Cloud Engineer
Freedom Technology Solutions Group · St. Louis, MO
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Jul 6, 2026
St. Louis, MO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior technical lead role focused on building and sustaining an enterprise Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) environment for a defense-oriented IT-as-a-service program. Day-to-day work covers deploying and patching AVD host pools and OS images, automating operations via PowerShell, supporting Windows Zero Touch Implementation, and mentoring junior team members. Suits an experienced Windows virtualization specialist comfortable working within security-compliance frameworks and obtaining a government security clearance.
Senior level · 10+ years · National · Secret clearance
“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 $101,310 (middle half $79,725–$129,425).
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 work location is specified in the posting; the role is tied to a US government (DAF/EITaaS) program, so it is almost certainly US-based, but the specific metro/state could not be determined.
The clearance requirement is stated as 'ability to obtain/maintain a security clearance' — the exact level is not named. Given the DAF/DoD context and the STIG/NIST 800-53 references, a Secret clearance is the most common baseline; this may be higher. Treat as a hard gate but verify the exact level with the hiring manager.
The degree requirement is effectively None: a Bachelor's degree is offered only as a substitute for 5 of the 10 required years of experience, not as a standalone requirement.
The certification requirement (Security+ OR CISSP/CCNA/CCNP) is listed under the Required section and treated as a hard gate; the alternatives are captured on that skill.
Azure Virtual Desktop is listed as 'preferred' within the virtualization experience bullet, but it is the primary technology the role is built around (the entire team is an AVD/VDI team), so it is treated as a hard gate. VMware Horizon VDI is captured as an alternative.
The SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role is titled 'System Architect' and involves some scripting/automation (PowerShell, Terraform), but the primary day-to-day work is operating, patching, and maintaining an AVD VDI environment — closer to systems administration (15-1244) than software development (15-1252). 15-1252 is noted as the runner-up.
The Azure certification options listed under Desired (Azure DevOps Engineering Expert, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Administrator Associate, Azure Security Engineer Associate) are grouped as a single preferred skill with alternatives, as the JD treats them as interchangeable options.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Windows Zero Touch Implementation, Active Directory Federation Services.
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.
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