AWS DevOps Engineer (Container Deployment Specialist) (Unpaid/Remote) job at Cyber Risk Research Institute. New York, NY.
Volunteer Opportunity: AWS DevOps Engineer (Container Deployment Specialist)
Unpaid Volunteer Role | Remote
Organization Type: Nonprofit research and public-interest organization
Location: Remote / Virtual
Time Commitment: Flexible, approximately 3–8 hours per week
Duration: Spring–Fall 2026 aligned with project milestones
About the Project
We are a nonprofit-led technical research initiative developing a cloud-based platform that supports large-scale analysis of cybersecurity, AI, and technology governance materials for research, policy, and civil society use.
The work is conducted within a nonprofit initiative connected with United Nations–affiliated programs and global research partners.
The platform has reached a working proof-of-concept prototype and currently operates in development environments within AWS. We are now transitioning the system toward a containerized architecture suitable for stable demonstration and eventual public deployment.
Role Summary
We are seeking a volunteer AWS DevOps / Cloud Deployment Engineer to help finalize and stabilize the platform’s deployment architecture.
This role focuses on cloud infrastructure and container deployment rather than application coding. The objective is to implement a robust deployment environment that supports safe updates and minimal service disruption.
Additional Technical Focus
This role is particularly relevant for engineers with experience in:
- Container orchestration on AWS (ECS / Fargate)
- Blue-green or zero-downtime deployments for production systems
- Docker-based service deployment pipelines
The platform prototype is being transitioned to a container-based architecture where parallel deployment environments can run alongside the live instance , allowing new versions to be validated before traffic is switched. This approach supports low-risk updates without service interruption.
Key Responsibilities
- Possible areas of contribution include:
- Designing and configuring AWS container infrastructure using ECS and Fargate
- Managing container images through Amazon ECR
- Containerizing services using Docker
- Implementing blue-green deployment architecture for safe production updates
- Helping establish parallel staging and production environments
- Supporting zero-downtime deployment strategies for new releases
- Advising on best practices for scaling, reliability, and deployment workflows
Required Skills
- Experience deploying containerized applications on AWS ECS and Fargate
- Experience working with Docker containers
- Familiarity with Amazon ECR container registries
- Understanding of blue-green, rolling, or zero-downtime deployment strategies
- Experience managing cloud infrastructure for production-style systems
Desired (But Not Required)
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline, etc.)
- Infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK
- Experience deploying research, nonprofit, or open-source platforms
- Interest in public-interest technology, governance, or cybersecurity
Recognition, Service Hours & Professional Value
- Volunteer participation may be recognized within UN-affiliated ecosystems and nonprofit partner channels where appropriate.
- Contributors gain experience working on a real-world cloud architecture supporting international research and governance initiatives.
- All volunteer hours may be tracked for U.S.-based volunteers to support eligibility for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) when the federal program resumes.