Cloud Engineer - OpenSearch (Elasticsearch)

Ready to Ignite your career and work alongside some of the most innovative and brightest professionals in federal services today? Join us and unleash your potential working in an agile environment alongside the men and women charged with ensuring the success of one of the most important missions in American Government. We’re looking for a seasoned Cloud Engineer with expertise in Amazon OpenSearch (formerly Elasticsearch) to design, implement, and optimize resilient AWS-native search and logging infrastructures. In this role, you’ll build scalable OpenSearch clusters, integrate AWS-native logging and observability pipelines, and help deliver secure, real-time analytics solutions that support large-scale cloud modernization efforts. If you enjoy automating cloud-native platforms, working across AWS services, and enhancing search performance and visibility—this is the opportunity for you.

As an OpenSearch Cloud Engineer, you will:

• Design, deploy, and manage Amazon OpenSearch Service clusters in secure, multi-account AWS environments.
• Integrate OpenSearch with Amazon CloudWatch Logs, Kinesis Data Firehose, and OpenSearch Ingestion pipelines to deliver real-time log analytics.
• Develop dashboards and visualizations using OpenSearch Dashboards (formerly Kibana) and CloudWatch Metrics.
• Automate the provisioning and monitoring of search infrastructure using CloudFormation, AWS CDK, or Terraform.
• Implement performance tuning, index lifecycle policies, and security best practices including encryption, IAM roles, and VPC configurations.
• Collaborate with cloud security and DevSecOps teams to align search platforms with compliance requirements such as NIST RMF and FedRAMP.
• Conduct root cause analysis and optimize ingestion pipelines for large-scale datasets.
• Document architecture, data flow, SOPs, and change management procedures under ITIL-based frameworks.
• Integrate OpenSearch into Enterprise Cloud Monitoring (ECM) for centralized observability across the Enterprise Operations Center (EOC).
• Align OpenSearch implementation with Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) strategies to support secure telemetry aggregation.
• Implement log ingestion, parsing, and tagging practices that support cost tracking, asset discovery, and automated classification.
• Support change management by documenting OpenSearch configurations, updates, and compliance with governance policies.
• Report on system metrics and OpenSearch performance KPIs for federal governance and Configuration Control Boards (CCBs).

Requirements

• Minimum of 8 years of professional IT experience working with cloud technologies, preferably AWS.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• US Citizenship Required.
• 2+ years of experience managing and optimizing Elasticsearch or Amazon OpenSearch Service, including setup, scaling, and fine-tuning of clusters in high-volume production environments.
• Proficient in conducting performance analyses and implementing index lifecycle management strategies to optimize cost and efficiency in search operations.
• Strong knowledge of AWS-native services for log aggregation and observability: CloudWatch Logs, Kinesis Firehose, OpenSearch Ingestion, Lambda.
• Demonstrated ability to architect real-time analytical solutions using OpenSearch Dashboards and CloudWatch for operational insights and dashboarding.
• Demonstrated experience in provisioning infrastructure via AWS CloudFormation, CDK, or Terraform.
• Familiarity with federal compliance frameworks including NIST 800-53, FedRAMP, and the AWS shared responsibility model.
• Ability to design scalable, secure OpenSearch clusters across Availability Zones with high availability and fault tolerance.
• Proficiency in Linux administration, shell scripting (Bash, Python), and Git-based CI/CD workflows.
• Experience with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), VPC, encryption configurations, and service access policies.
• Experience integrating OpenSearch into centralized/federated monitoring dashboards or SIEM pipelines.
• Ability to support incident response and security event retention using OpenSearch.

Preferred Qualifications

• Elastic Certified Engineer
• AWS Certifications such as Solutions Architect – Associate/Professional, DevOps Engineer – Professional, or Security Specialty
• Experience with OpenSearch Ingestion pipelines and multi-tenant OpenSearch cluster designs
• Skilled in disaster recovery planning and implementing backup strategies that ensure minimal downtime and data loss in case of operational failures.
• Familiarity with AWS Systems Manager, Security Hub, and centralized logging strategies
• Knowledge of hybrid cloud environments and integrating OpenSearch with container platforms like Kubernetes or ECS

Benefits

• 401(k) with matching and 100% Vested
• Health Insurance - 3 plans to select from
• Dental insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Short Term Disability
• Long Term Disability
• AD&D
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Training
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flexible schedule
• Flexible spending account
• Referral program
• Paid Legal Plan
• and more....

Ignite IT is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, Veteran status, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristic. In accordance with EO 13665 Final Rule, Ignite IT will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant.

Applicants selected must be able to possess and maintain a government clearance

US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED'