Principal Solutions Architect
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
AFS is seeking an Principal Solutions Architect to lead the design, build, and automation of our cutting-edge cloud infrastructure in a DevSecOps environment. The ideal candidate is passionate about building secure, scalable, and highly available platforms to meet business needs.
As a subject-matter expert in AWS, your deep knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Amazon EKS for container orchestration, and advanced CI/CD pipelines will be instrumental in enabling our development teams to leverage a powerful, secure, and scalable self-service cloud platform.
While our primary focus is AWS, experience in a hybrid environment and private cloud platforms such as VMware or Openshift will make you stand out.
Responsibilities:
- AWS Infrastructure & Architecture:
- Design, build, and maintain scalable, resilient, and secure environments primarily within AWS using frameworks such as the Well-Architected framework.
- Implement and manage core AWS services, including networking (VPC, Transit Gateway, Route53), Kubernetes (EKS), compute (EC2, Lambda), storage (S3, EBS), and databases (RDS).
- Architect and operate containerized workloads using Amazon EKS, including cluster management, scaling, and security.
- Implement AWS IAM, creating and managing roles, policies, and permissions based on the principle of least privilege.
- Design immutable infrastructure
- DevSecOps & Automation:
- Champion and implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform to automate cloud resource provisioning and management.
- Develop, manage, and optimize robust CI/CD pipelines to enable rapid and reliable software delivery, integrate security best practices directly into the platform and pipelines.
- Develop custom automation scripts and tooling (e.g., using Python, Go, or Bash) to streamline operations and eliminate manual processes, heavily focusing on the usage of API's.
- Team Enablement & Collaboration:
- Act as a cloud subject matter expert, providing guidance and support to development teams to optimize their use of the platform.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to evaluate new cloud-native technologies and recommend solutions that enhance efficiency and capability.
- Champion foundational best practices, including Git workflows and the proficient use of AI tools to accelerate development and problem-solving.
- Divide big projects into manageable tasks for junior staff.
Requirements
- 10 years of experience with any of the following technologies:
- Expert-level proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), with strong hands-on experience in Terraform or other languages, to include advanced usage such as targeted applies, imports and more.
- Deep experience with container orchestration, specifically designing and managing Amazon EKS
- Strong command of AWS IAM roles, policies, and security best practices.
- Proven experience designing, building, and maintaining automated CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, AWSCodePipeline).
- Solid understanding of cloud networking, Linux/Unix administration, and security principles.
- Proficiency with Git and modernGitOps
- Must possess and maintain required DoD 8140 certifications.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with VMware vSphere in a hybrid cloud context.
- Experience with configuration management tools like Ansible.
- Familiarity with other public clouds (Azure, GCP).
- Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript).
- Understanding of common authentication mechanisms, OIDC, OAuth2, LDAP, SAML.
- Experience contributing to open-source projects.
- One or more of the following certifications:
- AWS Solutions Architect - Professional
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
- HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate/Professional
Clearance
- An active TS/SCI federal security clearance is required