Senior Cloud Architect

Senior Cloud Architect

Join a winning team of innovative thinkers, seasoned mortgage professionals, and financial experts. Build your career at Planet—recognized as a Top Mortgage Employer by National Mortgage Professional.

Job Summary

Planet Home Lending is seeking a Senior Cloud Architect to design and build secure, scalable, and resilient cloud infrastructure in Microsoft Azure. This role blends deep technical execution with architectural oversight, supporting enterprise cloud capabilities that drive business growth, strengthen compliance, and enhance customer experience. Success requires hands-on proficiency, strategic thinking, and the ability to collaborate across diverse technical and business teams.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Cloud Architecture & Engineering

• Design and implement Azure-based solutions across IaaS, PaaS, and hybrid environments.
• Build and maintain infrastructure using Terraform and other Infrastructure as Code tools.
• Configure, manage, and optimize core Azure services (compute, storage, network, IAM)
• Develop and support Landing Zones aligned with Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework and Zero Trust principles.
• Apply Azure-native security controls (Defender for Cloud, Entra ID, RBAC, CA Policies).
• Support implementation of DR/BCP strategies to align with regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with InfoSec to operationalize secure configurations and identity governance, specifically to align with NIST, CIS, and industry related security and regulatory requirements.

Operations & Optimization

• Monitor and optimize performance, availability, and cost across Azure environments.
• Automate provisioning, patching, and lifecycle management of cloud resources.
• Troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure issues across hybrid and cloud-native platforms.
• Work closely with developers, administrators, security engineers, and data teams to ensure cohesive solution delivery and adherence to evolving cloud standards and patterns.
• Communicate effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders to align solutions with business needs.

Position Requirements

Education

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent related work experience required

Experience

• Minimum 10 years progressive IT experience spanning at least two IT disciplines, including technical architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or operations.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in cloud infrastructure or systems engineering roles.
• Minimum 5 years of Windows and Microsoft SQL Server support.
• Minimum 3 years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure engineering and design.
• Experience designing highly available, highly resilient cloud infrastructure.
• Experience planning on-premises-to-cloud assessments (Azure Migrate tool), estimating costs (Azure pricing calculator), planning, and migration.
• Exposure to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Event Hubs, and Azure Managed SQL.

Functional/Technical Skills

Required:

• Solid understanding of Azure IaaS and PaaS services and components.
• Working knowledge of PowerShell, Infrastructure-as-Code tools, and cloud automation.
• Strong understanding of IP management and subnetting in Azure.
• Familiarity with Azure Landing Zones and Zero Trust architecture.

Preferred:

• Experience in the mortgage or financial services industry.
• Strong proficiency in Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code practices.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps tooling (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions).
• Experience with Azure Data Factory, Data Bricks, and other data solutions.
• Experience with advanced network design and engineering concepts.
• Deep understanding of Windows and SQL licensing, SA, and ARC in hybrid environments.
• AZ-305 (Solutions Architect Expert) and AZ-700 (Networking) certifications are a plus.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work across technical and business teams.

Environmental/Physical Demands

Work is typically performed in a standard office environment. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sustain predictable work attendance, communicate with others, frequently required to stand, walk, sit, and use arms, hands and fingers to reach, handle or touch. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and ability to adjust focus. Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of an employee. The Company reserves the right to amend or modify this document at any time and without notice.

Benefits

Our benefits package includes 3 comprehensive Cigna or Kaiser medical plans, dental, and vision insurance. We provide short term and long-term disability insurance, basic life insurance, 401(k), and 11 employer paid holidays. In addition, we offer supplemental benefits to include life insurance, critical illness and accident plans.