Cloud Engineer

Job Title: Senior Cloud Engineer (Contractor)Location: Austin, Texas (Onsite) Duration: Long Term Contract⚠️ Note: This role is strictly for a Cloud Engineer. Candidates primarily focused on CI/CD or DevOps will not be considered. Working Conditions  •   Office Environment.  •   Austin Tech Hub, Texas  •   Work outside business hours as required.  •   On-call or escalation availability as required.  We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Sr. Cloud Engineer (Contractor) to join our newly formed Cloud Engineering department. In this critical role, you will collaborate with our Cloud Architect, Development teams, Information Security, Enterprise Architecture, and business stakeholders to design, build, and maintain our multi-cloud infrastructure. You will be instrumental in engineering robust, scalable, and secure cloud solutions while championing open standards, automation, and cloud-native best practices.  Key Responsibilities    Design and implement cloud solutions across GCP & Azure ensuring alignment with business requirements and architectural best practices.    Develop and maintain IaC using tools like Terraform and Ansible to automate provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management of cloud resources.    Partner with development teams to integrate cloud best practices into the SDLC and contribute to the build-out and optimization of CI/CD pipelines.    Engineer and support containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE), including deployment strategies and lifecycle management.    Implement and enforce security controls and compliance frameworks (e.g., CIS Benchmarks, NIST, SOC 2) in collaboration with the Information Security team.    Set up and manage monitoring, logging, and alerting using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, and cloud-native solutions (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor).    Analyze cloud usage and implement cost-saving strategies using tools like GCP Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, or third-party platforms.    Design and implement DR and HA strategies to ensure business continuity and resilience.    Act as a subject matter expert, providing technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers and cross-functional teams.    Stay current with emerging cloud technologies and open standards, identifying opportunities for innovation and operational excellence.  Minimum Qualifications    5+ years of experience as a Sr. Cloud Engineer, Hands on Cloud Architect or similar position (overall at least 12+ years, with the last 5+ as Sr. Cloud Engineer or hands-on Architect)    Proven experience in a multi-cloud environment (GCP, Azure), with deep understanding of core services and cloud-native architectures.    Advanced proficiency with Terraform and Ansible.    Strong scripting skills in Python, Bash, or PowerShell.    Solid understanding of TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, routing, and firewall principles.    In-depth knowledge of Linux/Unix and/or Windows administration.    Experience with relational databases and cloud-native database services.    Hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes.    Familiarity with observability tools and practices.    Experience implementing security controls and working within compliance frameworks.    Passion for open standards and interoperability.    Strong interpersonal and communication skills to collaborate effectively across teams.  Preferred Qualifications    Google Professional Cloud Engineer, Microsoft Azure Administrator or better    Familiarity with Istio, Linkerd, Kong, or Apigee.    Experience with cost analysis and optimization platforms.    Ability to translate technical concepts into business value and influence decision-making.  You’d be a good fit if you:  •   Have a software engineering background (e.g., have built features for ANY SaaS product)  •   Reason about architecture tradeoffs instead of defaulting to a single tool or pattern  •   Have a deep understanding of cloud services (e.g., when to use Cloud Run vs containers)  •   Think through serverless vs server full and know when each is appropriate  •   Understand when to use object storage vs block storage  •   Prefer managed, cloud native capabilities when appropriate instead of defaulting to third party tooling  •   Can decide between automation via APIs (e.g., Google Workflows) vs scheduled jobs for operational tasks  •   Optimize observability by balancing signal, cost, and complexity (cloud native vs third party tools)  •   Avoid SSH centric operations and leverage cloud native access patterns (e.g., Cloud Shell)  •   Are comfortable operating across multiple cloud environments and profiles  •   Are not limited to operating a single CI/CD, monitoring, or DevOps product