Cloud Architect (DV Security Cleared)

The Cloud Architect is responsible for analysing existing on-premise systems and designing, planning, and supporting their migration into a secure, scalable, and cloud-native environment. The role focuses on modernising architectures, leveraging managed services, and ensuring migrations deliver measurable business and technical benefits, while working closely with technical stakeholders across multiple teams.

Key Responsibilities

Discovery & Analysis

• Analyse existing on-premise infrastructure, applications, and integrations, including compute, storage, networking, security, and operational processes.
• