Cloud Solutions Specialist

Information and Communications Technology (ICT), as strategic partners to the University, enables courageous curiosity by empowering students, staff, and faculty to do more than thought possible with technology that boosts productivity, strengthens security, and enhances research outcomes.

The university offers flexible work arrangements; access to the university’s recreation services; ongoing professional development; and a comprehensive benefits and pension program.

Primary Purpose: The Cloud Solutions Specialist plays a key role implementing and optimizing cloud services to support research, teaching, administration, and IT infrastructure. The solutions specialist will deploy, manage, and maintain cloud technology services for diverse stakeholders facing complex technical challenges. Working with other support units and the Cloud Architect, they will implement and refine best practices for common and novel problems benefiting the campus community.

Nature of Work: The Cloud Solutions Specialist will implement and manage cloud solutions based on established business and technical requirements to support university research and administrative goals. They will work closely with research, network, infrastructure, security, and integration teams to deploy new service offerings primarily in AWS. Their day-to-day activities include provisioning, automation, monitoring, troubleshooting, and resource optimization. The Cloud Solutions Specialist will also assess the current infrastructure to identify weaknesses, recommend improvements, and implement enhancements as part of a continuous improvement program.
This position will be based in-person at the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The position may be eligible for hybrid work under the terms of USask's Alternative Workspace Guidelines.

Typical Duties or Accountabilities:

• Works with the Cloud Architect and Enterprise Architecture team to deliver the cloud services technology plan.
• Implements cloud services including:

• Provisioning services and developing orchestration for pilot and production implementations.
• Designing and implementing effective solutions in collaboration with stakeholders and operations teams as a subject matter expert (SME).
• Developing and implementing data and application protections to address cloud security concerns identified by the specialist themselves or other stakeholders.
• Analyzing and automating processes using infrastructure as code (IaC) tools.
• Planning projects in detail, identifying scope deviations and project risks while maintaining common standards across implementations to ensure maintainability.

• Supports and maintains cloud services including:

• Monitoring and optimizing cloud resource usage and performance leveraging deep subject matter expertise.
• Troubleshooting and resolving cloud infrastructure issues independently while also identifying and addressing underlying factors and issues.
• Driving implementations towards technology standards and industry best practices.
• Developing and maintaining operational frameworks for cloud services to support many implementations at scale across the university.
• Mentoring and training for other ICT staff related to cloud services implementations.

• Takes operational responsibility for mission critical cloud infrastructure.
• Performs other duties/responsibilities as assigned.

Education & Experience:

A diploma, certificate or degree in a related discipline is required (e.g., computer science, engineering, etc.). The successful candidate will possess experience demonstrating a progression through positions with increasing responsibility and independence involving cloud services, research, cybersecurity, and/or information technology.

A proven track record of applied experience in AWS cloud services is essential for this role. While not required, an Associate certification as an AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate is an asset and an AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional is a significant asset.

Skills:

• Excellent problem-solving skills, including the ability to weigh risks and apply sound judgment to decision making.
• Effective interpersonal, communication, and organizational abilities in both team and client settings with a proven ability to develop exceptional stakeholder rapport.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as a member of a distributed and cross-functional team spanning several university units.

Specialized expertise demonstrating:

• Applied experience with FaaS/Serverless, IaaS, and PaaS to implement and deliver resilient technical solutions in AWS cloud services.
• Experience with monitoring and notifications for cloud services.
• Experience with performance optimization and cost optimization for cloud services.
• Experience with service provisioning, security controls, and organizational configuration for AWS cloud services.

Additional cloud services experience would also be valuable:

• Migration and modernization of on-premises workloads into cloud services.
• Cybersecurity and/or data security.

Additional post-secondary research support experience would also be valuable:

• Research data management
• Research IT tools (e.g., scientific software, qualitative research software)
• Post-secondary research methodology
• Research Ethics processes
• Post-secondary research and associated methods

Department: ICT Enterprise Architecture, Identity and Data Management
Status: Term 2 years with the possibility of extension or becoming permanent
Employment Group: ASPA
Shift: Mon-Fri, 8:00-4:30
Full Time Equivalent (FTE): 1.0
Salary: The salary range, based on 1.0 FTE, is $67,681.00 - 105,753.00 per annum. The starting salary will be commensurate with education and experience.