Cloud Solutions Architect

Overview

Allied Consultants, Inc is a proudly Austin based firm with over 34 years of experience delivering top-tier technical and business professionals within Texas State Agencies. We are currently seeking an experience Cloud Solutions Architect  to play a key role within a high-impact technical services team.

At Allied Consultants, we value our consultants and are committed to providing an exceptional experience including:

• Highly competitive pay rates
• Local support staff for responsive, personal service
• Comprehensive benefits package, including:
  • Medical insurance (with employer cost sharing)
  • Life insurance
  • A 401(K) plan with company match
  • Flexible spending through a cafeteria plan

Candidates selected for interviews will be subject to a criminal background check and may be required to pass a drug screening, in compliance with federal and state regulations. All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of these checks.

Allied Consultants is a proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Responsibilities

The cloud architect is responsible for the cloud computing initiatives within an organization and for directing the architectural aspects of a cloud brokering team across all aspects of IT and the business. Responsible for the planning and engineering of an organization's cloud computing infrastructure and applications. Implements and designs hardware and software. Familiar with standard concepts, practices, and procedures of cloud technology, including Software as Service (SaaS), Platform as Service (PaaS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

The Cloud infrastructure Architect will focus on the design and architecture for IT modernization and transformation for Data Center Operations initiatives. This person leads strategic initiatives and work groups, possesses solid technology skills, and has a base understanding of client business processes. This position will perform advanced, senior-level technology architecture work in support of client's DCO Service Delivery projects whose scope is to address and support client-wide technology needs. This position will work closely with DCO Service Delivery Management and APEX team members, the CTO, client Enterprise Architects, portfolio managers, application development teams, business stakeholders and other partners. They will have to utilize agile development practices and works together with other teams in support of application enhancements. They will act independently or as a member of a workgroup or project team. They are responsible for the quality and on-time delivery of the deliverables. This position will work under minimal direction with considerable latitude for the use of initiative and independent judgment.

Essential Job Functions (EJFs):

• (30%) Leads DCO Service Delivery strategic efforts supporting both project delivery and steady-state operations. Develops architectural blueprints, network topologies, and technical specifications that align business requirements with appropriate cloud services. Serves as a lead cloud engineer responsible for defining, guiding, and delivering technology initiatives and projects that address specific business needs. Performs advanced, senior-level computer systems analysis work, including hands-on planning, assessment of user requirements, review of procedures, and identification of system improvements. Work includes automating processes and enhancing existing systems, particularly those involving the transition from on-premises environments to public, private, or hybrid cloud platforms. Plans and schedules studies and system implementations and provides technical and business process guidance to support effective delivery.
• (25%) Drives and leads cross-functional initiatives involving agency systems, IT groups, and other state entities, requiring coordination, planning, and scheduling throughout project development and implementation. Evaluates and presents architectural options to support the selection and implementation of effective technology solutions. Implements Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and integration pipelines to streamline deployments, improve consistency, and efficiently scale resources. Designs and implements new or revised methods that effectively meet agency needs. Ensures solution designs comply with applicable data security requirements for each category of data contained within the solution. Establishes and enforces robust security measures, manages identity and access controls, and ensures systems align with applicable industry regulations, including HIPAA, as well as client best practices.
• (15%) Designs, develop and administers highly scalable systems with core capabilities across cloud-based provider services. This includes reporting and full system integration.
• (15%) Leads and participates in solution implementation to include – coordinating and solving problems, analyzing systems and procedures, developing or revising existing code; scheduling, testing, installing, and implementing systems; writing or revising standards and procedures.
• (5%) Articulates the current state and desired state of a technical solutions, identifies gaps between the two states, and develops approaches to close any gaps. Collaborates with client IT groups on recommendations. Assists in the preparation of information technology planning and justification.
• (5%) Oversees the process of developing training for staff prior to implementation of a new technology or data analytics platform. May also conduct the training of technical staff and program staff on the use of the new tools, technologies, or application.
• (5%) Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements: Candidates that do not meet or exceed the minimum stated requirements (skills/experience) will be displayed to customers but may not be chosen for this opportunity.

