Cloud Lead (AWS DevSecOps)

Job Title: Cloud Lead (AWS DevSecOps)

Job Location: Hybrid- New York [New York, NY-550 W 34th St]

** Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future**

We are seeking a highly skilled Cloud Architect / Cloud Lead with deep expertise in AWS, DevOps, and DevSecOps practices. This role will be responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing scalable cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and secure deployment frameworks. The ideal candidate will bring strong experience in GitLab, Terraform, AWS CDK, and container platforms, along with a solid understanding of security, compliance, and observability in enterprise environments.

Salary and Other Compensation:
The annual salary for this position is between $114,000 to $128,000 depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

In this role, you will

CI/CD & DevOps Engineering

Design and implement robust GitLab CI/CD pipelines using multi-stage YAML for build, testing, security scanning, and multi-environment deployments.

Configure and manage GitLab Runners (EC2/EKS-based autoscaling) with focus on scalability, performance, and security.

Optimize pipeline performance through parallel execution, caching, artifact reuse, and conditional workflows.

Implement automated release management including tagging, semantic versioning, rollback strategies, and audit traceability.

Cloud Infrastructure & Automation

Develop Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform and AWS CDK (TypeScript/Python) with modular and reusable design patterns.

Automate provisioning of AWS services such as VPC, IAM, EC2, ECS/EKS, Lambda, RDS, and S3 using parameterized templates.

Build and manage multi-account and multi-region AWS environments using CDK pipelines and GitLab integration.

Implement scalable and resilient deployment strategies including blue/green, canary, and rolling deployments.

Containerization & Platform Engineering

Automate deployment of applications to container platforms (ECS/EKS), including image build pipelines and runtime configuration.

Manage Kubernetes deployments using Helm charts and establish repeatable deployment standards.

Implement container lifecycle management and registry governance using GitLab Registry and Amazon ECR.

DevSecOps & Compliance

Integrate security controls within CI/CD pipelines including SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, container scanning, and secrets detection.

Enforce least-privilege access by designing IAM roles, policies, and cross-account access controls.

Implement secure configuration and secrets management using AWS Secrets Manager, SSM Parameter Store, and CI/CD variables.

Enable compliance reporting aligned to PCI DSS, SOC 2, GDPR, and CIS benchmarks.

Monitoring, Logging & Observability

Design and implement end-to-end observability frameworks using AWS CloudWatch (logs, metrics, alarms).

Integrate third-party monitoring tools such as Datadog, Dynatrace, Splunk, or Grafana.

Build centralized logging architecture with CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and S3 archival and retention policies.

Develop custom CloudWatch dashboards with dynamic filtering and service correlation views.

Configure advanced alerting mechanisms including composite alarms, anomaly detection, and threshold tuning.

Enable cross-account observability using AWS Organizations and centralized monitoring accounts.

Operational Excellence & Troubleshooting

Troubleshoot and resolve issues across CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure, networking, IAM, and runtime environments.

Perform drift detection and remediation in infrastructure and deployments.

Ensure high availability, scalability, and reliability of cloud environments through proactive monitoring and optimization.

What you’ll need to succeed (required skills)

Extensive experience with AWS Cloud services (10+ years preferred)

Strong hands-on expertise in Terraform and AWS CDK

Experience with GitLab CI/CD and pipeline automation

Solid experience with container platforms (ECS/EKS, Kubernetes)

Proficiency in DevSecOps tools and security integration

Preferred Skills

Experi…