DevOps/Cloud Engineer (AWS)

About ICA

International Consulting Associates, Inc. (ICA) is a rapidly growing business located in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. Founded in 2009, we partner with federal agencies and large government services primes to achieve their mission-critical objectives. We're a trusted advisor, delivering cutting-edge innovation and solutions in three key areas: Research and Data Analysis, Advanced Data Science, and Strategic Services. Our current focus is on supporting multiple analytics and research programs across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

At ICA, we believe our success starts with our people. We foster a collaborative "one-team" environment where work-life balance is prioritized. We're building dynamic, highly skilled teams in a welcoming and supportive atmosphere. If you're passionate about using your technical expertise to make a difference in federal healthcare, we want to talk to you.

About the Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Cloud Engineer / DevOps Engineer to join our team and play a critical role in building and maintaining the cloud infrastructure for a next-generation, AI/ML-driven data science platform for a key federal health client. This platform will enable advanced analytics on large volumes of unstructured data, providing critical insights to improve healthcare outcomes.

In this role, you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and managing the AWS-based infrastructure that supports the platform. You will work closely with the Software Engineer Architect, Senior Software Engineer, and data scientists to ensure the infrastructure is scalable, secure, reliable, and optimized for performance. You will be a champion for automation, implementing CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices to streamline deployments and ensure consistency. This position requires a strong understanding of AWS services, DevOps principles, and security best practices within a regulated environment.

About You

You are an experienced cloud engineer with a passion for automation and building robust, scalable infrastructure. You have a deep understanding of AWS services and a proven track record of implementing CI/CD pipelines. You are a proactive problem-solver, comfortable working both independently and as part of a team. You are committed to continuous learning and staying up-to-date with the latest cloud technologies and DevOps practices. You thrive in a collaborative environment and are excited to contribute to a project that has a real-world impact on federal healthcare. You possess excellent communication skills and are able to clearly explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Key Responsibilities:

• Infrastructure Design and Implementation: Design, implement, and manage the AWS infrastructure for the AI/ML platform, leveraging services such as S3, Keycloak, Aurora, Amplify, Lambda, Glue, and others as needed.

• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC): Implement infrastructure-as-code using tools like Terraform or CloudFormation to automate the provisioning and management of AWS resources.

• CI/CD Pipeline Implementation: Design, build, and maintain CI/CD pipelines using tools like AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, or Jenkins to automate the deployment of applications and infrastructure changes.

• Containerization and Orchestration: Manage containerized applications using Docker and container orchestration platforms like ECS, EKS, or Fargate.

• Monitoring and Logging: Implement monitoring and logging solutions using services like CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and potentially third-party tools to ensure the health, performance, and security of the platform.

• Security and Compliance: Implement security best practices and ensure compliance with relevant federal regulations and security standards (e.g., FISMA, HIPAA – mention these if applicable).

• Collaboration: Work closely with the Software Engineer Architect, Senior Software Engineer, and data scientists to understand their infrastructure needs and provide support.

• Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual errors.

• Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure-related issues.

• Cost Optimization: Identify opportunities to optimize AWS costs without sacrificing performance or reliability.

• Documentation: Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for the infrastructure and deployment processes.

• On-Call Support: Participate in an on-call rotation to provide support for critical issues (if required).

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field (Master's degree preferred).

• 6+ years of relevant experience in IT, with a strong focus on cloud infrastructure and DevOps.

• Extensive experience with AWS services, including:

  • Core Services: IAM, VPC, S3, EC2, Lambda

  • Database: Aurora (PostgreSQL), RDS

  • Serverless/Compute: Amplify, Lambda, Glue, ECS, EKS, Fargate

  • Authentication: Keycloak (or Cognito)

  • Networking: VPC, Route 53, Direct Connect (if applicable)

  • Monitoring & Logging: CloudWatch, CloudTrail

  • Data Science/ML (Advantageous): SageMaker, Comprehend, Textract, Rekognition

• Strong proficiency in:

  • Infrastructure-as-Code: Terraform (preferred) or CloudFormation

  • CI/CD Tools: AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, Jenkins, or similar

  • Containerization: Docker

  • Container Orchestration: Kubernetes (EKS), ECS, or Fargate

  • Scripting: Python, Bash, or PowerShell

• Experience with configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Chef, Puppet) is a plus.

• Experience working in an Agile development environment.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

• AWS Professional level certifications (Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer) - Highly Preferred; Associate level certifications are required at a minimum.

Highly Desirable (Bonus Points):

• Experience working with federal health data or in a regulated environment (HIPAA, FISMA).

• Experience with serverless architectures.

• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Hadoop).

• Experience with networking and security in a cloud environment.

• Experience with other cloud providers (Azure, GCP) is a plus.

Clearance Requirement:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance (or higher, if required by the client).

Nice to Have:

• Familiarity with Agile methodologies in government settings

• Prior experience working with FDA or other federal health agencies