AWS Cloud Engineer IV

Job Profile Summary

The L4 Cloud DevOps Engineer serves as a technical subject matter expert (SME) for cloud architecture and operational engineering, focusing on AWS, Terraform (IaC), operating systems, Kubernetes (EKS), and modern DevOps practices. The role designs, implements, and supports cloud infrastructure and deployment automation, leads incident response and DR activities, mentors junior engineers, and collaborates with stakeholders to deliver secure, reliable, and scalable solutions that align with business objectives.

Career Level Summary

• Requires deep technical expertise across AWS, Terraform, OS administration, Kubernetes, and DevOps tooling.
• Leads others to solve complex technical problems and provides technical leadership on projects.
• Works independently on sophisticated engineering tasks; escalates or seeks guidance for only the most complex, ambiguous situations.
• May provide functional leadership and mentorship to L1/L2 engineers.

Critical Competencies

• Strong communication and stakeholder management; able to translate technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
• Influence and coaching: mentor team members, promote best practices, and drive continuous improvement.
• Analytical problem solving: diagnosing complex production issues and identifying root cause and long-term fixes.
• Collaboration: work across disciplines to design, implement, and operate cloud solutions.
• Project and time management: prioritize work, track deliverables, and meet deadlines while balancing multiple initiatives.
• Technical documentation: create clear runbooks, SOPs, architecture diagrams, and standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the L3 escalation point and technical SME for complex AWS, OS, Kubernetes, infrastructure and deployment issues.
• Design and implement infrastructure as code using Terraform (and optionally CloudFormation), building reusable modules and enforcing coding standards.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines and GitOps practices (ArgoCD), including pipeline design, environment promotion, rollback, and drift remediation.
• Develop automation for configuration management and operational tasks using Ansible/AWX, scripting (Bash, PowerShell, Python), and other automation tools.
• Design, deploy and maintain Kubernetes workloads (Amazon EKS), Helm charts, and environment-specific templating.
• Perform Linux and Windows administration: hardening, patching, performance tuning, and automated deployments.
• Lead incident response and major production incidents; perform RCA and implement permanent automated fixes.
• Lead and coordinate Disaster Recovery planning and testing, including runbooks, failover/failback, and validation.
• Define and enforce technical standards for IaC, Kubernetes, CI/CD, monitoring, logging, and operational processes.
• Improve observability: monitoring, alerting, logging and operational reliability across platforms.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to L1 and L2 engineers; review and approve infrastructure and deployment changes.
• Create and maintain SOPs, runbooks, architecture documentation, and DR documentation.
• Collaborate with product and customer engineering teams to deliver cloud-based solutions, migrations, and optimizations.

Experience

10+ years of relevant experience in cloud engineering, infrastructure, DevOps, or a related field is required.

Knowledge

• Expert-level knowledge of AWS services, architecture patterns, security, networking, and operational best practices.
• Deep understanding of Infrastructure as Code concepts and Terraform module design, state management and security.
• Extensive knowledge of Linux and Windows internals, administration, automation, and security hardening.
• In-depth Kubernetes architecture and operations experience (preferably Amazon EKS), including Helm and GitOps patterns.
• Familiarity with common security and compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST, HIPAA, PCI) and secure operational controls.

Skills

The candidate must demonstrate hands-on, expert-level skills across the following areas:

• Cloud & IaC: Expert in AWS and Terraform (including Terragrunt patterns), reusable module development, state management, and IaC security.
• Kubernetes & Containers: Design, operate and troubleshoot EKS clusters, Helm chart development, container best practices, and GitOps (ArgoCD).
• CI/CD & Automation: Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, automated testing, and deployment automation (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.).
• Configuration Management: Use Ansible/AWX for system configuration, patching, application deployment and repetitive operational tasks.
• Operating Systems: Expert-level Linux administration and solid Windows server administration; automation via scripting (Bash, PowerShell, Python).
• Version Control: Strong Git skills (branching strategies, code review, hooks, access controls).
• Monitoring & Observability: Implementing monitoring, logging, and alerting (CloudWatch, Prometheus, ELK/EFK or similar).
• Security & IAM: Implement secure IAM practices, secret management, network security and encryption in cloud environments.
• Disaster Recovery & Resilience: DR planning, regular testing, and runbook creation for reliable failover and recovery.

L4 / SME Expectations

• Lead and own complex engineering changes and transformations across cloud platforms.
• Drive automation, standardization, and reliability improvements in operations and delivery.
• Define technical standards, review peer code, and enforce best engineering practices.
• Act as a technical escalation point for production incidents and lead root cause analysis.
• Provide mentorship and hands-on guidance to junior engineers, elevating team capability.

Certifications

• Preferred: AWS Certifications (Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer Professional).
• Beneficial: CNCF/Kubernetes Certifications (CKA, CKAD, CKS), Azure/GCP certifications as applicable.

About Rackspace Technology

We are the multicloud solutions experts. We combine our expertise with the world’s leading technologies — across applications, data and security — to deliver end-to-end solutions. We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those solutions, and optimizing returns into the future. Named a best place to work, year after year according to Fortune, Forbes and Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent. Join us on our mission to embrace technology, empower customers and deliver the future.

More on Rackspace Technology

Though we’re all different, Rackers thrive through our connection to a central goal: to be a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring mission. We bring our whole selves to work every day. And we embrace the notion that unique perspectives fuel innovation and enable us to best serve our customers and communities around the globe. We welcome you to apply today and want you to know that we are committed to offering equal employment opportunity without regard to age, color, disability, gender reassignment or identity or expression, genetic information, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity status, military or veteran status, nationality, ethnic or national origin, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or any legally protected characteristic. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

Originally posted on Himalayas