Cloud Engineer, Specialist

Core Responsibilities

• Plans and implements security patches, schema governance execution, and major platform capabilities for the Supergraph platform.
• Designs, implements, and deploys federation patterns, subgraph architectures, and router configurations to meet business needs across Vanguard subdivisions.
• Identifies and implements opportunities for performance optimization, resiliency improvements, and platform expansion.
• Provides expert-level technical support for complex federation issues across the Supergraph ecosystem.
• Diagnoses and troubleshoots the most complex incidents involving Apollo Router, federated subgraphs, and cross-service query execution.
• Leads incident response efforts and coordinates with subdivision teams during production issues.
• Maintains comprehensive technical knowledge of GraphQL federation, Apollo tooling, and distributed systems patterns.
• Develops technical standards and contributes to schema governance.
• Evaluates schema changes for federation impact, breaking changes, and performance implications.
• Reviews configuration parameters to optimize query execution, reduce latency, and maximize platform uptime.
• Tests and evaluates GraphQL tooling and vendor products (Apollo Router, observability platforms, security scanning tools).
• Submits change control requests and documents changes.
• Leads CI/CD improvements.
• Pairs with junior team members on complex issues, teaching debugging approaches and building their federation expertise.
• Troubleshoots and resolves the most complex issues escalated from staff.
• Provides constructive feedback on code, architecture decisions, and technical approaches.
• Updates, writes, and maintains technical documentation for the department.
• Leads technical portions of complex assignments.
• Performs systems analysis for security remediation and platform expansion initiatives.
• Helps shape team's work and drives initiatives across multiple team members.
• Contributes to platform roadmap discussions with Senior Manager and Senior Architect.
• Escalates technical risks appropriately, even when timelines are tight.
• Balances listening and speaking in design discussions, asking thoughtful questions to understand trade-offs.
• Embraces AI-assisted development practices (Claude Code) and stays current on GraphQL federation and distributed systems trends.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Minimum of eight years related work experience.
• Undergraduate degree in a related field or the equivalent combination of training and experience.