Cloud Engineer

About Charles River Associates

Charles River Associates is a leading global consulting firm that provides economic, financial, and business management expertise to major law firms, corporations, and governments around the world. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues. Since 1965, clients have engaged CRA for its combination of industry experience and rigorous, fact-based analysis that provides clients with clear, implementable solutions to complex business concerns. 

The Information Technology (ITS) department at Charles River Associates is a team of 40 professionals dedicated to enhancing, maintaining, and developing the firm's technology infrastructure and security. The team comprises six functions: Enterprise Applications Services; Service Delivery & Telecom; Information Security; Infrastructure, Cloud and Networks; Project Management and Procurement; and Human Resource Information Systems. Information Technology staff are based in the Boston, Chicago, College Station, New York, Oakland, and Washington, DC offices domestically, as well as London and Munich offices internationally.

Position Overview

The Cloud Engineer will be responsible for:

• Design, implement, and manage cloud infrastructure with a focus on best practices and security standards on Azure, AWS and some initiatives in GCP.
• Lead architecture and deployment engagements across multiple cloud platforms with internal Practices.
• Identity and implement opportunities for process automation and standardization to enhance operational efficiency.
• Manage and optimize Databricks environments, including cluster configuration, workspace administration, and performance tuning.
• Ensure the security and integrity of production and development environments, adhering to office and security policies.
• Create comprehensive documentation including task lists, High-Level Design, Low-Level Design, and Technical Build Documents, ensuring successful project completion and alignment with all team members towards common objectives.
• Implement DevOps practices, such as CI/CD pipelines, using GitHub and Azure DevOps.
• Perform cost analysis for high-performance analytic environments, dynamically managing budgets, alerts, and monitoring.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of data lifecycle workflows and select the most suitable tools for each stage.
• Manage different storage tiers and optimize data handling throughout the data lifecycle.
• Act as the escalation point for M365 administration.
• Ensure Disaster Recovery plans are kept up to date and tested.
• Support and troubleshoot connectivity between cloud and on-premises networks
• Build and execute proprietary workflows, custom automations tailored to organizational needs

Desired Qualifications

• • At least 7 years of demonstrable experience designing, implementing, and troubleshooting cloud-based solutions in a hybrid environment (Azure, AWS, GCP)
  • Strong understanding of cloud architecture principles and best practices.
  • Experience with infrastructure as code (CloudFormation, Bicep, Terraform) and scripting languages (PowerShell, Python).
  • Knowledge of traditional on-premises technologies such as:
    • VMware Data Centre Virtualisation, ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, Horizon/VDI
    • Core Networking services - DNS, DHCP
    • Microsoft Active Directory - Enterprise level
    • Storage Technologies - Hybrid, Flash, Pure
    • Microsoft Windows Servers
  • Experience with Databricks across Azure, AWS and GCP including:
    • Deploying classic and serverless compute on Databricks.
    • Working with Unity Catalog
    • Pulling data from clients in AWS, Azure, and GCP.
    • Pushing data to CRA from clients in AWS, Azure, and GCP.
    • Purging data in AWS, Azure, and GCP.
  • Experience using the Power Platform would be beneficial:
    • Utilize Flow to for process automation

Work Location Flexibility

CRA creates a work environment that enables our colleagues to benefit from being together in the office to best deliver on our promise of career growth, mentorship and inclusivity. At the same time, we recognize that individuals realize a range of benefits when working from home periodically. We currently ask that individuals spend 3 to 4 days a week on average working in the office (which may include traveling to another CRA office), with specific days determined in coordination with your team. At certain times of the year (e.g. holiday periods), additional remote work options are offered to those whose work commitments permit it, although our offices remain open for those who choose or need to be there.

Our Commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River Associates is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.