Senior Platform Architect (Cloud, DevOps & Automation)

CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen)•Nashville, TN

About The Position

CLA is seeking a Senior Platform Architect to lead the design, strategy, and evolution of enterprise platform capabilities. The role supports infrastructure modernization, platform engineering, and scalable, secure, reliable cloud-native solutions across the firm. It partners with engineering, security, operations, and business technology teams to define platform architecture standards, establish automation frameworks, and promote Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, Site Reliability Engineering, and cloud best practices. The architect defines the platform roadmap and governance, designs and optimizes cloud infrastructure, and leads adoption of cloud-native services. The role also advances automation and deployment practices, establishes reliability and observability standards, supports operational resilience, and provides technical leadership and mentorship. A bachelor's degree is required, though relevant experience, education, and training may be accepted in lieu of a degree. A degree in Information Management, Computer Science, or a related field is preferred.

Requirements

At least 4 years of relevant experience.
Bachelor's degree required; a combination of relevant experience, education, and training may be accepted in lieu of a degree.
Expertise in platform architecture, including scalable, resilient, secure, and highly available technology platforms.
Strong knowledge of cloud-native architectures and services across public cloud environments such as Azure, AWS, and/or Google Cloud Platform.
Experience defining platform standards, reference architectures, architectural decision records (ADRs), and technology roadmaps.
Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code and automation frameworks.
Experience designing and governing CI/CD deployment patterns, release automation processes, and modern software delivery practices.
Knowledge of DevOps methodologies, GitOps principles, source control management, and automated testing frameworks.
Experience partnering with cloud architecture, DevOps, and engineering teams to establish platform capabilities and operational standards.
Experience with SRE concepts, SLOs, SLIs, and reliability engineering practices.
Knowledge of security architecture principles, identity and access management, secrets management, vulnerability management, and secure-by-design practices.
Strong understanding of enterprise integration patterns, APIs, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems.
Ability to assess technical risks, identify architectural gaps, and develop scalable remediation strategies.
Proficiency in documenting complex technical solutions and communicating architecture decisions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience in platform engineering, cloud architecture, SRE, or infrastructure engineering.
Experience with Terraform, Bicep, Ansible, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar technologies.
Experience implementing Site Reliability Engineering practices.
Experience supporting enterprise-scale platform engineering initiatives.
Azure certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert or equivalent.
Experience leading architecture reviews and technology modernization efforts.
Degree in Information Management, Computer Science, or a related field.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the enterprise platform architecture roadmap.
Design scalable, resilient, and secure cloud-based infrastructure solutions.
Establish architectural standards, patterns, and governance models for platform services.
Provide technical leadership on platform modernization initiatives.
Design and optimize Azure-based platform services and infrastructure.
Lead adoption of cloud-native architectures and services.
Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend platform improvements.
Drive infrastructure scalability, observability, resiliency, and cost optimization efforts.
Develop and promote Infrastructure as Code and automation frameworks.
Define and enhance CI/CD pipeline architectures and deployment strategies.
Implement automation solutions that improve operational efficiency and developer experience.
Promote DevOps best practices across engineering teams.
Establish reliability, monitoring, logging, and observability standards.
Partner with operations teams to improve service availability and incident response capabilities.
Support disaster recovery, business continuity, and resiliency planning.
Drive operational maturity through SRE principles and automation.
Collaborate with engineering, security, architecture, and infrastructure teams.
Mentor engineers and architects on platform engineering best practices.
Translate complex technical concepts into business-focused recommendations.
Influence strategic technology decisions across the organization.