Principal Cloud Architect - AWS Migration & Modernization

Principal Cloud Architect – AWS Migration & Modernization

Select Source Solutions is seeking a Principal Cloud Architect – AWS Migration & Modernization to lead large-scale AWS migration initiatives and drive cloud transformation across enterprise environments. This role is responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing secure, scalable, and highly available cloud architectures that align with business objectives and modernization strategies.

As a principal-level technical leader, you will serve as a trusted advisor to stakeholders, guiding architectural decisions across application development, identity and access management, networking, data platforms, and cloud governance. This position is ideal for a senior architect who combines deep AWS expertise with strong consultative and leadership skills.

This role is primarily remote, offering flexibility and autonomy in day-to-day work. Periodic on-site presence in North Carolina and Maryland is required for:

• Architecture and design workshops
• Key stakeholder and customer meetings
• Project milestones and site visits

On-site work is planned in advance and occurs as needed rather than on a fixed schedule.

Supervisory responsibilities: None (technical leadership and mentorship responsibilities only).

Essential functions:

• Act as the technical authority on AWS best practices for cloud migration, modernization, and optimization.
• Design and execute enterprise AWS migration and modernization roadmaps aligned with business and IT objectives.
• Ensure security, compliance, and governance requirements are met throughout the migration lifecycle and in production environments.
• Architect and deploy secure, scalable cloud solutions across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS service models.
• Develop and implement automation scripts, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and tooling to streamline cloud deployments and migrations.
• Drive cloud cost optimization initiatives, including rightsizing, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and usage analysis.
• Design high-availability and disaster recovery architectures for hybrid and cloud-native environments to support "always-on" services.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for end-to-end cloud architecture, including networking, identity and access management, provisioning, and operations.
• Collaborate with application development and operations teams to refactor and modernize workloads using cloud-native technologies such as containers and serverless services.
• Lead migration wave planning, application discovery, dependency mapping, and execution using AWS migration tools.
• Provide advanced technical troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and resolution of complex cloud architecture issues.
• Document architectural designs, migration runbooks, operational procedures, and support documentation.
• Mentor junior architects and engineers, providing technical guidance throughout the project lifecycle.
• Develop tools and documentation to enable support teams to resolve customer issues involving complex cloud environments.

Basic qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field; or equivalent relevant experience.
• 8+ years of experience working with one or more Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).
• Proven experience designing and deploying large-scale, enterprise cloud systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with AWS, with working knowledge of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Demonstrated expertise with AWS Migration Hub and related services, including AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) and AWS Database Migration Service (DMS).
• Experience leading migration wave planning, application discovery, and dependency mapping initiatives.
• Deep expertise in cloud security, networking, governance, performance optimization, and cost management.
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code, automation frameworks, and scripting/programming languages.
• Experience architecting scalable, automated infrastructure in enterprise environments.
• Experience in client-facing, consultative, or advisory roles.
• Strong understanding of load balancing, geo-redundancy, CDN, VPN, and hybrid networking technologies.
• Excellent written, verbal, and analytical communication skills.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience designing and implementing serverless architectures.
• AWS certifications (e.g., Solutions Architect – Professional) or equivalent cloud certifications.
• Experience migrating large-scale data platforms, analytics systems, or high-performance computing workloads.