Cloud Platform Specialist

Job DetailsJob Location: Any PAE Location - Portland, OR 97204Position Type: Full TimeThe Opportunity

We are seeking a Cloud Platform Specialist to design and build the foundational systems that enable secure, scalable application development across PAE. This role is critical in supporting emerging automation, AI initiatives, and citizen development efforts by creating standardized, production-ready environments and enforcing governance controls that ensure all applications follow consistent security, compliance, and operational standards before reaching production. This includes everything from engineer-built Python tools to AI-enabled workloads.

The Cloud Platform Specialist owns the intake, review, and environment promotion process for citizen- and engineer-developed applications. This role also maintains working-level proficiency in Windows Server, Linux, and Azure IaaS administration to provide operational coverage and secondary support to the Core Services infrastructure team.

Who We Are 

PAE is an engineering and design firm that turns complex challenges into reality. By leveraging the latest technologies, we solve problems in unique ways, and our designs enable buildings and communities to be more resilient and efficient. PAE is trusted by our clients in every aspect of a project's lifespan, from idea to occupancy. We set ambitious goals backed by analysis to significantly conserve water and energy while balancing costs and long-term operational needs. As a B Corp, we measure success by the benefits our projects provide to our clients, our communities, and our planet. We embrace innovation, transparency, sustainability, and lifelong curiosity.

What You'll Do

System/Process Management

Design and implement secure, scalable application hosting environments in Azure, including environment segmentation (dev/test/UAT/prod) and isolation strategies
Establish identity, access, and secrets management patterns across all environments
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for application deployment using Azure DevOps Pipelines and GitHub Actions; standardize release and promotion workflows across environments regardless of pipeline tooling
Monitor Define and document approved deployment patterns for Power Platform solutions, custom-developed applications including AI-generated and low-code apps, and AI/ML-enabled workloads
Implement infrastructure as code using Bicep and Terraform for consistent, repeatable environment provisioning; maintain standards for both Microsoft-native and open-source IaC tooling depending on workload requirements
Define approved patterns for containerized workloads including Docker-based packaging and deployment to Azure Container Apps or AKS; maintain working proficiency in Linux as the primary runtime for containerized and serverless applications
Define Establish standards for event-driven and serverless compute patterns using Azure Functions and Logic Apps alongside open-source frameworks and runtimes; define approved language runtimes, dependency management practices, and cold-start mitigation approaches
Ensure logging, monitoring, alerting, and compliance requirements are met by design in all managed environments

Application Platform Governance & Citizen Development Enablement

Own the citizen development intake, review, and application promotion process; evaluate all citizen and staff-developed applications for security, compliance, and operational supportability before advancement through dev/test/UAT/prod environments
Define and enforce data classification requirements for all applications and workloads, particularly those integrating with AI services, external APIs, Microsoft 365, or business-critical data sources
Establish open-source software governance standards for all applications entering the promotion pipeline, including license compatibility review, dependency scanning, and policies governing the use of community-maintained packages in production workloads
Develop and maintain secure development guidelines and reference materials for non-technical builders covering authentication patterns, data handling, API integration basics, and deployment standards. These guardrails exist to prevent insecure applications from reaching production; they are not a formal training program
Partner with the integration developer and BIM developer to ensure citizen-developed solutions are compatible with enterprise integration patterns and supportable by Core ServicesDefine production readiness criteria and ensure all deployed applications are supportable by the Service Desk and IT operations teams

Azure AI & Low-Code Governance

Govern Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service access; define approved patterns for AI-enabled workloads including proprietary and open-weight model deployment standards, content filtering configuration, audit logging, and data residency compliance
Reference established open standards including the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Appli