AWS Lead DevOps Engineer (New)

Location: Plano, TX (hybrid – 1-2 days onsite each week is highly preferred)

About the Role

This is not a traditional DevOps, developer, architect, or data-engineering role. The Lead Platform Engineer – AWS Infrastructure is the end-to-end owner and administrator of all AWS environments at the client. This role serves as the AWS gatekeeper, responsible for infrastructure stability, access control, service governance, deployments, and cost awareness across the platform. It is a platform-engineering and AWS-infrastructure-administration role focused on operating, managing, and safeguarding AWS—not building applications, pipelines, or data products.

Leadership Expectations

• Hands-on, ownership-driven leader with no direct reports
• Proactive, communicative, and comfortable pushing back when infrastructure standards are at risk
• Trusted partner to architects and engineering leadership
• Strong operational discipline and sense of accountability

Why This Role Matters

This role is foundational to the client’s cloud platform. As the owner of AWS infrastructure, you ensure teams can move quickly without compromising stability, security, or cost discipline. Your work enables scale, protects the platform, and ensures AWS remains a reliable and well-governed foundation for the business.

Responsibilities

AWS Infrastructure Ownership (Primary Focus)

• Own AWS infrastructure end-to-end, from initial provisioning through ongoing operations and optimization
• Administer and manage AWS services including IAM, EC2, EMR, Lambda, networking, permissions, and access controls
• Act as the final authority and gatekeeper for AWS services, configurations, and usage
• Ensure platform reliability, performance, and availability across environments
• Support deployments and maintain environment stability across teams

CI/CD Pipeline Management

• Maintain and manage existing CI/CD pipelines used by engineering teams
• Support deployments and troubleshoot pipeline-related issues
• Ensure pipelines align with infrastructure standards and security requirements (this role manages pipelines but does not build them)

Platform & Tool Administration

• Administer analytics and data platforms such as Tableau or Snowflake from an infrastructure and platform standpoint
• Perform installations, configuration, access management, and environment support
• Ensure platform stability and availability (does not develop dashboards, write pipelines, or build applications)

Cost Awareness (FinOps Lite)

• Use AWS Cost Explorer to monitor and understand cloud spend
• Identify and explain cost spikes across services such as EC2, EMR, and Lambda
• Understand how architectural and infrastructure decisions impact AWS costs
• Partner with architects and leaders to support responsible cloud-usage decisions

Requirements

Must-Have Qualifications

• Strong AWS infrastructure administration experience (admin-level)
• Proven experience managing AWS services end-to-end
• Deep understanding of IAM, EC2, EMR, Lambda, networking, and permissions
• Experience managing and supporting CI/CD pipelines
• Strong understanding of AWS cost drivers and service-level spend behavior
• Ability to troubleshoot infrastructure and platform stability issues
• Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience working closely with developers and architects
• Ability and mindset to operate as the organization’s AWS gatekeeper

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience administering Tableau or Snowflake environments
• Exposure to microservices from an infrastructure or platform-support perspective

Pay

$150,000+ annually

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance plans
• Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP)
• 401K with company match after 12 months of tenure
• Health Savings Account (HSA) on the HDHP plan
• SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with up to 8 free counseling sessions
• Corporate discount savings program and other discounts
• On-demand training program
• Access to certification prep, technical and leadership courses/books/seminars after 6+ months of tenure
• Certification discounts and association perks (CompTIA, IIBA)
• Dedicated customer service team for consultants
• Career coaching