Hybrid Cloud Data Platform Administrator

at Custom Software Systems, Inc.

• Job title: Cloud Data Platform Administrator
• Job type: Contract
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: AWS, Azure, Cloud, DNS, Firewalls, Python, Ruby, SDLC, ServiceNow, Terraform, Go
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Washington, United States

About the role

• Cloud Data Platform Administrator supporting deployment and operations of modern Enterprise Data Platform. Focus on AWS infrastructure, CI/CD integration, and secure cloud operations.

Responsibilities

• Implement platform monitoring/alerting, operational dashboards, and health checks; maintain runbooks and operational procedures.
• Provision and administer AWS GovCloud infrastructure components supporting EDP environments (networking, compute, storage, IAM, logging/monitoring).
• Implement and maintain standardized “secure-by-default” configurations aligned to agency security requirements (baseline hardening, patching coordination, configuration management).
• Operate cloud services supporting data and analytics platforms (e.g., storage integrations, encryption/KMS patterns, secure service endpoints, VPC constructs).
• Establish and maintain operational monitoring/alerting, health checks, runbooks, and incident support in coordination with the platform and security teams.
• Manage change control for upgrades, feature rollouts, configuration changes, and integration changes; document impacts and rollback plans.
• Enable and maintain audit logging and access/event visibility; support security reviews and evidence requests.
• Configure logging and auditability (e.g., CloudTrail/CloudWatch patterns) and support evidence collection for security/compliance activities.
• Coordinate secure networking patterns (private connectivity, egress controls, firewall/proxy constraints) with network and security stakeholders.
• Build and manage POC environments (isolated accounts/VPCs where applicable), ensuring repeatability, cost controls, and safe teardown.
• Coordinate secure connectivity and guardrails with cloud/network teams: private connectivity patterns, egress controls, firewall/proxy needs.
• Implement cost guardrails: cluster policies, auto-termination, scheduling, workload sizing standards, and capacity planning.
• Produce usage/cost insights and optimization recommendations; address waste drivers (idle compute, oversized clusters, inefficient jobs).
• Automate administration and configuration using APIs/CLI/IaC (e.g., Terraform) to reduce manual drift and improve repeatability.
• Maintain platform documentation: configuration baselines, security/governance standards, onboarding guides, and troubleshooting references.
• Manage third-party integrations and ecosystem connectivity, including BI tool integrations (e.g., Power BI), and external metadata catalog integrations.
• Conduct capacity planning and scalability analysis, including forecasting concurrent user/workload growth, platform scaling strategies, and proactive resource allocation during peak usage periods.
• Facilitate user onboarding and enablement, including new user/team onboarding procedures, training coordination, workspace access provisioning, and creation of self-service documentation/guides.

Requirements

• US Citizenship or Green Card required
• Three (3) years' experience building AWS Infrastructure using Terraform.
• Three (3) years' experience building CI/CD pipelines, preferably using Azure DevOps or Gitlab CI/CD practices for promotion across SDLC environments.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience with integration, systems analysis, or programming experience within Cloud environments.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience developing systems requirements and design specifications.
• At least seven (7) years’ demonstrated experience in:
• • Developing software according to software development lifecycles (SDLCs), including DevOps, Agile, Lean, Iterative, or Waterfall.
• • Designing, deploying, and migrating secure and maintainable systems for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) environments.
• • DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, containers, and related best practices for cloud deployment.
• Experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or ServiceNow.
• Hands-on experience with AWS security and networking services, including PrivateLink, Secrets Manager/Systems Manager integration, CloudWatch/CloudTrail integration, S3 bucket policies, cross-account access patterns, and KMS encryption key management.
• Knowledge, Skills & Abilities Cloud platform expertise (AWS ): IAM roles/policies, object storage security patterns, networking basics (VPC concepts), logging/monitoring integration.
• Identity & Access Management proficiency: SSO concepts, SCIM provisioning, group-based RBAC, service principals, and least-privilege patterns.
• Security fundamentals: secrets management, secure connectivity, audit logging, access monitoring, and evidence-ready operations.
• Automation skills: IaC using Terraform, CLI, and REST APIs for repeatable configuration and environment promotion.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving; communicate clearly during incidents and changes.
• Proficient in at least one high-level programming language such as Python, Ruby, or Go.
• Understanding of and ability to evaluate new technologies for fit in the current infrastructure architecture.
• Understanding of cloud-based architecture, web servers, caching, application servers, load balancers, and storage.
• Familiarity with loose coupling, stateless systems, and best practices for designing cloud-ready applications.
• Understanding of cloud federation technologies such as SAML, Auth, and OpenID Connect, and how to apply these technologies to enterprise and public-facing applications.
• Awareness of cloud information security risks and best practices, especially in a highly secure operating environment.
• Experience transitioning legacy systems to cloud-ready architecture.
• Experience with route tables, access control lists, firewalls, NAT, HTTP, DNS, IP, and OSI Network.
• Familiarity with government cloud deployment regulations/compliance policies such as FedRAMP, FISMA, etc.
• Certificates AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate or Professional (Preferred)

Benefits

• Health insurance plans
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Dental
• Vision
• Long-term disability
• Short-term disability
• Basic term life insurance
• Supplemental term life insurance for employees, spouses, and dependents
• Simple IRA
• Parking/Commuting expense reimbursement
• Training/Education