Cloud Systems Engineer (Secret) (4496) at SMX
Colorado Springs, CO
$103,200–$172,000from the description
Jul 22, 2026
Colorado Springs, CO
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role centers on designing, building, and maintaining secure multi-cloud infrastructure for United States Air Force programs, primarily in AWS but spanning Azure, Google, and Oracle environments including classified networks. Day-to-day work involves onboarding cloud accounts, building CI/CD pipelines, automating provisioning and security patching, supporting ATO compliance processes, and driving cloud migration strategies. It suits engineers with a DevSecOps background and an active Secret clearance, across a range of experience levels from junior to subject-matter expert.
Mid level · 1+ years · Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Junior, but the requirements read as Mid.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (11)
This posting covers four seniority levels simultaneously (Junior/Mid/Senior/SME), each with different education and experience thresholds. The advertised seniority is set to Junior (the first level named in the title) and the assessed seniority to Mid, reflecting the midpoint of the range and the substantive scope of the work described.
Degree requirements vary by level: High School diploma + 1–3 years (Junior), Bachelor's or equivalent certification + 4 years (Mid), Bachelor's or equivalent certification + 8 years (Senior), Master's or equivalent certification + 16 years (SME). Because equivalent certifications are accepted in lieu of a degree at every level, the degree requirement is set to None.
Total years minimum is set to 1 (the Junior floor); the full range runs to 16+ years for the SME level.
The salary range ($103,200–$172,000) likely spans multiple levels; the posting does not break it out by level.
Xacta and eMASS are listed together as examples of cloud governance tools under the required section; they are captured as a single skill with eMASS as an alternative.
IBM Maximo Application Suite, IBM WebSphere, and Red Hat OpenShift on Azure appear in the required section under 'Knowledge/experience with integration of Software with…' — included as required skills accordingly.
AWS GovCloud and Zero Trust/DevSecOps experience are listed under Desired Skills and are marked preferred.
No specific work location is stated in the posting; the role supports US Air Force programs and likely requires on-site or cleared-facility presence given the Secret clearance requirement, so remote is set to false.
SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role spans both software/DevOps engineering (building pipelines, IaC, automation code — 15-1252) and cloud infrastructure/systems administration (provisioning, patching, monitoring — 15-1244). The emphasis on building code pipelines, IaC, and automation tips the primary classification to 15-1252.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): IBM Maximo Application Suite.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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