TITLE
Senior Cloud Engineer
JOB SUMMARY
The Senior Cloud Engineer plays a critical role in designing, implementing, and maintaining cloud-based solutions to meet the organization's strategic objectives. This position is responsible for architecting scalable, reliable, and secure cloud infrastructure, as well as optimizing existing cloud environments for performance and cost-efficiency. The Senior Cloud Engineer will lead cloud-related initiatives, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and stay abreast of emerging cloud technologies and best practices.
As a member of the IT Solutions team, the Senior Cloud Engineer is expected to uphold the division’s mission to “empower an agile, digital university and elevate technology as a strategic institutional asset” and contribute positively to a collaborative, human-centered, innovative, accountable, transparent, and inclusive culture within ITS.
ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Reports to: Manager, Platforms & Cloud Services
Supervises: No supervisory responsibilities
ESSENTIAL DUTIES - May include, but not limited to the following:
Cloud/Systems Management/ Architecture & Design (65%)
- Designs and implements cloud infrastructure solutions in accordance with best practices and organizational requirements.
- Architects highly available, scalable, and fault-tolerant cloud environments to support business-critical applications and services.
- Collaborates with stakeholders to gather requirements, define cloud migration strategies, and develop technical architectures.
- Conducts cloud assessments and provide recommendations for optimizing performance, security, and cost-effectiveness.
- Deploys and configures cloud services and resources across multiple cloud platforms, such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or others.
- Serves as primary POC for Oracle Cloud infrastructure connections, instance sizing, coordinate support tickets with Oracle and be primary source of troubleshooting integration.
- Automates provisioning, configuration, and management tasks using infrastructure as code (IaC) tools and frameworks (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).
- Monitors cloud infrastructure, applications, and services for performance, availability, and security incidents.
- Implements and manages cloud security controls, identity and access management (IAM), encryption, and network security.
- Optimizes cloud costs by right-sizing resources, leveraging reserved instances, and implementing cost allocation and reporting mechanisms.
- Familiarity with Microsoft technologies (AADC, GPO, Azure, Azure MFA, O365, Exchange, Mail Relay, Sites and Services, Extended attributes, etc.), Google, and AWS.
- Manages and optimizes all assigned on-premises and cloud resources.
- Plans and implements new cloud technology initiatives.
- Manages and monitors all cloud systems and infrastructure.
- Designs, configures, tests, and maintains cloud systems and management tools.
- Proactively ensures the highest levels of systems and infrastructure availability.
- Monitors and tests system performance for potential bottlenecks, identifies possible solutions and works with stakeholders to implement those fixes.
- Designs and maintains security, backup, and redundancy strategies.
- Writes and maintains custom scripts to increase system efficiency and lower the human intervention time on any tasks.
- Creates, manages, and documents hardware and software requirements, objectives, deliverables, and specifications on a project-by-project basis.
- Develops and evaluates cloud and systems specifications and coordinates the design of information and operational support systems.
- Provides high-quality and timely systems support, including responding to incident/problem tickets and troubleshooting errors and issues with systems infrastructure.
- Evaluates, recommends, plans, and implements hardware and software upgrades, updates, and security patches.
- Ensures all support tickets assigned are resolved in a timely manner and to standard.
Technical Innovation & Project Leadership (25%)
- Serves as a subject matter expert on cloud technologies and solutions, providing guidance and mentorship to team members.
- Collaborates with cross-functional teams, including developers, architects, operations, and security, to deliver integrated cloud solutions.
- Leads cloud-related initiatives, projects, and migrations, ensuring successful outcomes and adherence to project timelines and budgets.
- Stays abreast of emerging cloud trends, tools, and best practices, and evaluate their applicability to organizational needs.
- Fosters a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and knowledge sharing within the cloud engineering team and across the organization.
- Develops an in-depth understanding of the university’s information technology infrastructure, including the functions and relationships of various server and storage platforms and connectivity methods.
- Leads and/or participates in the design, implementation, and assessment of departmental initiatives and cloud-based projects, as assigned.
- Researches, recommends, and pilots innovations in cloud technologies and services.
- Takes a lead role in documenting systems and common support procedures and encourages and facilitates cross-training.
- Stays current with emerging trends and advances in technology that may have relevance to the university’s evolving needs and goals. Proactively educates other team members and departmental personnel on findings and new insights.
