Cloud Architect
About The Position
The Cloud Architect is a hands-on technical lead for OCTO’s multi-cloud environment, centered on Microsoft Azure with supporting AWS workloads. The role serves as the subject matter expert for cloud architecture across DC government and designs secure, well-governed environments for OCTO and partner agencies. The architect delivers infrastructure through code, plans and executes workload migrations, and provides architectural oversight for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) deployments. The position works closely with agency IT leaders, OCTO security, and the on-premises virtualization team, and provides technical direction to an Azure Cloud Engineer. The architect owns the Azure landing zone and cloud architecture standards, supports integration between cloud and on-premises systems, and leads complex migrations from discovery and dependency mapping through design, cost modeling, and migration waves. The role also supports existing AWS workloads, establishes monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery standards, optimizes cloud spend, and maintains architecture documentation and runbooks. This is a long-term government contract position based in Washington, DC; interviews are conducted by webcam.
Requirements
- At least 8 years of infrastructure engineering experience, including at least 5 years designing and building in Microsoft Azure.
- Demonstrated design and delivery of an enterprise Azure landing zone, including management groups, Azure Policy, RBAC, and hub-and-spoke networking.
- Hands-on production Terraform experience, including reusable modules and remote state management.
- Experience building infrastructure CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, with transferable skills.
- Strong knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID, conditional access, and identity governance.
- Experience planning or leading migrations of on-premises virtualized workloads, such as VMware, to Azure.
- Working knowledge of AWS sufficient to operate and troubleshoot existing EC2, VPC, IAM, and S3 workloads.
- Experience leading or mentoring engineers, including code review.
- Strong written communication skills and a track record of producing clear architecture documentation and runbooks.
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), or ability to obtain it within six months of starting.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in state, local, or federal government IT environments.
- Hands-on experience with Azure Virtual Desktop and/or Nerdio Manager for Enterprise.
- Experience with Azure.
- Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as NIST 800-53, CJIS, or FedRAMP.
- Experience with Azure cost management, reservations, and chargeback models.
- Familiarity with ServiceNow for incident and change management.
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate or higher.
- HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate.
Responsibilities
- Translate agency business requirements into cloud solution designs and explain options, costs, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Improve project standards for infrastructure as code, change management, and cloud documentation.
- Establish and apply Microsoft Azure best practices, including Cloud Adoption Framework and Well-Architected Framework guidance, landing zone design, naming and tagging, Azure Policy, and role-based access control.
- Design and support cloud integrations with on-premises systems and networks, including hybrid connectivity, hub-and-spoke networking, private endpoints, firewall integration, and Microsoft Entra ID identity integration.
- Engage agency CIOs, OCTO leadership, security teams, technical experts, and vendor partners to scope requirements, communicate status, and support decisions.
- Provide authoritative cloud architecture guidance on Azure services, security baselines, cost management, and AWS operations.
- Lead complex cloud implementations and migrations of on-premises virtualized workloads to Azure, from discovery and dependency mapping through target design, sizing, cost modeling, and migration waves.
- Design, mature, and own the Azure landing zone, including management groups, subscriptions, policy, RBAC, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud security baselines.
- Ensure production changes are delivered through code and pull requests rather than manual portal changes.
- Provide architectural oversight for Azure Virtual Desktop environments, including the boundary between Terraform-managed infrastructure and the Nerdio management platform.
- Define monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery standards for Azure workloads, and track and optimize cloud spending to support agency chargeback reporting.
- Provide operational support for existing AWS workloads.
- Provide technical direction, code review, and mentoring to the Azure Cloud Engineer, and ensure each critical system has a primary and backup owner.
- Maintain current architecture diagrams, design decisions, and runbooks as reviewed deliverables.
- Track work in Azure DevOps boards and track incidents and changes in ServiceNow.
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What This Job Offers
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
