If you are able to find a US govt job and can make it through the whatever period you need to be a contractor until you get hired on as a federal employee, this should cover you. I have a contact in a similar situation except cluster headaches. It’s going to pay less than private sector and you might have to learn some new skills for the right role. IIRC Softrams just landed a huge federal contract and hires warm bodies; might be a great place to start.
I’ve got a lot of contacts on the market right now struggling to land a gig that wouldn’t have struggled a few years ago. Do you have DevOps skills? Any security qualifications? Get both. Are you working on certs? Do some. Have you hired a resume service? Do so. The last two are things I normally think are kinda bullshit but they are edges that seem to matter right now.
As for a recruiting firm, I feel like all the good recruiters I’ve worked with would have advocated for me. That’s a total fucking crapshoot tho. I’ve worked with plenty that have shafted me. I don’t think there’s a specific firm for this problem.
The baseline cloud certs should be much cheaper. AWS Associate tiers are something like 150/test.
You might also have luck with the big consulting companies. NTT, Slalom, Accenture, stuff like that. Might be less permanent but will pay pretty well.