Cloud Engineer SME

Ignite IT Open · verified Oct 24, 2026

On-site Suitland-Silver Hill Full-time Mid-level Cloud

At a glance

Mid-level Cloud role at Ignite IT. Suitland-Silver Hill · full-time · no salary stated · we estimate $123,473–$175,225 across the United States.

Estimated pay

Ignite IT has not published a salary for this role. The figure below is our estimate, not theirs.

$123,473 – $175,225

What the middle half of mid-level cloud roles in the United States paid, among postings that did state a salary.

Worked out from 128 postings that stated pay, median $149,984. Last updated Oct 23, 2026.

RoleCloud

SeniorityMid-level

LocationSuitland-Silver Hill

WorkplaceOn-site

EmploymentFull-time

PostedJan 23, 2026 · 9mo ago

Role brief

devopsroles summary, based on the employer's posting.

What you'll do

Examine legacy applications, dependencies, data flows and interfaces, then document findings and cloud-readiness gaps
Shape phased migration plans by assessing risks, constraints and system sequencing, including the 7 Rs framework
Build AWS environments with Terraform or CloudFormation, using secure network patterns and resilient configurations
Develop Python cloud components and automation, with testing, logging and secure coding built into the work
Deliver CI/CD, monitoring and operational documentation, while supporting integration and governance reviews

What you bring

At least eight years of professional cloud engineering experience
A bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or a related field
Advanced Python skills for cloud applications and automation, plus strong AWS engineering experience
You have analyzed legacy systems, assessed cloud readiness and contributed to framework-based migration planning

Who this fits

This mid-level, full-time role is based onsite in Suitland-Silver Hill. It suits a hands-on cloud engineer who can pair AWS implementation with legacy-system analysis, migration planning and Python development.

From the employer

We are seeking a highly skilled Cloud Engineer Subject Matter Expert (SME) to join our team. The Senior Cloud Engineer (Cloud Engineer SME) is the senior technical implementation lead responsible for designing, building, and operationalizing secure, scalable AWS-based environments supporting modernization of complex, interdependent systems.

This role requires deep AWS engineering expertise and advanced Python development skills, as well as active participation in discovery, legacy system analysis, and phased migration planning. The Cloud Engineer SME will work closely with the Systems Architect and Technical Program Manager to assess existing environments, design migration-ready architectures, and implement cloud-native solutions aligned to modernization sequencing and governance requirements.

This is not a pure infrastructure role — the Cloud Engineer SME must be capable of analyzing legacy systems, evaluating migration paths, and translating architectural strategy into deployable cloud solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Discovery, Legacy Analysis & Migration Planning

Participate in structured discovery efforts across legacy systems.
Analyze existing application architectures, infrastructure dependencies, batch schedules, data flows, and integration points.
Contribute to formal system inventory documentation.
Identify cloud readiness gaps and modernization constraints.
Support classification of systems using the 7 Rs migration framework.
Provide technical input into phased migration roadmaps and sequencing plans.
Assess operational risk, integration complexity, and environment dependencies during modernization planning.
Document current-state (As-Is) technical architecture and assist in defining target-state (To-Be) environment patterns.

2. Cloud Infrastructure & Environment Engineering

Design and implement AWS cloud environments aligned to enterprise provisioning constraints.
Develop and maintain Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) using Terraform or CloudFormation.
Establish repeatable environment patterns for development, testing, staging, and production.
Implement secure network architecture (VPC segmentation, IAM least privilege, encryption).
Design for high availability, resiliency, and disaster recovery.
Align environment provisioning with migration waves and modernization sequencing.

3. Python Engineering for Cloud-Native Applications (Required)

Develop and maintain Python-based cloud components including:

Serverless functions
Orchestration utilities
Data validation and transformation scripts
Automation tooling

Write production-quality Python code with testability, logging, secure coding practices, and modular design.
Review and support Python refactoring patterns during legacy modernization.
Ensure Python runtime environments are reproducible and aligned with CI/CD standards.

4. Cloud-Native Application Enablement

Implement scalable AWS compute solutions (Lambda, ECS/EKS/Fargate, Glue, Aurora/PostgreSQL, S3, Batch).
Evaluate serverless vs containerized approaches based on workload characteristics.
Support refactoring efforts by providing optimized cloud runtime patterns.
Improve performance, scalability, and observability for data-intensive workloads.

5. DevSecOps & CI/CD Implementation

Design and implement CI/CD pipelines integrating:

Automated builds
Unit and integration tests
Regression validation
Security scanning

Embed quality and compliance gates into pipelines.
Automate environment provisioning and deployments.
Ensure version-controlled infrastructure and reproducible deployments.

6. Observability & Operational Readiness

Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting standards.
Establish performance baselines and capacity thresholds.
Support load testing and scalability validation.
Document operational runbooks for sustained support.

7. Cross-Team Integration Support

Support integration across multiple interdependent systems.
Assist in identifying and mitigating interface risks.
Collaborate with data engineering teams on schema stability and data lifecycle controls.
Ensure consistency in cloud patterns across teams.

8. Governance & Compliance Alignment

Contribute to architecture and environment documentation required for governance reviews.
Support ATO readiness and audit artifact collection.
Align cloud implementation with security and compliance requirements.
Maintain traceable, auditable deployment documentation.

Core Competencies

Ability to translate discovery findings into technical modernization solutions.
Strong cloud engineering depth combined with legacy system analysis capability.
Migration sequencing awareness and risk identification.
Automation-first engineering mindset.
Strong documentation and communication skills.
Ability to operate effectively within structured modernization programs

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.

8+ years of professional experience in cloud engineering.
Advanced Python expertise for cloud-native applications and automation.
Demonstrated experience performing legacy system analysis and cloud readiness assessments.
Experience contributing to migration plans using structured frameworks (including 7 Rs).
Strong AWS expertise across compute, networking, storage, database, identity, and monitoring services.
Experience implementing Infrastructure-as-Code.
Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and automated testing.
Strong troubleshooting, performance optimization, and systems integration skills.

Preferred Qualifications