- Continuously evaluates internal processes, procedures, practices, and standards and proactively proposes changes to bring greater efficiencies.
- Champions cloud infrastructure automation in all facets of computing and process improvement.
- Provides technical mentoring for other ITS staff in their area.
- Assists with developing, preparing, and recommending budgets for purchasing, upgrading, and maintaining cloud environments, and forecasts for future trends.
- Develops long and short-term plans for cloud infrastructure.
ADDITIONAL DUTIES
Participation & Support (10%)
- Maintains awareness of current practices and future trends in cloud computing, automation, storage, virtualization, backup technology, and best practices.
- Represents IT Solutions and participates in the campus.
- Performs other duties as requested.
EDUCATION
Bachelor’s degree required. Additional job-related experience may substitute for the required education on a year-for-year basis. O365/Azure Cloud certification that has been valid within the last three years required. Must obtain certification within six months of start date.
EXPERIENCE
Seven years of relevant experience in systems administration or computer support with at least three years of relevant cloud experience. Additional job-related education may substitute for the required experience on a year-for-year basis. Experience in a higher education setting preferred.
REQUIREMENT
Regular and reliable attendance at the University during regular scheduled days and work hours is an essential function of this position.
All employees share the responsibility of maintaining information security and privacy requirements within the university by adhering to Federal and State regulations, and TWU Policies & Procedures.
Work is performed under general supervision and performance is based on the effective completion of assignments and results obtained. The performance evaluation is conducted through the performance evaluation system and in accordance with the University Policies & Procedures.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES - The following are essential:
- Deep understanding of at least one major cloud service and technology:
- Proven ability to develop and debug scripts for user onboarding and provisioning, O365 resource provisioning, and Intune/Kandji endpoint installation.
- Familiarity with both AWS automation tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.) and Microsoft technologies (AADC, GPO, Azure, Azure MFA, O365, Exchange, Mail Relay, Sites and Services, Extended attributes, etc.)
- Knowledge of system management, Intune, SNS, R53, VPC, EC2, ELB, EBS, ALB, Global Accelerator, Certificate manager, RDS, FSX, CloudTrail, Lambda, S3, IAM, and Workspaces, as well as AWS organizational account best practices.
- Extensive knowledge of managing interconnected systems and servers in a complex environment.
- Strong written and oral communication skills (including the ability to present ideas in user-friendly, business-friendly, and technical language) and interpersonal skills with a focus on rapport-building, listening, and questioning skills.
- Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities, including the ability to anticipate, identify, and solve critical problems.
- Ability to build effective relationships and a strong commitment to working collegially and collaboratively with constituents at all levels in a diverse and distributed environment.
- Ability to use a personal computer and other office equipment, including related university software and email.
Additional/Desirable Skills & Abilities
- Significant knowledge of virtualization and containerization.
- Knowledge of the administration and performance tuning of application stacks.
- Deep understanding of monitoring systems, automation software, and/or scripting environments.
- Knowledge of data forensics and preservation of evidence.
- Familiarity with the Texas Administrative Code (TAC 202).
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The physical demands described in the Essential Duties and below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential duties of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.
The employee may be required to travel. The employee may be required to work evenings and weekends. The employee must have the ability to lift up to 25 pounds and ascend and descend a ladder.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
All employees are responsible for maintaining an environment that is free from discrimination, intimidation, harassment, including sexual harassment. Work is normally performed in a typical interior work environment.
SAFETY
TWU promotes a safe working environment. Employees are responsible for completing assigned tasks safely and efficiently, and supervisors are responsible for creating and maintaining a safe work environment. Employees must report any unsafe work conditions or practices, as well as any near-miss incidents, to their supervisor and Risk Management. Supervisors and employees should ensure that injury/accident reports are submitted to the Office of Human Resources and Risk Management within 24 hours of the incident.
Texas Woman’s University strives to provide an educational environment that affirms the rights and dignity of each individual, fosters diversity, and encourages a respect for the differences among persons. Discrimination or harassment of any kind is considered inappropriate.
Texas Woman’s University is committed to equal opportunity in employment and education and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, age, veteran’s status, or against qualified disabled persons.
All positions at Texas Woman’s University are deemed security sensitive requiring background checks.