Cloud Platform Engineer Jobs in Virginia

Job Description

Strategic ACI is seeking a Senior Platform / Cloud / DevSecOps Engineer to build and operate the Cloud Native Platform (CNP) underpinning a Digital Engineering Ecosystem supporting NGA — the foundation enabling secure, scalable data flows and Digital Threads across the enterprise.
This role delivers platform configuration, CI/CD integration, automation, infrastructure support, and operational environment management, hardened to Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) standards, across multi-cloud and on-prem environments. As a senior-level engineering role, this position leads the technical/engineering portion of major platform workstreams and ensures deliverables meet established quality standards within time and budget constraints.
Salary will be commensurate within the advertised range, based on applicable qualifications.

Responsibilities:
Assess current infrastructure and design/deploy a unified Cloud Native Platform enabling Enterprise Architecture and Business Intelligence capabilities across new and existing multi-cloud environments.
Stand up and operate Kubernetes clusters (EKS, AKS, RKE2, or NKP) with GitOps-based deployment, service mesh/ingress/egress, and observability tooling.
Implement identity and access management integration (e.g., Keycloak or Azure Entra ID) and secrets management (e.g., HashiCorp Vault or Azure Key Vault).
Harden the platform in accordance with DoD Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) guidance, leveraging hardened container images and Kubernetes policy enforcement.
Build and maintain Infrastructure as Code / Configuration as Code (IaC/CaC) for platform components.
Support air-gapped/disconnected environment management and license management tooling.
Deliver CI/CD pipelines, automation, and operational support enabling telemetry, inventory management, and centralized access services as the platform matures.
Support onboarding, help desk integration, high availability/disaster recovery, and a unified portal experience as the platform scales to support a growing user base and external stakeholders.

Qualifications:Required:
Active TS/SCI clearance and the ability to pass a CI polygraph within 30 days.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or additional relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
15+ years of platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, or DevSecOps experience.
Hands-on experience deploying and operating Kubernetes in production (EKS, AKS, RKE2, NKP, or comparable), including GitOps workflows.
Experience implementing Zero Trust Architecture principles, including identity federation, secrets management, and policy enforcement.
Strong background in CI/CD pipeline design, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, or comparable), and container image hardening/supply chain security.

Desired:
Experience supporting NGA, DoD, or Intelligence Community cloud environments and Authority to Operate (ATO)/compliance processes.
Familiarity with service mesh technologies (Istio) and observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry).
Experience with license management tooling and air-gap update/patch management.
Relevant certifications: CKA/CKAD, AWS/Azure cloud certifications, or DevSecOps-focused certifications (e.g., Security+, CASP+).
Experience supporting help desk/ITSM tooling for platform onboarding and support.
,
About Strategic ACI

Strategic ACI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
It has been and will continue to be a fundamental policy of Strategic ACI not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, partnership status, domestic violence victim status, sexual orientation, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, veteran or military status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, caregiver status, unemployment status or any other characteristic prohibited by federal, state and/or local laws.
This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, demotion, compensation, training, working conditions, transfer, job assignments, benefits, layoff, and termination. Applicants can learn more about the company’s status as an equal opportunity employer by viewing the federal EEO is the Law poster.
Why choose a career with Strategic ACI?
Strategic ACI believes that our greatest asset is our employees. Our goal is not to meet our staff’s expectations, but to exceed them. Competitive salaries, work-life balance, industry leading benefits packages, and family first values are at the core of Strategic ACI’s culture.

Where benefits meet your needs:
Competitive salary
100% benefits paid (Includes: Health, Dental, and Vision premiums) for all full-time employees, and their families
401(k) with 5% match vested at day one
PTO – 3 weeks and 3 days per year, increasing at 5 years service
11 Company Paid Holidays (aligned with Federal Government)
Long term/Short term disability
1.5x salary Life Insurance
$100 per month Cellular Device and IT Resource Benefit
$6,000 Cash in Lieu of Benefits per year, if employee is insured elsewhere
Tuition reimbursement of up to $5,250 per year for college or professional certifications
Retirement Savings 401(k) Contribution - Annually calculated as percentage of salary