OCTO Cloud Architect

Collaboredge Inc.•Washington, DC

3d•$71 - $87

About The Position

OCTO seeks a hands-on Azure Cloud Architect to lead the continued development of its multi-cloud environment, centered on Microsoft Azure with supporting AWS workloads. The role is the technical lead for OCTO's cloud team and the subject matter expert for cloud architecture across DC government. The architect designs secure, well-governed environments for OCTO and partner agencies, 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 role includes defining cloud standards, maintaining architecture documentation and runbooks, overseeing Azure landing zones and security baselines, supporting AWS workloads operationally, and tracking work through Azure DevOps and ServiceNow. An extensive national criminal background check is required before starting; federal background checks are not compliant under this contract.

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 in 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 and a track record of producing clear architecture documentation and runbooks.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), or ability to obtain the certification within 6 months of starting.
The candidate skills matrix specifies a bachelor's degree in IT or a related field, or equivalent experience.
The candidate skills matrix specifies 8+ years conveying technical and functional concepts for a technical specialty and 8+ years preparing complex technical documentation.
The candidate skills matrix specifies 5+ years of hands-on production Terraform experience, 3+ years building infrastructure CI/CD pipelines, 3+ years planning or leading migrations, and 3+ years leading or mentoring engineers.
Must meet the requirements for a Senior Level position.
Must complete an extensive national criminal background check before starting. The posting states that any criminal activity on the background check eliminates a candidate from consideration and that recent histories of extensive driving, drug, robbery, or other illegal activity within the prior seven years are not acceptable. Federal background checks are not compliant under this contract.

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 (as listed in the preferred qualifications).
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.
Microsoft Certified Azure certifications.

Responsibilities

Translate agency business requirements into cloud solution designs and explain technical concepts, options, costs, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences.
Improve project standards for infrastructure as code, change management, and documentation.
Define and promote Microsoft Azure best practices and standards, including the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework, Well-Architected Framework, landing zones, naming and tagging, Azure Policy, and RBAC.
Design and support cloud technologies integrated with on-premises systems and networks, including hybrid connectivity, hub-and-spoke networking, private endpoints, firewall integration, and Microsoft Entra ID identity integration.
Work with agency CIOs, OCTO leadership, OCTO security, vendor partners, and technical experts to scope requirements, communicate status, and support decisions.
Serve as OCTO's cloud architecture subject matter expert, providing guidance on Azure services, security baselines, cost management, and AWS operations.
Lead complex cloud implementations and migrations of on-premises virtualized workloads to Azure, including discovery, dependency mapping, 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 of Azure Virtual Desktop environments, including the boundary between Terraform-managed infrastructure and the Nerdio management platform.
Define Azure workload monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery standards; track and optimize cloud spend to support agency chargeback reporting.
Support existing AWS workloads operationally.
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, treating documentation as a reviewed deliverable.
Track work in Azure DevOps boards and manage incidents and changes in ServiceNow.