Cloud Architect IV- AWS Migration Specialist

About the Opportunity

The Cloud Architect IV – AWS Migration Specialist will serve as a senior member of a small, high-trust team, assisting in building and operating the cloud platform behind a safety-of-life weather-warning system in a remote work environment. The platform runs on AWS with Kubernetes (EKS), a fully GitOps deployment model, and infrastructure defined entirely as code.

The environment is FISMA-Moderate and is actively maturing toward a multi-account federal landing zone, placing this role at the intersection of platform engineering, security, and compliance. The team moves infrastructure through code and pipelines rather than tickets and manual console changes, and holds one another to that standard.

Success in this role looks like owning the whole path from a Terraform plan to a running, verified, signed workload.

What You Will Do in This Role

The Cloud Architect IV – AWS Migration Specialist will own, operate, and secure the infrastructure, delivery pipelines, and compliance posture of a production AWS and EKS platform.

Responsibilities include:

• Own Terraform for a multi-environment, multi-account AWS estate, including modules, state, and the safe reconciliation of live infrastructure into code.
• Operate Amazon EKS clusters, including networking, autoscaling, add-ons, workload identity, and cluster lifecycle.
• Run and extend the GitOps delivery model (ArgoCD), where a merge is a deployment, so the review gate and the verification loop matter.
• Build and harden CI/CD pipelines in GitLab, including security scanning, secrets detection, policy-as-code, container image scanning and signing, and the supporting evidence trail.
• Advance the platform’s security and compliance posture against NIST 800-53, including least-privilege IAM, network isolation, continuous monitoring, and the artifacts that support an Authority to Operate.
• Help design the migration to a federal multi-account landing zone, including identity, cross-account networking, and promotion between environments.
• Mentor mid-level and junior engineers, and raise the bar on change control, review discipline, and evidence-based engineering.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

What You Will Bring

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in web application development
• 5+ years of experience with AWS cloud services and development
• Experience with serverless architecture and AWS Lambda, EKS, Docker, and microservices
• Knowledge of cloud data storage options and patterns
• Experience with RESTful API design and implementation
• Understanding of web application security best practices
• Proven ability to mentor other developers and lead technical initiatives
• Understanding of weather data formats (GRIB, NetCDF) and processing requirements
• Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration services (ECS, EKS)
• Knowledge of infrastructure-as-code tools (CloudFormation, CDK, Terraform)
• Experience with real-time data streaming in web applications
• Deep, hands-on Terraform experience, including writing reusable modules, managing remote state, and resolving drift between code and live infrastructure without disruption
• Experience operating Kubernetes/EKS at production scale, including workload identity (Pod Identity/IRSA), Helm, autoscaling, ingress, and load balancing
• Hands-on DevSecOps experience: security scanning (SAST, container, IaC, secrets), policy-as-code (OPA/conftest), and enforcing pipeline gates
• Working knowledge of a federal compliance framework (FISMA, NIST 800-53, RMF) and what it takes to support an ATO

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years in infrastructure, platform, or DevOps roles, with senior ownership of production systems
• Strong AWS expertise: VPC and networking, IAM, EKS, RDS/Aurora, S3, CloudFront, and Secrets Manager
• GitOps experience (ArgoCD or Flux) and CI/CD pipeline engineering (GitLab CI strongly preferred)
• Clear written communication and a collaborative, review-driven working style

Work authorization/security clearance requirements

• Ability to obtain a security clearance.

Work Environment

• This work is normally completed in a remote environment.

Physical Demands

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to access and navigate each department at the organization's and client facilities.

Travel Required

• No

Proficiency Requirement

• The employee is expected to demonstrate proficiency in all essential job functions, tools, and processes related to this position within the first 90 days of employment. This includes acquiring a thorough understanding of job-specific responsibilities, systems, and workflows as outlined during onboarding and training. Failure to meet this requirement may result in additional training, reassessment, or other actions as deemed necessary by management.

Why GAMA-1

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GAMA-1 also offers a variety of benefits, including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, 401(k) savings plan, training and career development opportunities, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO - to cover vacation, illness or disability, appointments, emergencies or other situations that require time off from work). For more GAMA-1 Corporate benefits information click here.

ABOUT GAMA-1

GAMA-1 is a rapidly growing technology business that is based in Greenbelt, Maryland. GAMA-1 Technologies provides strategic information assurance, information security, and business enterprise and networking solutions to the Federal Government. Our success is based on using industry and agency standards, establishing and performing with standardized processes, and IT Services expertise.

At GAMA-1, we believe employees should grow, achieve, and develop just as the company grows, achieves, and develops. GAMA-1 is committed to providing our employees with opportunities for career advancement throughout their employment. For more information, visit www.gama1tech.com.

GAMA-1 is an Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to: veteran status, uniformed servicemember status, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin or ancestry, citizenship or immigration status, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including testing and characteristics), domestic violence victims, political orientation, status as a smoker or tobacco user, hairstyle, use of a service animal, education status, familial status, HIV/AIDS status, height, weight, reproductive healthcare decisions or any other category protected by federal, state or local law.