Senior Cloud Architect

Position Summary

Effectual Senior Cloud Architects are responsible for technical leadership of Professional Services projects. They partner with Engagement Managers (EMs) to deliver an exceptional customer and delivery team experience. Effectual Cloud Architects are “Brand Ambassadors” and are expected to demonstrate Effectual’s experience and expertise through the delivery of high-quality, leading-practice solutions to customers. Aligning business technology with an organization’s strategy and goals can often be a complex and overwhelming process without the right tools and expertise.

A Glimpse into the Daily Routine of a Senior Cloud Architect

Effectual is seeking a Senior Cloud Architect to lead complex enterprise cloud architecture engagements for strategic clients. As a senior technical expert and trusted advisor, you’ll define architecture strategy, govern technical standards, and mentor both client teams and internal architects across modernization, resilience, security, and optimization initiatives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Lead Enterprise Architecture Programs

• Define enterprise target-state cloud architecture and phased roadmap strategies
• Lead architecture review boards and executive design discussions with client leadership
• Establish reusable architecture standards, guardrails, and delivery patterns across programs

Design Cloud Infrastructure

• Architect scalable, highly available AWS solutions using Well-Architected Framework principles
• Build multi-account landing zones, hybrid connectivity (Direct Connect, Transit Gateway), and DR/BC architectures
• Architect solutions across containers, storage, networking, data platforms, and serverless computing

Automate & Optimize

• Develop Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform and CloudFormation
• Create Python automation scripts and CI/CD pipelines
• Optimize cloud performance, cost efficiency, reliability, and security posture

Enable Client Success

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to client engineering teams
• Lead workshops, knowledge transfer sessions, and incident response
• Troubleshoot complex infrastructure challenges and create comprehensive documentation

Qualifications

• 10+ years of continual, prior experience working as a Solution Architect, including in parallel:
  • 6+ years architecting and building AWS infrastructure
  • 2+ years of infrastructure as code experience (Terraform preferred)
  • 2+ years of DevOps toolchain experience (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, AWS Code* Suite)
• AWS experience within the past year, with knowledge of primary AWS services (Compute, Storage, Networking, RDS)
• Strong track record of implementing AWS services in a variety of distributed computing environments
• Experience facilitating discussions with senior leadership regarding technical/architectural trade-offs, best practices, and risk mitigation
• Experience leading highly available and fault-tolerant enterprise and web-scale software deployments
• Experience managing data center or cloud operations, including data assurance, monitoring, alerting, and notifications
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically about business, product, and technical challenges
• Strong working knowledge of leading AWS cloud security practices
• Proficient in developing Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g., Terraform, AWS CloudFormation)
• Proficient in coding configuration management tooling (e.g., Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
• Proficient in at least one or more programming/scripting languages (e.g., Python, Java, Node)
• Demonstrable knowledge of Agile and Waterfall SDLC methodologies
• Ability to work with multiple clients in parallel, with strong attention to detail
• Exceptional communication and time management skills
• Ability to work EST with flexibility for different time zones

Technical Skills

• AWS Architecture Depth: Advanced architecture expertise across compute, storage, networking, IAM/security, and data services
• Infrastructure as Code: Advanced Terraform and CloudFormation expertise
• Automation: Strong Python scripting and CI/CD pipeline experience
• Systems: Enterprise Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu) and Windows Server/Active Directory
• Networking: VPC design, hybrid connectivity, multi-region patterns, and traffic controls
• Architecture Governance: Standards definition, design review facilitation, and technical risk management
• Configuration Management: Ansible, Chef, or Puppet proficiency

Required Professional Competencies

• Ability to translate technical concepts for executive audiences
• Ability to build consensus across stakeholders without direct authority
• Strong problem-solving and analytical capabilities
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Ability to work EST with flexibility for different time zones

Required Certifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (Current or Expired)

Nice-to-Have Skills and Experience

• Multi-cloud experience (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Compliance framework expertise (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2)
• AWS CDK and modernization experience
• Migration program exposure (MGN, DMS, Migration Hub) and migration strategy leadership
• VMware-to-AWS migration experience
• FinOps practices and cost optimization expertise
• Agile/Scrum methodology experience

Nice-to-Have Certifications

• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
• AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
• Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD) and container orchestration experience (ECS, EKS)

Company Offered Benefits

Full-time employees are eligible to participate in our employee benefit programs:

• Medical, dental, and vision health insurances
• Short term disability, long term disability, and life insurances
• 401k with company match
• Paid time off (PTO) (120 hours PTO that accrue over one year)
• Paid time off for major holidays (14 days per year)
• These and any other employee benefit offerings are subject to management’s discretion and may change at any time.