writing, recommended solutions for management’s consideration.
  

• Assess and resolve Tier 2 and Tier 3 operational and performance issues with the AWS cloud environment, working with vendor support or other organizations as needed.
  

• Automate recurring AWS operations activities using Lambda or other scripting and tools.
  

• Provide technical leadership and guidance in the installation, configuration and implementation of cloud products and technologies.
  

• Assist with developing systems engineering roadmap, timelines, and priorities.
  

• Leverage AWS Cloud Cost Management and implement operational cost control mechanisms.
  

• Develop contingency and recovery plans to ensure continuous availability and accessibility of AWS cloud services.
  

• Create and maintain System Architecture Guides and Diagrams and SOPS for Amazon Web Services systems administration.
  

• Ensure the rigorous application of information security and information assurance policies, principles, and practices in the delivery of systems administration services to include compliance with DISA STIG, DoD, and customer policies and standards.
  

• Provide Systems Engineering support for activities relating to system and service ATO pursuit and maintenance.
  

• Provide engineering support for cyber security audit activities.
  

• Perform routine and emergency patches and maintenance to customer deployed applications and systems both during and outside of normal working hours.
  

• Follow customer change management and engineering review processes, ensuring task completion according to determined release schedules.
  

• Perform data backup and recovery, monitor and analyze audit logs, and report any irregularities.
  

• Support implementation of security and Computer Network Defense (CND) including environment security such as route tables, security groups, IP address management, SSL certificates, etc.
  

• Support planning, deployment, and maintenance of PKI services.
  

• Implement 802.1X standards utilizing servers and protocols such as RADIUS.
  

• Provide leadership and mentoring to 1-3 technical team members.
  

• 8 or more years of technical experience with operating systems, applications, web services infrastructure and external integration, including leadership responsibilities.
  

• Experience in all or some of the following: AWS EC2 instances, IAM, NACLs, Subnets, Security Groups, RDS, Lambda, VPN connections, CloudWatch, and CloudTrail.
  

• AWS certifications such as Solutions Architect (Associate or above), SysOps Administrator or other cloud computing certifications is preferred.
  

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, business analytical and problem-solving/trouble-shooting skills.
  

• Must be a self-starter with an ability to take initiative and lead.
  

• Bachelor’s Degree in information technology, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, Mathematics, or related field.
  

• Active DOD Secret clearance
  

• Eligibility for this job requires U.S. Citizenship.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Junos OS and Juniper networking tools and systems.
  

• Experience architecting, building, deploying, securing, operating, and maintaining services according to the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
  

• Experience designing, writing, and executing automation and infrastructure provisioning/configuration management tools such as Bash, Python, Ansible, Terraform, AWS Systems Manager, etc.
  

• Experience running endpoint protection software, conducting vulnerability scans, and patching/remediating findings.
  

• Experience planning, deploying, and maintaining a PKI.
  

• Experience implementing 802.1X standards and mechanisms utilizing RADIUS.
  

• Familiarity with ATOs, NIST 800-53 control families, RMF, SRGs, and STIGs.
  

One or more of the following certifications:

• DOD 8570.01-M compliant IAT Level II certificate (CCNA Security, CySA+**, GICSP, GSEC, Security+ CE, CND, SSCP) OR IAT Level II certification (CASP+, CCNO Security, CISA, CISSP) DoD 857001.M operating system certification for IAT Level II
  

• Full and Partial Paid Healthcare plans
  
• Dental Insurance
  
• Vision Insurance
  
• Short Term/Long Term Disability Insurance
  
• Life Insurance
  
• Gym/Fitness Reimbursements
  
• Flex Telework
  
• Employee Referral Bonus
  
• 11 Paid Holidays
  
• 6 Weeks Parental Leave
  
• 4 Weeks PTO
  
• 401K with up to 4% company match
  
• Training/Certification/Education Benefits