About the Role / About the Job
The Cloud Architect is responsible for defining, designing, and governing secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective cloud and hybrid-cloud architectures. This role supports cloud strategy, cloud adoption, landing zones, migration, modernization, governance, security, platform services, and integration with existing enterprise environments. The Cloud Architect ensures cloud solutions are aligned with enterprise architecture principles, business priorities, security requirements, regulatory obligations, and operational standards.
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Key Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain the enterprise cloud architecture in alignment with business strategy, enterprise architecture, and technology direction.
- Define cloud strategy, cloud adoption approaches, and target-state cloud architecture.
- Design secure and scalable cloud landing zones for enterprise workloads.
- Define architecture for public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud environments.
- Develop cloud reference architectures, architecture principles, patterns, guardrails, and technical standards.
- Assess application and infrastructure workloads for cloud suitability, migration approach, and modernization opportunities.
- Define cloud migration strategies including rehost, replatform, refactor, replace, retire, and retain approaches where applicable.
- Design cloud networking, connectivity, identity, access management, security, logging, monitoring, and operational architecture.
- Define architecture for cloud-native services, containers, Kubernetes, serverless platforms, managed services, and platform services.
- Support application modernization and cloud-native transformation initiatives.
- Define requirements for resilience, availability, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and performance in cloud environments.
- Embed cybersecurity, privacy, regulatory, and compliance requirements into cloud architecture designs.
- Support cloud governance, subscription/account structures, resource organization, policy enforcement, and tagging standards.
- Promote cost optimization and FinOps principles within cloud architecture decisions.
- Collaborate with application, integration, data, security, infrastructure, DevOps, and solution architects.
- Conduct architecture reviews and assess cloud solutions for compliance with enterprise standards.
- Support cloud platform selection, technology evaluation, vendor assessment, and proof-of-concept activities.
- Identify cloud architecture risks, dependencies, constraints, and mitigation actions.
Required Experience
- Minimum 8-10 years of experience in infrastructure, cloud engineering, systems engineering, solution architecture, or related technology disciplines.
- At least 4-5 years of hands-on experience in Cloud Architecture or a comparable senior cloud design role.
- Demonstrated experience designing enterprise-scale cloud and hybrid-cloud environments.
- Experience with cloud migration, modernization, landing zones, governance, security, networking, and identity architecture.
- Experience supporting large-scale cloud transformation or digital transformation programs.
- Strong experience working with technology teams, cybersecurity teams, vendors, and senior stakeholders.
Core Competencies
- Enterprise Cloud Architecture
- Cloud strategy and adoption planning
- Cloud landing zone architecture
- Hybrid and multi-cloud architecture
- Cloud migration and modernization
- Cloud-native architecture
- Cloud networking and connectivity
- Cloud identity and access architecture
- Cloud security and compliance
- Container and Kubernetes architecture
- Resilience, backup, and disaster recovery
- Cloud governance and policy management
- FinOps and cloud cost optimization
- Architecture governance and assurance
Preferred Frameworks, Standards & Methods
- TOGAF
- ArchiMate
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
- Google Cloud Architecture Framework
- Cloud Adoption Frameworks
- Zero Trust architecture principles
- DevOps and DevSecOps practices
- Infrastructure-as-Code principles
- Cloud security and governance best practices
Preferred Tools & Technology Exposure
- Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or equivalent cloud platforms.
- Cloud networking, identity, security, monitoring, logging, backup, and governance services.
- Container and orchestration platforms such as Docker and Kubernetes.
- Infrastructure-as-Code technologies such as Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation, or equivalent.
- CI/CD and DevOps platforms such as Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, or equivalent.
- Enterprise architecture tools such as Bizzdesign, Sparx Enterprise Architect, Orbus/iServer, ARIS, or similar platforms.
Preferred Qualifications & Certifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Professional-level cloud architecture certification from Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or equivalent is highly desirable.
- TOGAF certification is desirable.
- Relevant cloud security, Kubernetes, DevOps, or infrastructure certifications are advantageous.
Personal Attributes
- Strong analytical and systems-thinking capability.
- Ability to translate business and technology requirements into pragmatic cloud architecture decisions.
- Strong communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to work across enterprise architecture, security, infrastructure, application, data, and DevOps teams.
- Strong focus on architecture quality, security, scalability, resilience, and cost effectiveness.
- Consulting mindset with the ability to support complex transformation programs and multiple stakeholders.
