Hiring Cloud Engineers: The Complete Guide

# Cloud Engineer

**Location:** Seattle, WA (Hybrid - 3 days/week in office) · **Employment Type:** Full-time · **Level:** Senior

## About [Company]

[Company] is a B2B SaaS platform helping enterprises modernize their data infrastructure and analytics capabilities.

We serve over 400 enterprise customers across healthcare, finance, and retail—processing 8 billion events daily across our cloud infrastructure. Our platform enables real-time analytics and AI/ML workloads at scale.

**Why join [Company]?**

- Own cloud architecture decisions that impact millions of users
- Join a 100-person team with a dedicated 6-person Cloud Infrastructure group
- Series B funded ($45M from Greylock, Lightspeed)
- Cloud-first culture: Everything runs on AWS with Infrastructure as Code

## The Role

We're hiring a Senior Cloud Engineer to architect, build, and optimize our AWS infrastructure. Unlike DevOps roles focused on CI/CD and deployment pipelines, this position is centered on cloud architecture, infrastructure design, and platform optimization.

You'll design cloud solutions that power our data platform—from multi-region architectures to cost optimization strategies. This is a strategic role where you'll influence how we leverage cloud services to build a scalable, secure, and cost-effective foundation.

**The infrastructure you'll own:**

- Multi-AZ deployment across us-west-2 and us-east-1
- 200+ EC2 instances, 50+ RDS databases, 15 Redshift clusters
- 8 billion events/day flowing through Kinesis and S3
- $120K/month AWS spend with 30% YoY growth
- 99.9% availability SLA across all services

## Objectives of This Role

- Design and implement multi-region disaster recovery architecture within 6 months
- Lead cloud cost optimization initiative targeting 25% reduction in monthly spend
- Architect new data lake infrastructure on S3 with proper tiering and lifecycle policies
- Establish cloud security baseline with AWS Security Hub and GuardDuty
- Build reusable Terraform modules that accelerate infrastructure provisioning by 50%

## Responsibilities

- Design and implement AWS cloud architectures for scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency
- Build and maintain Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and CloudFormation
- Architect VPC networking including subnets, route tables, security groups, and transit gateways
- Design IAM policies and implement least-privilege access patterns across all services
- Optimize cloud costs through right-sizing, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and architecture improvements
- Implement backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions
- Design data storage architectures using S3, RDS, Redshift, and DynamoDB
- Collaborate with Security to maintain SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance
- Create architectural documentation and cloud standards for engineering teams
- Evaluate and recommend new AWS services that improve platform capabilities

## Required Skills and Qualifications

- 5+ years of cloud engineering experience with at least 4 years focused on AWS
- Deep expertise in AWS core services: EC2, VPC, IAM, S3, RDS, CloudWatch
- Production experience with Infrastructure as Code: Terraform (preferred) or CloudFormation
- Strong understanding of cloud networking: VPCs, subnets, peering, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect
- Experience designing multi-AZ and multi-region architectures for high availability
- Knowledge of cloud security best practices: IAM, encryption, security groups, compliance
- Proficiency in Python for automation and scripting
- AWS Solutions Architect certification (Associate or Professional) or equivalent experience
- Experience with cloud cost management and optimization strategies

## Preferred Skills and Qualifications

- AWS DevOps Engineer or Security Specialty certification
- Experience with data infrastructure: Redshift, Kinesis, Glue, Lake Formation
- Background in serverless architectures: Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions
- Familiarity with container services: ECS, EKS, Fargate
- Experience with AWS Organizations and multi-account architectures
- Knowledge of compliance frameworks: SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS in AWS context
- Experience with FinOps practices and cloud cost allocation

## Tech Stack

- **Cloud Platform:** AWS (EC2, S3, RDS, Redshift, Kinesis, Lambda, VPC)
- **Infrastructure as Code:** Terraform with Atlantis for PR-based workflows
- **Networking:** VPC peering, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Route 53
- **Security:** AWS IAM, Security Hub, GuardDuty, KMS, Secrets Manager
- **Data Services:** S3, Redshift, RDS (PostgreSQL), DynamoDB, Kinesis
- **Monitoring:** CloudWatch, CloudTrail, AWS Config, Datadog
- **Compute:** EC2, ECS, Lambda, Auto Scaling Groups
- **Cost Management:** AWS Cost Explorer, Trusted Advisor, custom dashboards

## Compensation and Benefits

**Salary:** $150,000 - $190,000 (based on experience and location)

**Equity:** 0.02% - 0.06% (4-year vest, 1-year cliff)

**Benefits:**

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance (100% covered for employees, 80% for dependents)
- Unlimited PTO with 15-day minimum encouraged
- $2,500 annual learning budget (certifications, conferences, courses)
- $1,000 home office setup allowance
- 401(k) with 4% company match
- 12 weeks paid parental leave
- AWS certification costs fully reimbursed
- Flexible hybrid schedule (3 days in Seattle office)

**Location:** Seattle, WA (Hybrid). Remote considered for candidates in Pacific or Mountain time zones.

## Interview Process

Our interview process typically takes 2-3 weeks. We focus on cloud architecture and problem-solving over memorizing service APIs.

- **Step 1: Recruiter Screen** (30 min) - Background, interests, and role expectations.

- **Step 2: Technical Screen** (60 min) - AWS fundamentals, IaC concepts, and your past cloud projects.

- **Step 3: Architecture Design** (90 min) - Design a multi-region, highly available cloud architecture. Collaborative whiteboarding session.

- **Step 4: Cost Optimization Case Study** (45 min) - Analyze a cloud bill and propose optimization strategies.

- **Step 5: Team & Culture** (45 min) - Meet 2 team members and discuss working style and collaboration.

- **Step 6: Hiring Manager** (30 min) - Career goals, offer details, and final questions.

You'll receive feedback within 3 business days of each round.

## How to Apply

Submit your resume and optionally include links to GitHub, architecture diagrams, or cloud projects you're proud of. We review every application and respond within 5 business days.

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*[Company] is an equal opportunity employer. We're committed to building a diverse team and inclusive culture. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.*

*Cloud infrastructure benefits from diverse perspectives. If you're excited about this role but don't meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. If you need accommodations during the interview process, let us know and we'll make it work.*