Oracle
Oracle

Principal / Master Principal Cloud Architect-Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

$147–244kReston, VA; Washington, DCOn-siteSeniorFull-time

Posted 3 days ago

The role in short

Embed full-time with U.S. Intelligence Community customers to architect, deploy, and operationalize secure, production-grade cloud solutions on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Oracle Government Defense & Intelligence has an exciting opportunity for a Principal / Master Principal Cloud Architect-Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

Build What Others Only Design

Some engineers advise. Some architects create diagrams.

Forward Deployed Engineers build the solution, deploy it inside the customer's environment, and stay until it succeeds.

Oracle is seeking experienced cloud architects and infrastructure engineers to join an elite team supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community. As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will be embedded full-time with a single customer, partnering directly with operators, technical leaders, and mission stakeholders to architect, deploy, secure, and operationalize cloud solutions that solve real-world national security challenges.

This is not a traditional consulting role. It is not a presales role.

You will own the technical success of a high-priority customer engagement from initial architecture through production deployment and operational adoption.

If you thrive in ambiguity, enjoy solving difficult infrastructure problems, and want to see your work directly impact mission outcomes, this role was built for you.

  • Must possess or have the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Poly

Responsibilities

What You'll Do

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you become the customer's trusted technical partner and lead architect.

You will:

  • Embed full-time with a dedicated Intelligence Community customer
  • Architect and deploy OCI-based solutions directly within customer environments
  • Transform complex mission requirements into scalable cloud architectures
  • Build and configure infrastructure across OCI IaaS and PaaS services
  • Design secure, resilient, production-grade environments
  • Implement Infrastructure-as-Code and automation frameworks
  • Configure networking, identity, security, observability, databases, storage, and container platforms
  • Harden pilot deployments into operational production systems
  • Lead troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and performance optimization efforts
  • Partner closely with customer operators, engineers, and leadership teams
  • Drive adoption, knowledge transfer, and long-term customer success
  • Capture field learnings and influence future product and engineering direction across Oracle

Why This Role Is Different

Most cloud architects support many customers.

Forward Deployed Engineers focus deeply on one.

You are not handing off recommendations and moving to the next account. You are responsible for getting the deployment operational, secure, and successful.

You will work alongside the customer through every phase:

Architect → Build → Deploy → Harden → Operate → Transition

This model gives you the opportunity to:

  • Solve technically demanding problems end-to-end
  • Work directly on mission-critical environments
  • Influence both customer outcomes and Oracle product evolution
  • Build lasting technical credibility with senior government stakeholders
  • Become a recognized expert in OCI deployment and cloud modernization

What You'll Build

Depending on customer needs, you may work across:

  • OCI Compute Services
  • Virtual Cloud Networks (VCN)
  • Identity & Access Management (IAM)
  • OCI Kubernetes Engine (OKE)
  • Containers and microservices architectures
  • Databases and data platforms
  • Storage and backup architectures
  • Security and encryption solutions
  • Monitoring, logging, and observability platforms
  • High Availability and Disaster Recovery architectures
  • Cloud-native modernization initiatives
  • Large-scale mission applications and analytics platforms

What We're Looking For

Required Qualifications

  • Experience supporting or working within the U.S. Intelligence Community
  • MUST possess or have the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Poly
  • Strong hands-on cloud engineering and infrastructure experience
  • Experience deploying and operating solutions inside customer environments
  • Deep knowledge of cloud architecture, automation, and platform operations
  • Experience designing secure, highly available, scalable environments
  • Infrastructure-as-Code expertise using Terraform, OCI Resource Manager, Ansible, or similar technologies
  • Scripting and automation experience using Python, Shell, or comparable languages
  • Strong communication skills across technical and executive audiences
  • Ability to work on-site with customers for extended engagements
  • minimum of 6+ years of cloud, infrastructure, or platform engineering experience
  • Independently leads customer deployments from architecture through production
  • Executes complex implementations with minimal oversight
  • Owns delivery outcomes for assigned engagements

Preferred Qualifications

  • OCI Architect Associate or Professional certification
  • Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
  • Kubernetes and container orchestration expertise
  • Experience rearchitecting legacy systems into cloud-native solutions
  • Knowledge of security accreditation and compliance processes within government environments

Why Oracle

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is powering some of the world's most demanding workloads across government, defense, and intelligence organizations.

