Cloud Engineer

About the role

The Cloud Engineer will support the configuration and operation of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) cloud infrastructure services. The Cloud Engineer will partner with developers, engineers, business partners, and key University stakeholders to deliver cloud services. This role supports cloud workloads, automates cloud infrastructure maintenance, and contributes to the development of operational monitoring capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Sustains the configuration and operation of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) cloud infrastructure to meet the needs of a broad range of university customers by collaborating with developers, engineers, and business analysts.
• Collaborates with key stakeholders, including vendor partners, to deliver cloud services.
• Supports the design and implementation of secure, scalable cloud infrastructure.
• Builds and supports reusable cloud components, services, and interfaces to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of UCSF cloud infrastructure.
• Ensures cloud solutions follow security and compliance controls and performs routine audit of systems and software to maintain compliance with established standards and policies.
• Provides support and technical guidance for development teams moving to or utilizing the cloud infrastructure.
• Supports the development and implementation of disaster recovery plans and procedures to support 24x7 service reliability and effective emergency response.
• Implements and maintains cloud infrastructure to ensure uptime and reliability. This includes supporting recovery solutions such as backup systems and redundancy.
• Works closely with UCSF’s Platform Services, Infrastructure Services (IS), and Information Technology (IT) leadership to identify, implement, and support cost-effective, leading solutions for cloud engineering.
• Makes decisions and contributes to platform services by utilizing established best practices around user experience.
• Builds and maintains strong relationships with customers, partners, and stakeholders to ensure that consistent, reliable service is delivered to a range of university stakeholders.
• Keeps up to date with changes in laws, regulations, and cloud technologies that may affect Platform Services operations and shares relevant updates with team members and stakeholders.
• Facilitates innovation and continuous improvement by leveraging the latest industry knowledge.
• Contributes to the successful execution of cloud infrastructure projects, ensuring the support, maintenance, and security of existing platforms.
• Creates, updates, and maintains comprehensive documentation of the server infrastructure, including server configurations, installed software, licenses, patch levels, and any changes to the server environment.
• Documents policies and procedures, including security and backup protocols, incidents and resolution processes, and compliance.
• Shares technical knowledge with team members and contributes to onboarding and training efforts related to cloud services and platform operations.
• Communicates with team members and stakeholders to support issue resolution and provide updates.
• Proactively communicates with other departments and central IT units within UCSF to safely support UCSF’s cloud service’s needs.
• Actively contributes to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion across the organization and UCSF’s campus.
• Actively promotes the University’s core values and consistently integrates innovation, employee fulfillment, teamwork, respect, excellence, integrity, service, and accountability into each aspect of their work.
• Maintains current knowledge of university policy and procedures; effectively, consistently, and fairly applies university policy and/or campus/division procedures for assigned area; complies with university, campus, and division policies and procedures regarding privacy of information, authorized use of university resources and the security of university systems and data.
• Participates in an on-call rotation for high and critical 24x7 incident response, as needed.
• Performs other related responsibilities as requested and when necessary.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of experience/training, in one or more of the following fields: computer science, computer information systems, etc.
• 3+ years of experience in one or more of the following fields: information technology, computer science, engineering, etc.
• Demonstrated experience in information technology with a focus on platform engineering and cloud services.
• Knowledge of the design, development, and application of technology and systems to meet business needs.
• Experience migrating on-premises workloads to cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, including support for hybrid and virtualized environments.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure and applications, including GitHub Actions or similar tools.
• Experience applying DevOps practices, including infrastructure automation, continuous delivery, and collaboration across development and operations teams.
• Extensive knowledge of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and integration with cloud data providers.
• Experience with Linux, Windows, containerization, and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes.
• Experience with cloud-based automation tools and processes.
• Proven experience provisioning and maintaining cloud-based infrastructure.
• Strong ability to adapt technology solutions to meet user needs.
• Demonstrated understanding of system dependencies and how changes impact interconnected systems and users.
• Troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in cloud environments, including incident response and root cause analysis.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform and Ansible, including development and use of reusable modules and automated infrastructure workflows.
• Strong customer focus with the ability to triage issues, manage escalations, and deliver solutions that meet service-level agreements, institutional policies, and regulatory requirements.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to communicate technical information and ideas to diverse colleagues and stakeholders.
• Able to establish and maintain positive working relationships with team members, stakeholders, and customers.
• Strong problem-solving skills, including the ability to scope solutions based on available resources and timelines.
• Able to gather information, evaluate options, and make sound decisions.
• Experience participating in activities to advance an inclusive environment that values equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
• Able to think creatively and propose innovative ideas, including the incorporation of new technologies or processes.
• Able to work with agility in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Associate-level cloud certification in AWS, Azure, GCP, or equivalent cloud platform, or equivalent experience.
• Advanced cloud certification such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or equivalent.