Work Model Hybrid - Must come onsite 1x per month
Job Description
The Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) is the central IT organization for the state of Mississippi, and acts as a service provider and/or service broker for agencies. Over the last two years, ITS has implemented an AWS Organization with Control Tower, and is working to build cloud expertise internally to support this environment and future agency AWS projects. ITS is seeking a highly skilled and well rounded AWS expert to assist in maintaining this environment, working with agencies on troubleshooting, and helping to mentor staff. This position will be crucial to the long term success of this project for ITS as we work to build our Cloud Center of Excellence.
Job functions overview
AWS Environment Management - Oversee and maintain the existing AWS Organization while ensuring adherence to industry best practices
Cloud Architecture - For both ITS and agencies, design, review, and implement AWS solutions that meet performance, security, and scalability requirements
Troubleshooting and Support - Serve as a senior point of contact for complex AWS-related issues including network connectivity. This will require coordination with internal teams and agencies to determine root cause and remediation strategies
Vendor Relationships - Work with AWS and other third-party vendors to integrate various products into the overall AWS ecosystem
Mentorship and Training - Provide knowledge transfer, training, and coaching staff members to build internal cloud expertise. Help with creation and maintenance of technical documentation, standards, and playbooks
Governance and Security - Work with ITS and agency security teams to ensure industry best practices and various compliance requirements are met.
Required Qualifications
- Deep knowledge of key AWS services (EC2, S3, RDS, VPC, IAM, Lambda, CloudFormation, etc.)
- Experience leading cloud migrations or implementations in a complex multi-account environment
- Strong network troubleshooting abilities to help resolve connectivity issues both inside the AWS cloud environment and ingressing/egressing to the State's on premises environment
- Familiarity with AWS Landing Zone implementations and management using AWS Landing Zone Accelerator
- Proficiency with infrastructure as code (CloudFormation, Terraform, AWS CDK) and CI/CD pipelines
- Experience implementing security best practices (e.g., IAM policies, encryption, network segmentation, and SCPs)
- Familiarity with DevOps principles, containerization (Docker, ECS, EKS), and serverless architectures
- Strong troubleshooting abilities across networking, storage, and compute layers in AWS
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Proven experience mentoring staff and fostering a collaborative, learning-focused environment
- Effective problem-solving skills and the ability to remain calm and focused under pressure
- Strong organizational skills, capable of managing multiple projects and priorities simultaneously
- Ability to lead architectural reviews and navigate ambiguity in designing solutions to complex business problems
Preferred Qualifications
- AWS Professional-level certification (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional)
- Experience in a government or highly regulated environment (e.g., HIPAA, CJIS, IRS 1075 compliance)
- Knowledge of ITIL, project management methodologies (e.g., PMP, Agile), and enterprise IT governance frameworks
- Familiarity with other public cloud providers and hybrid-cloud environments
- Working knowledge of common scripting/programming languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell)
This is a contract opportunity with a great organization. As a contractor for Smith Johnson, you are eligible for medical, dental, life, disability. Smith Johnson pays for 70% of your medical and dental and 100% of life and disability. The contract is also eligible for PTO/holiday accrued monthly. You are also eligible for a 3% retirement matching plan. Smith Johnson believes in taking care of our contractors.