Cloud Native Enterprise Architect / Senior Solution Architect

Cloud Native Enterprise Architect / Senior Solution Architect

Job Title : Cloud Native Enterprise Architect / Senior Solution Architect

Location : Europe

Job Type : Contractor

Job Description:

We are looking for a few experienced Hybrid Cloud Enterprise/Senior Solution Architect with hands on experience on each the following areas.

1. Cloud-native platforms and containers - architecture, implementation, and operations experience with Kubernetes and enterprise distributions such as Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, SUSE Rancher, or Rafay. Experience should include cluster design, multi-tenancy, networking, storage, security, observability, upgrades, resilience, and workload lifecycle management.

Platform engineering and application delivery - experience designing automated developer platforms and software delivery workflows using GitOps, continuous integration and continuous delivery, policy as code, secrets management, container registries, software supply-chain controls, service mesh, observability, and site reliability engineering practices.

As a Cloud Native Enterprise Architect or Senior Solution Architect, you will advise customers and define and deliver hybrid-cloud strategies and architectures aligned with their business and technology requirements. You will design, guide the implementation of, and optimise cloud-native solutions that improve scalability, resilience, security, and operational efficiency across complex enterprise environments.

This position requires a strong blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and leadership to work closely with cross-functional teams in IT, security, and business units to drive cloud transformation initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture and design of cloud native , ensuring alignment with our customer's business requirements.
• Advise, develop, integrate and implement solutions in the cloud native technology areas ensuring seamless interoperability, security, and data governance.
• Provide architectural oversight for the design, deployment, and lifecycle management in cloud native technology areas, focusing on scalability, security, and performance .
• Collaborate with business leaders to understand enterprise-level requirements and translate them into effective, scalable cloud native architecture.
• Ensure that solutions adhere to industry standards, regulatory compliance (e.g., ISO, GDPR), and best practices for environment security, data privacy, and infrastructure resilience.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to teams involved in cloud native solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive architectural documentation , including blueprints, guidelines, and best practices for using these artefacts as standard reference across the delivery teams.
• Monitor industry trends and innovations to drive continuous improvement and stay ahead of technological advancements.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field (Master's degree preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in IT architecture, with at least 5 years focusing Cloud native solutions .
• Deep expertise in above-mentioned technology areas , with a proven track record of architecting and deploying large-scale solutions in cloud native areas for customers.
• Deep knowledge and hands on experience of virtualization technologies (e.g., VMware, KVM, Hyper-V, Nutanix) and software-defined infrastructure (SDN, SDS).
• Strong background in security best practices, including identity management, access control, encryption, and compliance frameworks.
• Excellent understanding of networking, storage, and compute within cloud environments and how to optimize for performance and cost-efficiency.
• Strong experience in automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) methodologies using tools like Ansible, Terraform, or similar.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to engage with both technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels of the organization.

Preferred Skills & Certifications:

• Practical working experience and knowledge of Enterprise and solution architecture
• Industry specific knowledge FSI, MDI, CME, etc
• Business continuity, risk management
• Communication, technical leadership, problem solving skills
• Stakeholder, customer escalation mgmt
• Familiarity with enterprise-level workload migrations from Vmware to other virtualization platforms/containers, etc
• Understanding of AI / Gen AI, its impact on security,
• Understanding of DevOps and DevSecOps principles and their application
• Cloud native related certifications such as CKA, CKS, RHCA, etc
• TOGAF or architecture related certification