Cloud Engineer - Senior Principal

Cloud Engineer - Senior Principal

Washington, DC

Type: Contract-to-Hire

Category: Engineer

Industry: Government

Standard Hours: Open

Reference ID: JN -112026-109441

Date Posted: 11/09/2026

Shortcut: http://careers.eliassen.com/zlZgVX

• Description
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Description:

On-site in Washington, DC

Our client seeks a Senior Principal Cloud Engineer to direct and prioritize engineering efforts across Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Mail Engineering towers. The role will architect solutions for complex business needs, provide strategic recommendations to government engineering leads, and guide the strategy, design, implementation, and maintenance of enterprise cloud services across AWS, GWS, and Azure. The position requires deep understanding of cloud engineering, security best practices, enterprise architecture, and DevSecOps, with responsibility for mentoring engineers and communicating status to senior leadership.

Due to federal security clearance requirements, applicant must be a United States Citizen or Permanent Resident with an active Public Trust clearance. This is a contract to hire opportunity. Applicants must be willing and able to work on a w2 basis and convert to FTE following contract duration. For our w2 consultants, we offer a great benefits package that includes Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits, 401k with company matching, and life insurance.

Rate: $90.00 to $100.00/hr. w2

JN -112026-109441

Responsibilities:

• Provide technical, managerial, and administrative direction for operational tasks and strategic initiatives across the enterprise.
• Lead strategy, design, implementation, and maintenance of Google Workspace and Microsoft infrastructure.
• Work with stakeholders to gather requirements and define project scope.
• Develop and implement solutions that meet mission needs.
• Stay current on computing technologies and trends.
• Mentor and develop engineers to meet organizational needs.
• Communicate status with agency senior leadership.
• Collaborate with infrastructure teams and vendors to realize operational efficiencies and rationalize best-fit solutions.
• Troubleshoot cloud performance issues and analyze network traffic to provide capacity planning solutions.

Experience Requirements:

• 15+ years of experience architecting and implementing IT solutions.
• Understanding of compute, network, and storage principles and application in AWS, GWS, and/or Azure.
• Understanding of multi-tier application architectures and cloud implementation.
• Deep knowledge of cloud engineering methods, applications, and enterprise best practices.
• Understanding of security best practices for cloud environments including access management, monitoring, and configuration management.
• Understanding of DevSecOps pipelines and toolsets for enterprise shared services.
• Deep understanding of enterprise architecture with ability to identify and solution improvements.
• Ability to prioritize and balance team activities across ad-hoc and planned initiatives.
• Experience developing, planning, and implementing strategic roadmaps.
• Preferred: Cross-cloud engineering best practices experience.
• Preferred: Assessment, customization, troubleshooting, and optimization across network, compute, and storage.
• Preferred: Experience with cloud orchestration and continuous delivery.
• Preferred: Automation with Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Packer, PowerShell, or Python using remote APIs.
• Preferred: Experience with containers, orchestration, and hardening.
• Preferred: AWS Solutions Architect Associate and/or Azure Administrator Associate or higher.
• Preferred: Microsoft O365 certification or equivalent.
• Preferred: Effective customer relationship and portfolio management with Federal and Contractor leadership and end users.
• Preferred: Demonstrated team leadership and familiarity with agile planning.
• Desired: ITIL v3/v4 certification.

Recruitment Transparency Notice

Eliassen Group values transparency in our recruitment practices. Please be advised that Eliassen Group utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) tools as part of its initial application screening and hiring process. You may receive email and SMS notifications from the Eliassen Virtual Recruiting Team ( noreply@eliassen.com , 781-808-2924) inviting you to complete a brief voice screening as part of your application process. These tools assist our hiring teams in different ways, including but not limited to, assistance in reviewing application materials to help identify candidates whose qualifications most closely match the requirements of the position. All AI-assisted evaluations and responses are reviewed by human recruiters before any hiring decisions are made. The use of AI in our process is intended to support fairness, efficiency, and consistency, and Eliassen Group takes measures to prevent bias or discrimination in connection with its hiring practices. By proceeding, you acknowledge, agree, and consent to Eliassen Group’s use of these tools, including AI tools, as part of the application and hiring process.

Skills, experience, and other compensable factors will be considered when determining pay rate. The pay range provided in this posting reflects a W2 hourly rate; other employment options may be available that may result in pay outside of the provided range.

W2 employees of Eliassen Group who are regularly scheduled to work 30 or more hours per week are eligible for the following benefits: medical (choice of 3 plans), dental, vision, pre-tax accounts, other voluntary benefits including life and disability insurance, 401(k) with match, and sick time if required by law in the worked-in state/locality.

If anyone reaches out to you about an open position connected with Eliassen Group, please ensure that you are working directly with us by confirming the following:

· When you work with Eliassen Group, all email communication will come from an Eliassen.com address, never Gmail, Yahoo, etc.

· Eliassen Group will never ask you for personal information (home address, bank account, or check routing number) until you have worked with someone clearly associated with Eliassen Group.

If you have any indication of fraudulent activity, please contact fraud@eliassen.com .

About Eliassen Group:

Eliassen Group is a strategic consulting firm that helps organizations reach further and achieve more through our technology, business advisory, and life sciences solutions. For nearly 40 years, we have combined exceptional people, deep domain expertise, and intelligent capabilities to expand our clients’ capacity and accelerate meaningful outcomes. We are driven by a purpose to positively impact the lives of our employees, clients, consultants, and the communities we serve.

Eliassen is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team from a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We are an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer and all employment decisions are based on merit, performance, and business needs. Eliassen does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender identity or expression, sexual preference or orientation, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, creed, religion, physical or mental disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, age, ancestry, national origin, citizenship status, prohibited criminal record inquiries of applicants and employees, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local laws.

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