About this role
Job Title: Senior Cloud Engineer - War Data Platform JOA: CDAO-2026-000114 Pay Scale: $139,395-$197,200 Open Date: 31 August 2026 Close Date: 21 September 2026 About the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) mission is to accelerate the adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) across the Department of War (DoW). The CDAO works across the Military Departments and Services, Joint Staff, Combatant Commands (CCMDs), Office of the Secretary of War (OSW), and other DoW Components to design, develop, field, and scale technologies, capabilities, strategies, policies, and other guidance related to data, analytics, and AI in support of DoW's warfighting and business functions, including responding to crises and emerging challenges. The CDAO has three broad goals of enabling, speeding, and scaling adoption of AI in the DoW. War Data Platform (WDP) expands the legacy (Advana) Department of War core data integration layer to provide standardized, high-quality data essential for accelerating decision advantage for the warfighter and powers analytics across the DoW. WDP partners with 55+ DoW organizations and empowers DoW users, systems, and agents by providing data products and analytics using over 700+ data sources. In direct support of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the Department of War, the War Data Platform is one of DoW’s most vital data platforms for AI exploitation and mission advantage. As a Senior Cloud Engineer for the War Data Platform (WDP), you will serve as a technical authority applying advanced computing concepts, cloud architecture, and modern DevSecOps practices to build and sustain enterprise-grade infrastructure. You will provide expert guidance to senior leadership, resolve novel technical challenges, and drive modernization efforts across multi-enclave cloud environments supporting AI/ML workflows and warfighter analytics. This position is covered by the Department of War (DoW) Civilian Acquisition Workforce Personnel Demonstration Project (AcqDemo). The position is located in Washington, DC. The pay plan and broadband level for this role is NH-2210-IV, which is equivalent to the GS-14/15 grade level. This role will close for submissions at 11:59pm on September 21st, 2026. Design, deploy, and manage scalable, secure, and highly available cloud infrastructure across security enclaves, leveraging cloud-native and open-source compute, storage, networking, and containerization services to support mission-critical workloads. Develop and maintain IaC using tools such as Terraform and Ansible to automate provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management, ensuring repeatable, consistent, and compliant deployments. Monitor infrastructure health, performance, and cost utilization; implement optimization strategies (rightsizing, auto-scaling, intelligent storage tiering) to maximize efficiency and reduce operational expenditures. Collaborate with DevSecOps, security, and application development teams to implement cloud architectures aligned with DoW cybersecurity frameworks, accreditation requirements, and Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) to maintain continuous authorization. Support cloud migrations, technology refresh cycles, and platform modernization by evaluating emerging technologies, improving CI/CD deployment pipelines, and providing technical expertise for acquisition strategies. Oversee mixed civilian and contractor engineering teams executing cloud engineering and infrastructure initiatives across the platform lifecycle. Performs other duties as assigned.