IT Architect, Cloud

Ferrara • Chicago, IL

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Technology powers Ferrara’s transformation of iconic brands into a world-class global business. Following a successful S/4HANA go-live, our IT organization is leading the next phase of digital evolution—scaling platforms, advancing data and analytics, and partnering closely with the business to deliver measurable impact. This is a chance to join a highly innovative IT team with strong executive sponsorship and influence across the enterprise.

The IT Architect, Cloud plays a strategic role in designing and governing cloud solutions across a large-scale, complex enterprise environment. This role ensures cloud platforms are secure, scalable, standardized, and aligned with strategic technology roadmaps. The architect leads enterprise-wide cloud initiatives, supports large migration programs, and establishes the frameworks and guardrails that enable efficient, compliant, and consistent cloud adoption.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of IT experience, with at least 3–5 years in a cloud architecture or senior enterprise technical role.
• Deep expertise with at least one major enterprise cloud provider (preferably Microsoft Azure), with working knowledge across hybrid/multi-cloud ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of enterprise networking, IAM, cybersecurity frameworks, and cloud governance models.
• Experience with large-scale cloud migration, modernization, or data center transformation programs.
• Cloud Architecture Expertise – Deep understanding of Microsoft Azure cloud platform, hybrid architectures, and cloud-native design patterns.
• Strategic Vision & Alignment – Aligns cloud solutions with business goals, long-term strategy, and enterprise architecture.
• Cybersecurity & Compliance Knowledge – In partnership with enterprise cybersecurity team ensures cloud designs adhere to cybersecurity best practices, governance, and regulatory requirements.
• Collaboration & Communication – Effectively partners with business leaders, IT teams, and stakeholders, translating complex cloud concepts clearly.

Nice To Haves

• Enterprise cloud certifications - Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Familiarity with enterprise frameworks such as TOGAF, NIST, ITIL, COBIT, or cybersecurity architectures.
• Experience in enterprise integration patterns, API gateways, messaging systems, and global-scale architectures.
• Knowledge of FinOps and cloud cost governance in enterprise environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain enterprise-level cloud reference architectures that support hybrid, multi-cloud, and global operational needs.
• Create scalable architectures for mission-critical applications, data platforms, and integration layers that span multiple business units.
• Define patterns for cloud-native development, distributed systems, and both virtual machine and serverless-based workloads aligned with enterprise standards.
• Oversee the design of highly available, geo-distributed architectures optimized for performance and resilience.
• Contribute to the enterprise cloud strategy, including modernization, migration, and future-state cloud capabilities.
• Develop governance models, cybersecurity guardrails, and architectural policies to ensure consistent cloud adoption across business units.
• Partner with Infrastructure Architecture and Enterprise Architecture to align cloud roadmaps with business strategy, digital transformation initiatives, and regulatory requirements.
• Promote strong cloud governance through architecture review boards (ARBs), reference documentation, and design authority leadership.
• Experience pricing and budgeting cloud architectures and deployments and knowledge of FINOPS.
• Embed enterprise-grade cybersecurity and compliance controls into all cloud architectures, including IAM, encryption, threat detection, and segmentation based on collaboration the enterprise cybersecurity team
• Ensure solutions adhere to corporate policies, regulatory standards, and industry frameworks (e.g. SOC2, ISO 27001).
• Partner with cybersecurity team completing risk assessments for new cloud solutions and ensure operational continuity through robust disaster recovery and resilience patterns.
• Lead architectural efforts for large-scale cloud transformation programs, including migrations from on-premises to cloud.
• Work across multiple business lines, IT domains, and project teams to guide architecture decisions and resolve technical challenges.
• Provide technical direction to Infrastructure platform engineers, cybersecurity teams, and operations groups across the enterprise.
• Review solution designs and implementation approaches to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture principles.
• Experience to mentor and develop resources
• Awareness of enterprise Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) standards and reusable templates (Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, etc.).
• Define and support the development of enterprise cloud platforms, including landing zones, governance layers, and shared services.
• Drive practical cost optimization with FinOps approaches, establishing budgeting models, tagging standards, and resource utilization policies.
• Strengthen observability strategies for logging, monitoring, performance tuning, and incident response.
• Engage with senior leaders, other architects, and business SMEs to translate enterprise needs into cloud-enabled architectures.
• Present architecture recommendations, trade-offs, and risk assessments to executive and technical audiences.
• Collaborate with vendor partners, cloud service providers, internal teams, and third-party integrators to ensure alignment with enterprise standards.

Benefits

• At Ferrara, we’re proud to support our employees by providing comprehensive benefits such as health insurance, dental insurance, a 401(k), and paid time off (PTO).
• Eligible employees may also receive an annual bonus based on company performance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level