Cloud Architect

Patterson Companies, Inc.•CA - Remote, CA

3d•$133,100 - $177,500

About The Position

The Cloud Architect Principal is responsible for the technical direction of enterprise cloud solutions and serves as a technical expert. The role translates business requirements into secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective architectures across cloud and hybrid environments. It is accountable for designing, implementing, and continuously evolving cloud architecture, reference architectures, engineering standards, platforms, and applications from concept through implementation. The role partners with application, data, infrastructure, security, and business teams to shape the cloud roadmap, modernize platforms, and govern architecture decisions. The position designs and implements cloud architectures across platforms such as Azure and GCP; leads complex cloud initiatives and solution design; monitors platform performance, availability, and operational health; and establishes optimization, automation, and engineering practices. It also embeds security and compliance controls, advances resilience and recovery readiness, evaluates emerging technologies, and provides technical guidance to team members and stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Seven years of experience in cloud engineering, infrastructure, software development, or related technology disciplines.
Three years of experience in cloud architecture and solution design.
Experience with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Expertise in distributed systems, cloud design patterns, networking, identity, security, and application and data integration.
Expertise in networking, identity and access management, governance, compute, storage, managed databases, and monitoring tools and services, including examples such as Microsoft Entra ID, AKS, App Service, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Azure Monitor, and Key Vault.
Expertise across resource hierarchy, IAM, networking, compute, storage, managed databases, and observability platforms and services, including examples such as GKE, Cloud Run, Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, BigQuery, Cloud Monitoring, and Secret Manager.
Proficiency with version control tools, CI/CD pipelines, and automation languages or tools such as Terraform, Git, Kubernetes, Python, and PowerShell.
Knowledge of cloud security, monitoring, compliance, and operational reliability practices.
Ability to analyze ambiguous technical and business requirements and translate them into scalable cloud solutions.
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to diagnose and resolve highly complex cloud infrastructure and application issues.
Ability to lead technical initiatives, influence cross-functional stakeholders, and guide others without direct supervisory authority.
Ability to balance workload requirements and cost when choosing services aligned with business priorities.

Nice To Haves

Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.
Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification.
Cloud security or networking certifications.

Responsibilities

Design and implement cloud architecture across multiple platforms, including long-term designs, reference architectures, and roadmaps that support business requirements, scalability, performance, security, and operational reliability.
Lead complex cloud initiatives by defining technical approaches, directing solution design, and guiding implementation and integration across cloud environments.
Oversee cloud platform performance by reviewing availability and operational health, proactively identifying issues, selecting appropriately sized services, estimating costs, troubleshooting complex problems, and implementing sustainable resolutions.
Establish standards for cloud-native applications, infrastructure, data, and integration; create automated delivery patterns and reusable models; and define standards and deployment practices.
Establish and advance cloud engineering standards, processes, and best practices to improve reliability, maintainability, and efficiency.
Embed security and compliance controls in cloud designs and maintain audit, monitoring, and compliance-related documentation.
Define resilience reference architectures and recovery objectives, and validate resilience through testing and operational-readiness reviews.
Evaluate emerging cloud technologies, tools, and architectural approaches through proofs of concept and recommend adoption strategies based on business benefit.
Provide technical leadership and guidance to team members and stakeholders, influence engineering decisions, and support successful delivery of cloud initiatives aligned with established standards.
Comply with company and department policies and standards, and perform other duties as assigned.