Lead Principal Cloud Architect

Lead Principal Cloud Architect (Contract)

Irvine, CA, United States (On-site)

Contract (1 year)

Published 3 days ago

TOGAF

Cloud Architect Certifications

IAC

cross - functional collaboration

GCP Cloud

cloud migration

This role exists to define and govern enterprise cloud and hybrid infrastructure architecture while standardizing architecture knowledge, translating business and security requirements into architecture artifacts, and validating infrastructure designs, technologies, and MSP submissions that have enterprise integration dependencies. Success is measured through executable cloud strategy, usable standards and reference architectures, effective governance and review outcomes, and scalable, secure, cost-conscious adoption patterns across infrastructure and hybrid environments.

• Define the target-state cloud and hybrid infrastructure architecture across public cloud, on-premises, and relevant edge/distributed scenarios, with clear standards, blueprints, and reference architectures.
• Own and evolve the cloud architecture roadmap, including migration, modernization, landing-zone, governance, and operational readiness considerations aligned to business outcomes.
• Extract and normalize infrastructure knowledge from SOPs, processes, legacy standards, and multiple repositories into a centralized standards and policy knowledge base.
• Lead project intake and architecture requirements definition, including discovery with business stakeholders and Info Sec, and translate requirements into architecture artifacts such as ARDs.
• Review and approve infrastructure architecture and standards submissions from MSPs and other delivery partners to ensure conformance with enterprise standards, security expectations, and operational design requirements.
• Act as part of the Enterprise Architecture review function to validate new technologies and solution designs with infrastructure integration points, hidden dependencies, or architectural risks.
• Establish and enforce governance guardrails covering security, identity, network segmentation, compliance, cost management, and approved design patterns across cloud and hybrid environments.
• Lead adoption of infrastructure-as-code, automation, and repeatable deployment approaches, including standards for provisioning, lifecycle management, and reusable modules.
• Partner with engineering, operations, security, and product/application teams to remove design roadblocks, improve reliability and observability, and ensure supportable operating models.
• Communicate architecture decisions, risks, standards, and roadmap trade-offs clearly to technical teams, delivery partners, and executive stakeholders.

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure, cloud, or platform engineering, with 5+ years in senior or lead architecture roles delivering enterprise-scale solutions.
• Deep hands-on experience with public cloud platforms, with expertise in GCP, and strong knowledge in Azure, AWS, with hybrid connectivity to on-premises environments.
• Proven ability to define standards, reference architectures, governance guardrails, and architecture review practices for cloud or hybrid environments.
• Strong experience in cloud migration and modernization planning, including dependency analysis, target-state design, and operational readiness.
• Demonstrated expertise in infrastructure-as-code / datacenter-as-code, automation, and orchestration frameworks.
• Experience designing and governing secure, resilient, and cost-aware cloud architectures, including identity, networking, compliance, and operational controls.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to translate architecture decisions for both technical and executive audiences.
• Experience working cross-functionally with security, engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to discover requirements and reconcile competing constraints.
• Experience reviewing delivery artifacts and guiding external partners, MSPs, or systems integrators.
• Ability to create and maintain architecture documentation, standards, blueprints, and operational guidance suitable for enterprise use.

• Experience leading or materially supporting a cloud center of excellence or comparable enterprise architecture governance model.
• Experience with Fin Ops or cloud cost-governance practices.
• Experience with observability, performance, and operational resilience patterns for cloud platforms.
• Experience with platform engineering, managed services…