Cloud Architect

Objectives & Outcomes Define and socialise target state architectures across Azure/AWS/GCP (networking, identity, landing zones, operations). Deliver reference architectures and reusable patterns for containerised, serverless, and data workloads. Establish/extend Cloud Landing Zones (policy, guardrails, RBAC, tagging, network segmentation). Lead migration and modernisation (re‑host/re‑platform/re‑factor) for priority applications. Implement IaC at scale (Terraform preferred; standard modules; pipelines). Build observability (logs, metrics, traces, SLOs) and resilience (HA, DR, RTO/RPO). Drive FinOps —cost transparency, budgets, showback/chargeback, right‑sizing. Embed security‑by‑design and compliance (CIS, NIST, ISO 27001, FCA/NHS/PCI as applicable). Key Responsibilities Architecture & Design Produce HLDs/LLDs, diagrams, ADRs, non‑functional requirements, and traceability to business goals. Select and justify cloud services (compute, storage, data, AI/ML, integration). Define multi‑cloud connectivity (hub‑and‑spoke, transit gateways, ExpressRoute/Direct Connect/Cloud Interconnect, SD‑WAN). Design identity and access (Azure AD/Microsoft Entra, AWS IAM, GCP IAM; SSO; workload identities). Platform Engineering Standardise Terraform modules; enforce code quality, policy‑as‑code (OPA/Conftest/Azure Policy). Build/optimise Kubernetes platforms (AKS/EKS/GKE), service mesh (Istio/Linkerd), ingress, and autoscaling. Implement CI/CD (GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps/GitLab), environment promotion, secrets management, artifact repos. Security & Compliance Define guardrails (CIS benchmarks), cloud security posture management (Defender for Cloud, AWS Security Hub, GCP SCC). Vaulting and KMS (AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, GCP KMS), key rotation, data classification & encryption. Threat modelling, zero trust patterns, vulnerability management, incident runbooks. Data & Integration Reference architectures for streaming/batch (Kafka/MSK, Event Hubs, Pub/Sub), data lakes, warehouses (BigQuery, Synapse, Redshift), ETL/ELT. API strategy (APIM/API Gateway/Apigee), messaging (SQS/SNS/Service Bus/PubSub), event‑driven design. Operations & Reliability Observability stack (CloudWatch/CloudTrail, Azure Monitor/Log Analytics, Cloud Logging/Monitoring; Prometheus/Grafana). DR/BCP architectures (cross‑region, multi‑region, backups, runbooks; tested failover). Performance testing, capacity planning, SLO/SLIs, error budgets. Governance & Cost Landing zone governance, tagging/labels, budget alerts, reserved/savings plans. Operating model definition (RACI), platform backlog, roadmap, and risk management. Stakeholder Management Run workshops, architecture reviews, and design clinics. Collaborate with InfoSec, Network, Data, and App teams; mentor engineers. Required Experience 8 years in cloud architecture/engineering; 3 years multi‑cloud across Azure, AWS, and GCP . Proven delivery of enterprise landing zones , Kubernetes , IaC at scale, and secure network architectures . Strong track record in app migration/modernisation and cost optimisation . Comfortable in highly regulated environments (finance, healthcare, public sector) is a plus. Technical Stack (Desired) Cloud: Azure (Resource Manager, Entra ID, Policy, Monitor), AWS (EC2, VPC, IAM, TGW), GCP (VPC, IAM, Interconnect). Networking: DNS, TLS/mTLS, BGP, NAT, WAF, CDN, private endpoints, service endpoints. Compute/Containers: AKS/EKS/GKE, ECS/Fargate, VMSS/ASG, serverless (Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Functions). IaC & Pipelines: Terraform (required), Terragrunt (nice), Helm, Kustomize, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI. Security: Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, AWS GuardDuty/Security Hub, GCP SCC, OPA, HashiCorp Vault, KMS. Data/Integration: Event Hubs/Kafka/PubSub, API Gateway/APIM/Apigee, Data Factory/Glue/Cloud Data Fusion, BigQuery/Synapse/Redshift. Observability: Prometheus/Grafana, OpenTelemetry, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Cloud Monitoring, ELK/Elastic. Scripting: Python/Bash/PowerShell; strong Git and code review practices. Certifications (Nice to Have) Azure: AZ‑305 (Architect), AZ‑400 (DevOps) AWS: Solutions Architect Professional, DevOps Engineer GCP: Professional Cloud Architect, DevOps Engineer Security/Architecture: CISSP, CISM, TOGAF, CCSP FinOps: FinOps Certified Practitioner Soft Skills Excellent communicator—able to translate complex architecture into clear, actionable plans. Pragmatic, delivery‑focused, and comfortable with ambiguity. Strong stakeholder management and mentoring capabilities. Deliverables Cloud Target Operating Model & reference architectures. Landing zone designs and implementation (per cloud). Network & identity blueprints and runbooks. IaC repositories (Terraform modules, pipelines) with documentation. Security patterns (guardrails, policies, encryption standards). Observability standards (dashboards, alerts, SLOs). Application migration plans (waves, dependency maps) and executed milestones. FinOps reports and cost optimisation recommendations. KPIs / Success Measures % workloads onboarded to landing zones with guardrails enforced. Mean time to provision environments (baseline vs target). % policy compliance (CIS/NIST) and critical vulnerabilities remediated. Cost savings realised (rightsizing, reservations), forecast accuracy. DR test pass rate; RTO/RPO compliance. Uptime/SLO adherence and incident reduction. Ways of Working Hybrid : 2–3 days per week in Oxford; flexibility during key milestones. Cadence : Weekly architecture forum, sprint rituals with squads, monthly exec updates. Documentation : Diagrams (Draw.io/Visio), ADRs in Git, Confluence/SharePoint. Tooling Access : Provided by client (SSO, VPN, repositories).

Location: Oxford, UK, GB

Posted Date: 11/16/2025