Principal Solutions Architect

About the Role

AFS is seeking a Principal Solutions Architect to lead the design, build, and automation of our cutting-edge cloud infrastructure in a DevSecOps environment. The ideal candidate is passionate about building secure, scalable, and highly available platforms to meet business needs.

Responsibilities

• AWS Infrastructure & Architecture:
• Design, build, and maintain scalable, resilient, and secure environments primarily within AWS using frameworks such as the Well-Architected framework.
• Implement and manage core AWS services, including networking (VPC, Transit Gateway, Route53), Kubernetes (EKS), compute (EC2, Lambda), storage (S3, EBS), and databases (RDS).
• Architect and operate containerized workloads using Amazon EKS, including cluster management, scaling, and security.
• Create and manage AWS IAM roles, policies, and permissions based on the principle of least privilege.
• Design immutable infrastructure.
• DevSecOps & Automation:
• Champion and implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform to automate cloud resource provisioning and management.
• Develop, manage, and optimize robust CI/CD pipelines to enable rapid and reliable software delivery, integrate security best practices directly into the platform and pipelines.
• Develop custom automation scripts and tooling (e.g., using Python, Go, or Bash) to streamline operations and eliminate manual processes, heavily focusing on the usage of APIs.
• Team Enablement & Collaboration:
• Act as a cloud subject matter expert, providing guidance and support to development teams to optimize their use of the platform.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to evaluate new cloud-native technologies and recommend solutions that enhance efficiency and capability.
• Champion foundational best practices, including Git workflows and the proficient use of AI tools to accelerate development and problem-solving.
• Divide big projects into manageable tasks for junior staff.

Required Skills & Experience

• 10 years of experience with any of the following technologies:
• Expert-level proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), with strong hands-on experience in Terraform or other languages, to include advanced usage such as targeted applies, imports and more.
• Deep experience with container orchestration, specifically designing and managing Amazon EKS
• Strong command of AWS IAM roles, policies, and security best practices.
• Proven experience designing, building, and maintaining automated CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, AWSCodePipeline).
• Solid understanding of cloud networking, Linux/Unix administration, and security principles.
• Proficiency with Git and modern GitOps

Required Clearances

An active TS/SCI federal security clearance is required.