Lead Cloud Architect

Lead Cloud Architect

The Lead Cloud Architect will serve as the senior technical authority responsible for designing, implementing, and governing enterprise cloud solutions. This role ensures secure, scalable, and resilient cloud architectures aligned with DoD and Intelligence Community (IC) standards.

The candidate will lead cloud strategy, migration, and operations across multi-cloud and hybrid environments while ensuring mission assurance, cybersecurity compliance, and performance optimization.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Architecture & Strategy

• Develop and maintain enterprise cloud architecture frameworks for mission systems.

• Lead cloud transformation and modernization initiatives (legacy to cloud-native).

• Design solutions across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, IC GovCloud regions).

• Establish reference architectures, design patterns, and best practices.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as technical lead and subject matter expert (SME) for all cloud-related activities.

• Provide guidance to engineering, DevSecOps, and application teams.

• Lead architecture reviews, design approvals, and solution governance boards.

• Interface with government stakeholders, program managers, and mission owners.

Cloud Engineering & Implementation

• Design and oversee implementation of:

• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM/Bicep)

• Containerized workloads (Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker)

• Serverless and microservices architectures

• Ensure high availability, disaster recovery, and performance optimization.

Cybersecurity & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with:

• DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG)

• ICD 503 / NIST RMF

• Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) principles

• Integrate security into cloud design (DevSecOps, continuous ATO).

• Oversee identity and access management (ICAM) and encryption strategies.

DevSecOps & Automation

• Promote CI/CD pipeline adoption and automation across environments.

• Implement secure DevOps practices using tools such as:

• Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Azure DevOps

• Enable automated testing, deployment, and monitoring.

Operations & Optimization

• Provide oversight for cloud operations, cost management, and performance tuning.

• Implement monitoring and observability solutions (e.g., CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, ELK).

• Optimize workloads for efficiency, reliability, and mission impact.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field Master’s preferred).

• Experience:

• 10+ years of IT experience

• 5+ years in cloud architecture roles

• Experience supporting DoD or Intelligence Community programs