Principal / Master Principal Cloud Architect
Oracle · Reston, VA
$118,700–$194,400from the description
Jul 11, 2026
Reston, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A cloud infrastructure engineer embedded full-time with a single U.S. Intelligence Community customer, responsible for the entire lifecycle of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure deployments — from initial architecture through hardening and production handoff. Day-to-day work spans configuring OCI compute, networking, Kubernetes, databases, security, and automation tooling directly inside classified customer environments. Suited to experienced cloud engineers comfortable working on-site with government stakeholders under a TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance.
Senior level · 6+ years · National · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“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.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
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 (9)
No specific work location is stated in the posting beyond U.S. Intelligence Community customer sites; the role is on-site/embedded with a single IC customer and is not remote.
The title reads 'Principal / Master Principal Cloud Architect-Forward Deployed Engineer,' which maps to Oracle's IC4 career level (noted at the bottom of the posting). The actual requirements — 6+ years, independent delivery, no people-management scope — are consistent with a Senior individual contributor rather than a true Principal-level role as defined by typical industry bands.
The SOC classification is a judgment call: the role is heavily hands-on infrastructure and cloud deployment (leaning 15-1244), but the emphasis on writing Infrastructure-as-Code, automation frameworks, scripting, and building production systems tips it toward 15-1252 Software Developers. 15-1244 is listed as the runner-up.
TS/SCI with Polygraph is a hard gate — the posting states candidates must 'possess or have the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Poly.'
Terraform is listed alongside 'OCI Resource Manager, Ansible, or similar technologies' as interchangeable options for the IaC requirement; all three are captured as alternatives on a single skill.
Python and Shell are listed as interchangeable scripting options under the required qualifications.
Kubernetes, AWS/Azure/GCP, and OCI certification appear under 'Preferred Qualifications' and are marked accordingly.
Compensation includes an estimated 70/30 pay mix (base/commission) and potential equity; the posted range reflects base salary only.
Requires a TS/SCI 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
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.