Principal Infrastructure Platform Architect

Export Development Canada•Ottawa, ON

6d•CA$112,006 - CA$149,341•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Infrastructure Platform Architect is a senior architectural leadership role accountable for shaping, evolving, and governing EDC’s infrastructure foundations across on‑premises, hybrid, and cloud environments. The role designs end‑to‑end infrastructure solutions and platform capabilities (from concept through implementation and measurable outcomes) by producing solution blueprints, target‑state and transition‑state architectures, integration designs, and non‑functional requirements (security, resilience, performance, observability, and cost). As a delegated design authority, the Architect owns and enforces infrastructure reference architectures, standards, and guardrails; leads architecture governance through forums such as the Architecture Review Board (ARB) and relevant Communities of Practice (CoPs); approves key design decisions and exceptions; and ensures traceability through decision records. The role operates at the intersection of business strategy, enterprise architecture, platform engineering, operations, and cybersecurity; translating business and risk requirements into implementable designs, sequencing decisions into roadmaps, and governing delivery alignment to approved architectures through design reviews and ongoing engagement with delivery and managed service partners.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.
Minimum 10 years’ of experience designing and governing infrastructure architectures and modernization initiatives across on‑premises, hybrid, and cloud environments (including delivery oversight through partners/managed services).
Proven ability to define and own infrastructure/platform strategies, target‑state and transition‑state architectures, and translate business, operational, and risk requirements into pragmatic roadmaps, standards, and reference architectures.
Experience acting as a design authority—leading design reviews (e.g., ARB), approving architecture decisions, managing exceptions, and driving alignment through Communities of Practice (CoPs).
Experience partnering with procurement and managing vendors.
Strong written and verbal communication to produce decision records, investment cases, and clear recommendations for leadership.
Experience driving cost transparency and optimization (e.g., show-back/chargeback), including stakeholder consumption reviews.
Strong knowledge management and enablement mindset leveraging documentation, playbooks, and patterns that accelerate adoption.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, coaching, and contribute to talent and capability planning.

Nice To Haves

Relevant certifications such as Azure/AWS/GCP Architecture, FinOps Practitioner, ITIL Certification, M365 Professional, CoPilot or AI fundamentals certification.
Hands-on experience with supplier governance and commercial management (RFPs, KPIs/SLAs, service performance, change requests, and continuous improvement).
Bilingual in English and French.

Responsibilities

Own the infrastructure architecture vision and target state across on‑premises, hybrid, and cloud environments, including transition states and decommission plans.
Design end‑to‑end infrastructure solutions and platform capabilities by producing solution blueprints, logical and physical designs, integration patterns, and non‑functional requirements.
Define and maintain infrastructure reference architectures, standards, and reusable building blocks (patterns/playbooks) that teams and partners must adopt.
Act as a delegated design authority: lead or chair design reviews; approve designs and exceptions; and ensure decisions are documented and traceable through decision records.
Drive architecture governance and community alignment by engaging the ARB and relevant Communities of Practice (CoPs), and by coaching solution teams on standards and trade‑offs.
Partner with cybersecurity to embed security-by-design controls, threat considerations, and compliance requirements into infrastructure architectures.
Ensure platform operability by defining SLO/SLA expectations, observability requirements, reliability patterns, and supportability criteria for managed services.
Influence investment and delivery sequencing by providing architecture input to roadmaps, estimates, and prioritization—ensuring outcomes are achievable within cost and risk appetite.
Support supplier and partner governance by defining technical requirements for procurements, reviewing solution proposals, and contributing to KPI/SLA expectations and continuous improvement.