(IT PSP) Cloud Architect, Expert

Pay Rate: $100 - $120 per hour

• Location: Oakland, CA
• Work Mode: Hybrid
• Duration: 12 Months

Responsibilities:

• Own and evolve the hybrid cloud platform architecture across AWS, Azure, and Azure Local — ensuring coherence, scalability, and security.
• Define and drive the long-term technical roadmap for the platform team in partnership with the Sr. Cloud Principal Architect.
• Architect enterprise landing zones, subscription/account topology, network segmentation, and identity federation strategies.
• Design complex hybrid networking solutions: vWAN, ExpressRoute, SD-WAN integration, network virtual appliances, cross-cloud connectivity.
• Establish architecture decision records (ADRs), design principles, and non-functional requirement frameworks for the platform.
• Evaluate emerging cloud services, open-source tools, and industry trends — make build/buy/adopt recommendations with clear trade-off analysis.
• Lead architecture reviews for high-impact or high-risk initiatives, providing binding technical guidance.
• Author and maintain enterprise Terraform module libraries — defining patterns, interfaces, security defaults, and versioning strategies.
• Design and implement advanced CI/CD pipeline architectures in Azure DevOps for multi-environment, multi-subscription infrastructure delivery.
• Build complex automation: multi-stage deployments, policy-as-code enforcement, drift detection, self-healing infrastructure patterns.
• Implement and validate security architectures through code — private endpoints, managed identities, CMK encryption, network micro-segmentation.
• Design and deploy Kubernetes platforms (AKS/EKS) with production-grade configurations: RBAC, network policies, ingress, service mesh, GitOps.
• Build proof-of-concepts and reference implementations that teams can adopt and extend.
• Resolve the hardest infrastructure challenges — state migration, provider upgrades, complex module refactoring, cross-account/subscription orchestration.
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point — unblock Senior Cloud Architects and platform engineers on the most complex problems.
• Lead cross-team architecture alignment sessions, ensuring consistent patterns across squads and workstreams.
• Define code review standards, module contribution guidelines, and quality gates for the Terraform module library.
• Mentor Senior Cloud Architects and platform engineers — elevate team capability through pairing, design reviews, and technical coaching.
• Drive engineering culture: infrastructure-as-code discipline, automated testing, documentation-as-code, and continuous improvement.
• Facilitate architecture guilds, communities of practice, and cross-functional technical forums.
• Translate complex technical trade-offs into clear recommendations for leadership and business stakeholders.
• Partner with enterprise architecture, security, networking, and compliance teams to shape platform standards and policies.
• Influence enterprise governance frameworks — Azure Policy, AWS SCPs, tagging standards, cost allocation, and resource lifecycle management.
• Drive platform observability strategy: centralized logging, distributed tracing, alerting frameworks, and AIOps integration.
• Support disaster recovery architecture, ransomware resilience, and business continuity planning for platform services.
• Contribute to vendor relationship management — evaluate cloud provider roadmaps, negotiate architectural patterns, and influence feature requests.
• Represent the platform team in enterprise architecture boards, change advisory processes, and technology governance forums.
• Support AI/ML platform infrastructure — GPU scheduling, model serving, feature stores, and MLOps pipeline architecture.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a job-related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 8 years of hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure, systems engineering, or cloud architecture roles.
• Minimum 5 years of hands-on experience writing Terraform at scale (enterprise module libraries, multi-environment state management, provider development).
• Minimum 4 years of experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipeline architectures (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or equivalent).
• Minimum 3 years of experience in a technical leadership or architecture role — guiding teams, setting standards, making binding design decisions.
• Demonstrated experience architecting solutions across both AWS and Azure (multi-cloud, not just single-provider).
• Proven track record of resolving complex cross-domain infrastructure challenges (networking security compute automation).
• Experience working in and leading within Agile/Scrum delivery teams.

Preferred Skills:

• AWS Solutions Architect Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.
• HashiCorp Terraform Associate or equivalent IaC certification.
• Kubernetes certification (CKA/CKAD) or equivalent hands-on container platform experience.
• Deep expertise in hybrid networking: ExpressRoute, vWAN, Transit Gateway, Palo Alto NVA, SD-WAN, BGP routing.
• Experience designing and operating enterprise landing zones (Azure CAF, AWS Control Tower, or custom).
• Knowledge of AI/ML infrastructure architecture — GPU compute, distributed training, model serving, MLOps.
• Experience with platform engineering practices: internal developer platforms, self-service infrastructure, golden paths.
• Familiarity with FinOps practices, cloud cost optimization, and resource rightsizing.
• Experience with compliance-as-code: Azure Policy, AWS Config Rules, OPA/Rego, Sentinel.
• Strong background in security architecture: zero-trust, identity federation (SAML/OIDC), private connectivity, secrets management.
• Excellent communication skills — ability to present architecture decisions to executives, write technical RFCs, and mentor effectively.
• Experience influencing technology strategy beyond the immediate team — enterprise architecture boards, COEs, or similar.