Cloud Solutions Architect
Google Cloud Platform - Architecture, Security & Migration Engagement: Contract, anticipated start 11/23/2026 through 8/13/2027
Commitment: Part time, approximately 20 hours per week
Work Arrangement: On-site
Job Description
We are seeking a Cloud Solutions Architect to design, secure, and optimize cloud solutions with a primary focus on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), including legacy-to-cloud migrations, while providing technical leadership to development and operations teams.
Minimum Mandatory Requirements
- 7+ years of experience in IT, including 3+ years in cloud architecture, DevOps, or a similar technical leadership role
- GCP, AWS, or Azure certification
- Infrastructure as Code experience
- Experience working in a cloud environment for a public-sector organization
Key Responsibilities
- Design and develop cloud solutions that meet business and technical requirements (primary focus on GCP; AWS and Azure also relevant)
- Collaborate with stakeholders, business product owners, and DevOps teams to gather requirements and translate them into architectural designs and technical roadmaps
- Provide technical leadership and guidance on cloud best practices, application hosting, and distributed architecture
- Create and maintain architectural documentation, including diagrams, integration processes, and specifications
- Ensure solutions are secure, compliant, and optimized for performance, reliability, and scalability
- Architect and maintain cloud database systems, BigQuery data pipelines, and public/private APIs to support application integration and legacy-to-cloud migrations
- Evaluate and recommend new cloud technologies, tools, and services (containers, Kubernetes/GKE, BI analytics)
- Conduct regular reviews of cloud environments to identify improvements and cost optimization opportunities
- Support disaster recovery planning and backup strategies, and ensure high availability of critical systems
- Stay current on emerging cloud technologies and industry trends to inform architectural strategy
Required Technical Skills
- In-depth knowledge of cloud platforms and services (demonstrated GCP expertise or another major public cloud provider)
- Scalable, distributed systems and microservices architecture
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, OpenTofu, Ansible, CloudFormation, or Pulumi)
- Networking (VPC, hybrid connectivity), security protocols, and IAM in cloud environments
- Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes/GKE)
- AI-assisted developer tools and workflows for infrastructure provisioning, code maintenance, and automated testing
- Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting ability, with effective communication and leadership skills
- Experience working in a cloud environment for a government, higher education, or other public-sector organization
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent experience, where one year of higher education substitutes for one year of experience)
- Certifications such as Google Professional Cloud Architect, Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, or Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect
- Experience with DevSecOps practices, CI/CD workflows (GitHub Actions), and database administration and migrations (PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, BigQuery)
- Familiarity with security frameworks such as NIST, CIS Benchmarks, or ISO/IEC 27001