Senior Cloud Engineer

Thales Defense & Security, Inc. (TDSI) Headquartered in Clarksburg, MD, is a U.S. company that has been serving domestic and international defense Air, Land and Sea domains for 60+ years. With over 1,000 employees, TDSI and its four subsidiaries (Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Digital Receiver Technology, Tampa Microwave, and Trusted Cyber Technologies), supports U.S. Joint Services, special operations forces and multi-national partners with a variety of communication, visualization, signal intelligence/electronic warfare, and sensor/sonar capabilities. TDSI's key technologies include tactical handheld radios, expeditionary satellite terminals, helmet-mounted displays, optics and target recognition capability, advanced radars, undersea sensing and missile systems. Lives depend on what we do!

Top Benefits (Subject to terms of applicable policies/plans)

• Competitive Salary
• Yearly Incentive Compensation Plan
• Medical insurance for self and eligible family members
• Generous 401(k) program- up to 7% company contribution and 100% immediate vesting
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid wellness, vacation, and holiday leave
• Paid maternity, paternity, and parental leave
• 9/80 Work Schedule (every other Friday off)
• Hybrid working environment

We are excited to announce that we have an opening in our Clarksburg, MD office for a Senior Cloud Engineer, reporting to the Senior Manager, Network Operations. The Senior Cloud Engineer will design, build, and operate secure, cost-efficient cloud infrastructure as we expand our presence in Microsoft Azure (primary) and AWS. This role places strong emphasis on cloud cost and budget management, networking/hybrid connectivity, security, and operational excellence in a regulated DOD contractor environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain secure, scalable cloud infrastructure primarily on Microsoft Azure (with secondary AWS support) for enterprise and mission-supporting workloads.
• Engineer and operate core cloud services: compute (IaaS VMs), storage, virtual networking (VNets/VPCs, subnets, NSGs/security groups, load balancers), and hybrid connectivity to on-premises environments.
• Own cloud cost management and optimization - track spending, implement tagging and budgeting controls, identify waste, and drive continuous cost efficiency while meeting performance and security requirements.
• Implement and manage identity & access (Entra ID / IAM), RBAC, and least-privilege models aligned with DoD and company security policies.
• Automate infrastructure and operational tasks using PowerShell, Python, Bash, and cloud-native tools; support integration with existing CI/CD or DevOps pipelines where applicable.
• Monitor performance, availability, security posture, and cost using Azure Monitor, AWS CloudWatch, native security tools, and enterprise monitoring/ticketing platforms.
• Support backup, snapshot, and disaster recovery solutions that meet business continuity and data protection needs.
• Partner with security, network, systems, and application teams to deliver integrated hybrid solutions and resolve escalated issues.
• Ensure ongoing compliance with DoD requirements (FedRAMP, NIST SP 800-53, CMMC, Cloud Computing SRG, STIGs where applicable) and support related audits and assessments.
• Provide incident response, root-cause analysis, and technical support via Jira Service Management (or equivalent); communicate status clearly to stakeholders.
• Create and maintain clear documentation, architecture diagrams, runbooks, and SOPs.
• Lead or support on-premises to cloud migrations (including Nutanix and Windows Server environments) with minimal disruption.
• Contribute to cloud governance, capacity planning, cost forecasting, and technology roadmaps; serve as a cloud SME within IT.
• Work with leadership and business stakeholders to translate requirements into practical, secure cloud solutions.

Qualifications

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• U.S. Citizenship required. - Applicants selected may be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent work experience in a related job field.

• Minimum 6+ years of IT infrastructure, systems engineering, or cloud operations experience, including at least 3 years of hands-on engineering and administration of production workloads in Microsoft Azure and/or AWS.

• Proven experience designing and operating enterprise or government cloud environments supporting regulated or mission-critical workloads.

• Strong working knowledge of core Azure (preferred) and AWS services: compute, storage, networking, identity, monitoring, and native security/compliance tools.

• Proficiency in scripting and automation (PowerShell strongly preferred; Python or Bash also valuable).

• Solid understanding of cloud and hybrid networking (VPN, ExpressRoute/Direct Connect, peering, transit, DNS, load balancing) and on-premises integration.

• Knowledge of cloud security best practices and compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, CMMC, DoD Cloud SRG). Security-first mindset required.

• Experience with virtualization platforms (Hyper-V, VMware, or Nutanix) and translating on-premises designs to cloud.

• Experience with ITSM/ticketing systems (Jira Service Management or similar) for incident, problem, and change management.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and communication skills; ability to work independently and collaboratively across technical and non-technical teams.

• Ability to participate in a rotating on‑call schedule to support continuous service and respond to priority issues as needed

• Commitment to company policies, procedures, and core values.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate or Solutions Architect Expert; AWS SysOps Administrator or Solutions Architect Associate; CompTIA Security+; CISSP; or related cloud security certifications.
• Hands-on Infrastructure as Code experience (Terraform preferred; Bicep/ARM or CloudFormation acceptable).
• Experience with Azure Government, AWS GovCloud, or IL5/IL6 / CUI environments.
• Experience with Nutanix and large-scale on-prem to cloud migrations.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools (Azure DevOps, Git, Jenkins, Ansible, etc.).
• Experience with AKS/EKS or other container platforms in cloud environments.
• Microsoft 365 / Entra ID administration and hybrid identity (Azure AD Connect) experience.
• Prior DOD, defense contracting, or highly regulated environment experience.
• ITIL or project management experience.

The annualized pay range for this role is $124,290-$158,815 USD along with a target incentive compensation plan (ICP) of 5%. The pay range provided is a good faith estimate representative of the experience level for the role described above. TDSI considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, location, education/training, and key skills.

For specific questions about this job posting, candidates may contact talent acquisition at careers@thalesdsi.com.

Thales Defense & Security, Inc. is committed to non-discrimination as applicable under federal, state and local laws. We are an E-Verify Employer.

If you need an accommodation or assistance in order to apply for a position with Thales Defense & Security, Inc., please call Human Resources at 202-961-1016.

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