Direct Candidates Only - (NO THIRD PARTIES PLEASE). Resource 1 is seeking an experienced AWS Cloud Security Engineer for a remote contract engagement with our client based in Oak Brook, IL. The initial contract term will be 3 months with potential extensions. This role will focus on AWS security hardening, operational remediation , and vulnerability reduction efforts for a globally distributed platform operating on an enterprise scale. The engineer will work directly within AWS infrastructure and platform environments to remediate penetration testing findings, deploy and configure security tooling, strengthen IAM and data access controls, patch systems, and support secure platform operations with minimal disruption to production services. This is a highly hands-on engineering role requiring deep technical execution capabilities across AWS infrastructure, cloud security tooling, Linux systems, and Kubernetes environments. The ideal candidate will come from a cloud infrastructure/platform engineering background with strong operational security experience and the ability to independently execute remediation and infrastructure changes within production AWS environments.

Responsibilities

• Remediate penetration testing findings and perform security hardening across AWS environments.
• Implement, configure, and operate AWS security services including GuardDuty, Inspector, Security Hub, and AWS Config.
• Deploy, configure, and maintain cloud security tooling and agents across EC2/Linux environments, including platforms such as Wiz, CrowdStrike, Rapid7, or similar solutions.
• Perform hands-on operational engineering tasks directly within AWS infrastructure, including troubleshooting platform issues, patching servers, and executing remediation activities.
• Tighten IAM roles, policies, and permissions to enforce least-privilege access practices.
• Review and remediate S3 permissions, security groups, VPC/network controls, and other cloud access mechanisms.
• Support and secure containerized workloads and Kubernetes/EKS environments.
• Update and maintain Terraform infrastructure-as-code configurations related to security and platform hardening initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with

development and platform engineering teams to remediate vulnerabilities, upgrade impacted packages, and deploy fixes.

• Work directly within AWS consoles, CLI, Linux systems, and infrastructure layers to implement technical security changes independently.
• Coordinate with external security tooling vendors and partners to triage and resolve security findings.
• Participate in project planning, status reporting, and deliverable tracking with technical leadership and business stakeholders.

Required Skills & Experience

• 5–10+ years of cloud security engineering, infrastructure engineering, or platform engineering experience.
• Deep, recent hands-on AWS experience supporting large-scale production environments.
• Proven experience operating and configuring AWS security services including GuardDuty, Inspector, Security Hub, and AWS Config.
• Strong hands-on experience with IAM roles, policies, permissions management, and least-privilege design.
• Experience securing AWS infrastructure components including S3, VPCs, security groups, and related access controls.
• Hands-on Linux/EC2 administration experience, including server patching, operational remediation, and troubleshooting.
• Experience deploying and managing security agents and tooling within cloud environments.
• Experience securing and administering Kubernetes/EKS environments and containerized workloads.
• Strong Terraform experience for infrastructure as code and security-related infrastructure updates.
• Ability to independently execute technical remediation and infrastructure changes in AWS environments.
• Comfortable working directly within AWS consoles, CLI, and platform infrastructure layers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with

Wiz, CrowdStrike, Rapid7, or similar commercial security platforms.

• Experience supporting IoT platforms or large device fleets.
• Familiarity with GitHub Actions or other CI/CD tooling.
• Experience leveraging GenAI tools to improve cloud engineering or security workflows.