Senior Cloud Engineer

The Role

Brookhaven National Laboratory is seeking a senior information technology cloud engineer with strong experience in Microsoft Azure-based infrastructures to join our Information Technology Division (ITD).

Organizational Overview

Brookhaven Lab's Information Technology Division's (ITD) mission is to deliver safe, efficient operations that ensure the delivery of the Lab's research mission by:

• Developing and deploying state-of-the-art information and computing systems in support of scientific research and business operations
• Providing a reliable and secure, high-speed network infrastructure for scientific and business computing
• Developing a scientific computing infrastructure that can support the computing needs that are common among the scientific departments
• Providing support to scientific and administrative programs to help them address their unique computing problems
• Providing a cost–effective, highly reliable, secure, and standardized computing infrastructure
• Promoting best practices in the areas of platform support, application development, and customer service
• Providing cost-effective information services to the Brookhaven Lab community including Research Library, publications, records management, and technical editing services, in support of the research mission and in compliance with contractual requirements

ITD includes experts in information technology (IT) infrastructure and operations, cyber security, business systems, data information, and information services, including records management and the Research Library. The ideal candidate is an excellent communicator who is resourceful and innovative, and who understands that collaboration with stakeholders from across the Laboratory is critical to ensure the right expertise and technology are in place to advance our mission of bringing science solutions to the world.

The Role in Detail

As a senior cloud engineer, you will help lead the design, development, implementation, and automation of cloud infrastructure services and solutions, primarily in the Microsoft Azure environment. This is a senior individual contributor role focused on establishing and maturing infrastructure engineering, automation, and platform development. You will focus on modernizing and improving our cloud toolset, processes, and practices while improving platform reliability and scalability. As a member of a small group of senior engineers, you will be expected to significantly contribute to the maturity of our IT infrastructure cloud engineering department.

Your experience in partnering with developers, infrastructure teams, and stakeholders to align infrastructure with business and research needs will be crucial to your success. As a mixed on-premise and cloud-based IT organization, your ability to build and influence the direction of strategic IT roadmaps is critical. Additionally, fostering an infrastructure-as-code mindset while lifting the team’s overall maturity and growth will be important to long-term success in the role.

This role also supports and enables the Lab’s evolving AI initiatives by providing secure, scalable infrastructure for AI-enabled applications. You will partner with our application, data, and AI teams to deliver reusable platform capabilities that support both traditional and AI-driven workloads.

Professional Attributes

• Hands-on builder with a strong engineering mindset
• Focused on automation, reliability, and continuous improvement
• Comfortable working across teams (applications, engineering, security, operations)
• Curious and adaptable, with interest in emerging technologies including AI
• Strong sense of ownership, accountability, and business acumen

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Cloud services lifecycle management

• Design, deploy, manage, and support Azure SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services throughout their full lifecycle
• Ensure solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, and aligned with Laboratory standards and best practices

Automation & Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC)

• Automate provisioning and operational workflows using common scripting and configuration tools
• Integrate infrastructure into CI/CD pipelines
• Continuously automate and eliminate manual processes
   

Reliability, Security & Operations

• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting
• Troubleshoot infrastructure and application issues
• Participate in incident response and continuous improvement efforts
• Ensure infrastructure meets security, compliance, and governance standards
• Support cost optimization and performance tuning

AI Platform Integration

• Support infrastructure for AI-enabled applications (e.g., API-based model access, inference endpoints)
• Establish scalable and secure patterns for integrating AI services into cloud environments
• Partner with engineering teams to enable safe and efficient use of AI capabilities within platform guardrails
   

Mentorship and team development:

• Mentor junior staff and colleagues
• Promote knowledge sharing
• Contribute to a collaborative, high-performing team culture

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• BA/BS degree, preferably in Information Technology or a related discipline, or equivalent certifications or experience
• 10+ years in cloud engineering, DevOps, and/or infrastructure roles demonstrating progressive growth in scope, responsibility, and complexity
• Strong expertise with Microsoft Azure services, including infrastructure, networking, computing, storage, security, identity, etc.
• Strong platform orchestration tool experience across Linux and Windows devices
• Experience utilizing CI/CD tools and platforms
• Strong communication and documentation skills

Preferred Knowledge and Skills

• Experience with common security/compliance frameworks (ISO, SOC 2, NIST)
• Experience in research and/or academic IT environments
• Experience with FinOps tools for usage and billing simplification
• Experience with the ownership and implementation platforms with a product-centric view, implementing lifecycle management and continuous improvement
• A strong understanding of core technologies used by partner organizations, including application deployment tools, database platforms, networking, cyber security, and monitoring
• An interest or experience with common AI/LLM platforms, including potential integration with other applications
• Capable of moving productions from ideation to delivery and operation, through deep technical experience and strong business acumen and understanding
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to influence organizational priorities

Other Information

• This is a fully remote position with on-site presence available at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY
• Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position

Brookhaven Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable, and competitive compensation. The full salary range for this position is $126,000 - $210,050/year. Salary offers will be commensurate with the final candidate’s qualifications, education, and experience and considered with the internal peer group.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is committed to employee success and we believe that a comprehensive employee benefits program is an important and meaningful part of the compensation employees receive. Review more information at BNL | Benefits Program

Brookhaven National Laboratory requires all non-badged personnel including visitors to produce a REAL-ID or REAL-ID compliant documentation to access Brookhaven National Laboratory – view more information at www.bnl.gov/real-id.  This is due to nationwide identification requirements for federal site access as required by the federal REAL ID Act.  Those not in possession of a REAL ID-compliant document will not be permitted to access the site which includes access to the Laboratory for interviews. 

About Us

Brookhaven National Laboratory (www.bnl.gov) delivers discovery science and transformative technology to power and secure the nation’s future. Brookhaven Lab is a multidisciplinary laboratory with seven Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, 37 R&D 100 Awards, and more than 70 years of pioneering research. The Lab is primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science. Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) operates and manages the Laboratory for DOE. BSA is a partnership between Battelle and The Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University. BSA salutes our veterans and active military members with careers that leverage the skills and unique experience they gained while serving our country, learn more at BNL | Opportunities for Veterans at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

Guided by our core values of integrity, responsibility, innovation, respect, and teamwork, Brookhaven