Associate - Cloud Engineer (on 3rd party payroll)

The Associate Cloud Engineer supports cloud operations by assisting in the management of AWS and Azure environments with an emphasis on cost optimization, billing support, and security governance. The role involves monitoring cloud usage, supporting billing and access management processes, executing standard optimization actions, and following established operational and security procedures while learning from seniors.

Experience: 3 to 5 years

Roles and Responsibilities

• Cloud Operations & Support

Support day-to-day operations of cloud environments across AWS and Azure under established standards and supervision.

• Monitor cloud resources for availability, basic performance issues, security alerts, and usage anomalies using defined dashboards and tools.
• Log, track, and follow up on incidents, service requests, and operational issues with cloud support teams and internal SMEs.
• Maintain basic visibility of cloud resource inventory and configuration changes.
• Provide regular status updates on assigned tasks, issues, and remediation activities.

2. Cloud Economics (FinOps) Support (Primary Focus)

• Assist in monitoring cloud costs, usage, budgets, and alerts using native cloud cost management tools.
• Help identify straightforward cost inefficiencies such as idle resources, unused storage, and underutilized compute resources, and escalate recommendations for review.
• Support implementation and validation of resource tagging and cost allocation standards.
• Prepare basic cost reports and summaries highlighting spend trends, variances, and optimization opportunities.
• Execute predefined cost optimization actions (such as resource cleanup or resizing) under guidance and track outcomes using basic KPIs (e.g., monthly cost reduction, utilization improvement).

3. Cloud Security Posture & Governance Support (Primary Focus)

• Support monitoring of cloud security posture using approved security and CSPM tools.
• Assist in reviewing security alerts related to common misconfigurations and policy violations.
• Execute predefined remediation steps for low-risk security findings under guidance.
• Help validate adherence to baseline security controls such as access policies, encryption settings, logging, and network rules.
• Maintain documentation and evidence required for internal security reviews and audits.

4. Invoice & Billing Processing

• Support cloud invoice and billing validation activities by reviewing usage reports and billing statements against expected consumption.
• Assist in identifying billing discrepancies and escalating them for investigation with finance teams or cloud service providers.
• Maintain records of invoices, usage summaries, and billing-related documentation.
• Coordinate with internal finance and procurement teams to support timely billing reviews and reconciliations.
• Automation & Provisioning (Support Role)
• Assist in maintaining and updating Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates using tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or ARM/Bicep.
• Execute standard resource provisioning tasks using approved templates and automation scripts.
• Follow established provisioning patterns focused on secure and cost-aware deployments.
• Cloud Services & Vendor Onboarding and Access Management
• Assist in onboarding approved cloud services, tools, and vendors as per defined governance and security processes.
• Support access provisioning and de-provisioning activities for cloud platforms, tools, and vendor systems following approval workflows.
• Validate that access requests follow least privilege principles and documented standards.
• Maintain onboarding, access, and approval-related documentation.

6. System Setup & Configuration

• Support setup and configuration of cloud-native and third-party tools related to monitoring, billing, cost management, and security.
• Follow documented runbooks and installation procedures.
• Validate configurations post-deployment using defined checklists.

7.Troubleshooting & Issue Support

• Assist in initial investigation of cloud issues related to billing anomalies, access issues, security alerts, and basic performance concerns.
• Collect logs, metrics, and usage data to support troubleshooting and root cause analysis from Managed Service Providers / Partners.
• Understand observations/ finding output from Managed Service Partners, Document polished version to share with Senior Managment for review.

8.Collaboration & Team Support

• Work with application, platform, security, finance, and operations teams to support cloud operational and governance activities.
• Participate in team meetings, operational calls, and knowledge