As an FDE, you won't simply help customers adopt cloud technology—you'll help them transform mission outcomes through secure, scalable, production-ready cloud solutions.

You'll join a team of engineers who thrive on ownership, technical excellence, and solving problems that matter.

If you want to build, deploy, and operate systems where success is measured by mission impact—not slide decks—we'd like to talk with you.

Join Oracle and help shape the future of cloud innovation for the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Come Join Us!

#LI-PA4

Qualifications

Disclaimer:

Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.

Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only

US: Hiring Range in USD from: $147,300 to $243,800 per annum. May be eligible for equity and compensation deferral. Eligible for commission with an estimated pay mix of 70/30.

Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.

Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.

Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:

1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion

2. Short term disability and long term disability

3. Life insurance and AD&D

4. Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)

5. Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts

6. Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits

7. 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match

8. Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.

9. 11 paid holidays

10. Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.

11. Paid parental leave

12. Adoption assistance

13. Employee Stock Purchase Plan

14. Financial planning and group legal

15. Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance

The role will generally accept applications for at least three calendar days from the posting date or as long as the job remains posted.

As part of Oracle's onboarding process and consistent with applicable law, US-based employees are required to complete identity verification, which involves the collection and processing of their biometric information. Accommodations to this requirement may be granted following an individualized assessment.

About Us

Only Oracle brings together the data, infrastructure, applications, and expertise to power everything from industry innovations to life-saving care. And with AI embedded across our products and services, we help customers turn that promise into a better future for all. Discover your potential at a company leading the way in AI and cloud solutions that impact billions of lives.

True innovation starts when everyone is empowered to contribute. That’s why we’re committed to growing a workforce that promotes opportunities for all with competitive benefits that support our people with flexible medical, life insurance, and retirement options. We also encourage employees to give back to their communities through our volunteer programs.

We’re committed to including people with disabilities at all stages of the employment process. If you require accessibility assistance or accommodation for a disability at any point, let us know by emailing accommodation-request_mb@oracle.com or by calling 1-888-404-2494 in the United States.

Oracle is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Oracle will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

Prep for this interview

4 questions likely to come up at Oracle, each matched to a line in this posting.

  1. 1Cloud, deployment and security
    They wrote: “Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform”

    A bank wants our product inside their own cloud account, with no data leaving it. How do you approach it?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Self-hosted and private-cloud deployments are common in regulated industries.

    1. Learn their rules early: network limits, approved services, review process
    2. Package the product so it installs the same way each time (containers, Terraform)
    3. Plan how you'll get logs and updates without touching their data
    4. Run a test install with them before the real one

    Tip: Talk about the conversation with their security team as much as the setup.

  2. 2Discovery and scoping
    They wrote: “Transform complex mission requirements into scalable cloud architectures”

    Tell me about a time the customer asked for one thing but needed another.

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Good FDEs spot when a request is a guess at a solution. They want proof you can redirect a customer without losing their trust.

    1. What they asked for, and the detail that made you doubt it
    2. How you tested the doubt (shadowed users, looked at logs, ran a quick prototype)
    3. How you made the case to the customer
    4. What shipped and what changed for them

    Tip: Pick a story where you checked your hunch with data or users before pushing back.

  3. 3Coding
    They wrote: “Harden pilot deployments into operational production systems”

    How do you keep quality high when you ship fast at a customer site?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Speed is the job, but broken code at a customer is costly. They want your guardrails.

    1. Tests for the parts that touch customer data or money
    2. Code review even when it's fast, ideally by someone on the product team
    3. Feature flags and an easy way to roll back
    4. Clean up the shortcuts in the next release, and write them down

    Tip: Name the few checks you never skip, and what you skip on purpose.

  4. 4Ownership and working with customers
    They wrote: “If you thrive in ambiguity, enjoy solving difficult infrastructure problems, and want to see your work directly impact mission outcomes, this role was built for you.”

    Tell me about a project where the requirements kept changing. What did you do?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Ambiguity is the norm. They want proof you can keep moving without a clear spec.

    1. The project and why requirements kept moving
    2. What you did to pin them down (short demos, written decisions)
    3. The trade-offs you made to keep shipping
    4. The result, with a number if you have one

    Tip: Show how you reduced the change, beyond how you coped with it.

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