Lead Application Architect (GCP)

TEKsystems•Hanover, MD

1d•$160,000 - $225,000•Remote

About The Position

The Lead Architect is a hands-on technical leader responsible for defining and delivering end-to-end solution architecture for complex client and internal initiatives. The role drives technical direction across teams, ensures solutions are scalable, secure, and maintainable, and guides delivery teams to build high-quality solutions aligned with enterprise modernization goals. Lead Architects stay close to the code and runtime by validating key architectural decisions, contributing where needed on critical paths, establishing engineering guardrails, and leading design reviews. Success is measured by both architectural quality and production outcomes, with the role remaining primarily focused on hands-on solution engineering and minimal delivery support. Occasional travel may be required, such as for engagement kickoffs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree /4-year college degree in Computer Science, or equivalent work experience
15+ years of software development experience.
12+ years of strong hands-on experience in Java.
5+ years of hands-on experience designing, migrating, and operating production workloads on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
5+ years of experience in a consultative, client-facing Lead Architect or Practice Architect role, with a proven track record of influencing executive stakeholders.
Expert level software engineering with proven experience designing and governing architectures for distributed systems, including clear boundaries, contracts, versioning, and data ownership
Strong hands on experience with Java frameworks such as Spring / Spring Boot, RESTful APIs, and microservices architectures or their Python equivalent
Experience designing and delivering distributed, highly available systems
Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, messaging, and integration patterns
Deep expertise in Java (or) Python including refactoring mature codebases, performance tuning, and pragmatic framework evaluation
Ability to define and enforce quality strategies across teams, including test automation, testability standards, and measurable quality outcomes
Hands on contributor through prototyping, reference implementations, deep code reviews, and critical path development
Experience with CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar tools
Advanced DevOps practices including CI/CD strategy, IaC, release safety, environment strategy, and scalable automation
Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
Strong understanding of security, identity, compliance, and secure by default practices
Full stack solution design capability across frontend, backend, integration, and data layers, with depth in at least one area
Ability to establish architectural patterns that improve maintainability, reduce coupling, and enable independent team delivery.
Deep expertise in cloud-native design patterns, GCP security/identity (IAM, VPC Service Controls), hybrid/multi-cloud networking, and cost optimization (FinOps).
Hands-on knowledge of core GCP services: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Run, Compute Engine, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Storage.
Experience with managed database options on GCP, including Cloud SQL, Cloud Spanner, and BigQuery, as well as legacy-to-cloud data migration strategies.
Sets expectations for responsible AI tool usage across teams, including validation, security, and IP/privacy considerations
Evaluates and enables the adoption of generative AI developer tools (e.g., Gemini Code Assist) to safely accelerate modernization velocity, code translation, and documentation.
Establishes architectural patterns for integrating enterprise data with cloud-based AI/ML services (e.g., Vertex AI) while maintaining strict data privacy, governance, and security boundaries.
Comfortably navigates ambiguous environments, driving technical clarity and building consensus among conflicting client business and IT stakeholders.
Strategic Communication: Translates highly complex technical architectures into clear, value-driven language for non-technical executives.
Accountability: Takes ownership of production outcomes, ensuring systems are engineered for long-term security, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
Force Multiplier: Acts as a technical mentor, accelerating team delivery through reusable reference architectures, code patterns, and shared tooling.
Agile Advocacy: Deeply understands Agile methodologies and iterative delivery, ensuring large modernization programs are broken down into manageable, value-generating increments.

Nice To Haves

Relevant technical certifications (Cloud, Architecture, or Development) are a plus.
Familiarity with Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) or Anthos / Google Distributed Cloud for hybrid modernization use cases is highly desirable.
Preferred Certification: GCP Professional Cloud Architect or GCP Professional Applications Developer.

Responsibilities

Serve as a Client CTO Partner: Advise client executive leadership (CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Enterprise Architects and Technology Architects) on technical strategy, cloud economics, and long-term modernization roadmaps aligned with business goals.
Drive Legacy Modernization Strategy: Assess legacy application portfolios (monoliths, traditional tiered applications) and define pragmatic migration and re-architecting strategies (Refactor, Replatform, Rearchitect) for GCP.
Own End-to-End GCP Architecture: Define and govern scalable, secure, and highly available distributed system architectures, including integrations, API strategies, data flows, and non-functional requirements.
Lead Technical Governance: Conduct architecture and design reviews; document key decisions, trade-offs, technical debt mitigation strategies, and engineering guardrails.
Stay Hands-On: Mitigate delivery risk by writing code for prototypes, proof-of-concepts (PoCs), and reference implementations of modern cloud patterns. Continuously evaluate and adopt new technologies and patterns
Establish Engineering Standards: Define and enforce practices across API design (e.g., gRPC, REST), automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and secure-by-default blueprints.
Embed Operability by Design: Ensure cloud workloads are built with production-readiness in mind, including deep observability, resilience, automated recovery, and incident response readiness.
Support Practice Growth: Partner with pre-sales and account teams to shape modernization proposals, define solution boundaries, and provide accurate effort estimations.
Mentor and Scale Talent: Mentor senior engineers, emerging architects, and client technical teams to foster a culture of engineering excellence.