Cloud Architect

Role Overview

The Cloud Architect will be responsible for establishing and steering secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient cloud and hybrid-cloud architectural solutions. This position involves supporting the organization's cloud strategy, adoption processes, landing zones, migration, modernization efforts, governance, security protocols, platform services, and their integration with current enterprise IT environments. Ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture principles, business goals, compliance regulations, security mandates, and operational benchmarks is key.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and continuously update enterprise cloud architecture congruent with business strategy and technology directions.
• Formulate cloud strategies, adoption methods, and target cloud architectures.
• Design secure and scalable cloud landing zones tailored for enterprise workloads.
• Create architectural solutions for public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud ecosystems.
• Establish cloud reference architectures, principles, patterns, guardrails, and technical standards.
• Evaluate applications and infrastructure for cloud compatibility, select appropriate migration and modernization strategies.
• Devise cloud migration tactics including rehosting, replatforming, refactoring, replacing, retiring, or retaining resources as relevant.
• Architect cloud networking, connectivity, identity and access management, security, monitoring, and operational frameworks.
• Define cloud-native service architectures encompassing containers, Kubernetes, serverless, and managed platform services.
• Champion application modernization and cloud-native transformation projects.
• Specify requirements for cloud environment resilience, availability, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and performance optimization.
• Integrate cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, and regulatory demands into architecture designs.
• Support cloud governance structures including subscription/account management, resource organization, policy enforcement, and tagging conventions.
• Advocate cost controls and FinOps principles within architectural decisions.
• Collaborate with varied technical teams such as application, integration, data, security, infrastructure, DevOps, and other solution architects.
• Conduct architecture reviews to verify compliance with enterprise standards and best practices.
• Assist in selecting cloud platforms, assessing technologies and vendors, and leading proof-of-concept initiatives.
• Identify potential risks, dependencies, constraints in cloud architecture and propose effective mitigation strategies.

Experience Requirements

• Minimum of 8 to 10 years in infrastructure, cloud engineering, systems engineering, solution architecture, or related fields.
• At least 4 to 5 years of hands-on experience specifically in Cloud Architecture or a similar senior cloud design capacity.
• Proven track record designing enterprise-scale cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructures.
• Experience in cloud migration, infrastructure modernization, governance, security, networking, and identity management architectures.
• Involvement in large-scale cloud transformation or digital transformation programs.
• Working effectively with technical teams, cybersecurity personnel, vendors, and executives.

Core Competencies and Areas of Expertise

• Enterprise cloud architecture and strategy formulation.
• Cloud adoption planning and landing zone design.
• Hybrid and multi-cloud architectural solutions.
• Cloud migration strategies and modernization techniques.
• Cloud-native application architecture and containerization using Kubernetes.
• Networking, identity and access management within cloud frameworks.
• Security and compliance integration within cloud solutions.
• Disaster recovery, backup, and resilience planning for cloud environments.
• Governance, policy management, and FinOps cost optimization practices.
• Architecture governance, assurance, and stakeholder management.

Preferred Frameworks, Standards, and Methodologies

• TOGAF and ArchiMate enterprise architecture standards.
• Cloud well-architected frameworks from AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Cloud adoption frameworks and Zero Trust security principles.
• DevOps and DevSecOps practices integrated with infrastructure-as-code methodologies.
• Best practices in cloud security and governance.

Technologies and Tools Exposure

• Familiarity with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or similar cloud providers.
• Experience with cloud networking, identity management, security, logging, monitoring, backup, and governance services.
• Expertise in container platforms such as Docker and orchestration with Kubernetes.
• Proficiency using infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform, Bicep, and CloudFormation.
• Utilization of CI/CD and DevOps tools such as Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab, and Jenkins.
• Knowledge of enterprise architecture software like Bizzdesign, Sparx EA, Orbus/iServer, or ARIS.

Educational Background and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Preferred professional cloud architect certifications from Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or equivalent providers.
• TOGAF certification considered beneficial.
• Additional certifications in cloud security, Kubernetes, DevOps, or infrastructure technologies favored.

Personal Qualities

• Strong analytical skills with a systems-thinking approach.
• Ability to translate business and technical requirements into effective cloud architecture solutions.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement capabilities.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across multiple technical domains including security, infrastructure, applications, data, and DevOps teams.
• Focus on delivering architectures that are high quality, secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective.
• Consultative mindset to support complex transformation projects involving multiple stakeholders.