Years

Required/Preferred

Experience

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding of the limitations and capabilities of computer systems, information technology equipment, applicable programming languages, computer hardware and software, and computer operating systems.

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding of new cloud technologies and the analytical services available from the major cloud services providers

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding of cloud delivery models: PaaS, SaaS, IaaS

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding of agile (scrum) methodology and scrum ceremonies.

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding of cloud-based services for AWS, Microsoft Azure or GCP

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding of cloud-based network design principles

7

Required

Strong knowledge in data governance, security, and compliance in cloud environments

7

Required

Strong technical writing and diagraming skills, including proficiency with modeling and mapping tools (e.g., Visio), the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and MS Project

7

Required

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience as a technology architect for software development, data analytics, performance management system, or data warehousing project

7

Required

Skill analyzing technology systems capabilities, limitations, defects, and business problems to draw evidence-based conclusions and devise innovative solutions

7

Required

Experience and understanding of cloud computing DevOps principles Continuous Integration/Continuous Design (CI/CD). Experience with Containerization, deploying and configuring microservices. Kubernetes architecture deployment, scaling, and maintenance

7

Required

Support application Kubernetes cluster and serverless infrastructure, help address any associated API’s pertaining to cloud infrastructure services and integrations

7

Required

Work on cloud automation using Ansible, Terraform, AWS cloud formation and Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates

7

Required

Experience and understanding with cloud and performance monitoring, auditing logging, and operations tools such as: Sysdig Secure (CNAPP), Dynatrace, Cloud native toolsets (AWS CloudWatch, GCP Cloud Operations, Azure Monitor, OCI Monitoring, etc.).

7

Required

Proficient automation skillset using a combination of command language scripting (Bash, Korn, PowerShell, Cloud CLI, Kubernetes Helm) and third-party tools

7

Required

Knowledge, Experience and understanding with declarative and imperative languages (YAML, JSON, Ruby, HCL, etc.) and tools that are leveraged (Ansible, Docker, Terraform, etc) to leverage infrastructure-as-code (IaC).

7

Required

Ability to work under pressure and successfully manage multiple overlapping deadlines, and able to handle multiple cross-agency projects

7

Required

Ability to coordinate multiple assignments/projects, set priorities, and meet deadlines

7

Required

Ability to lead and provide direction to team members

7

Required

Ability to lead the creation of best practices and procedures

8

Preferred

8 years+ Knowledge, Experience and understanding of the limitations and capabilities of computer systems, information technology equipment, applicable programming languages, computer hardware and software, and computer operating systems.

8

Preferred

8 years+ Knowledge, Experience and understanding of new cloud technologies and the analytical services available from the major cloud services providers

8

Preferred

8 years+ Knowledge, Experience and understanding of cloud delivery models: PaaS, SaaS, IaaS

8

Preferred

8 years+ Knowledge, Experience and understanding of cloud-based services for AWS, Microsoft Azure or GCP

8

Preferred

8 years+ Knowledge, Experience and understanding of cloud-based network design principles

8

Preferred

Experience and understanding of cloud computing DevOps principles Continuous Integration/Continuous Design (CI/CD). Experience with Containerization, deploying and configuring microservices. Kubernetes architecture deployment, scaling, and maintenance

8

Preferred

8 years+ Knowledge, Experience and understanding with declarative and imperative languages (YAML, JSON, Ruby, HCL, etc.) and tools that are leveraged (Ansible, Docker, Terraform, etc) to leverage infrastructure-as-code (IaC).

8

Preferred

Knowledge and/or hands-on experience with cloud database services (Rational/NoSQL and SQL/Oracle) data lakes and cloud ETL/ELT best practices, suitable frameworks of handling all types of data for structured and unstructured information.

8

Preferred

8 years+ of experience architecting, engineering, or developing enterprise IT solutions in cloud and hybrid environments.

5

Preferred

Knowledge of AI services and configuration required to set up the service available from major cloud services providers.

5

Preferred

Knowledge of data pipelines, ETL processes, and big data frameworks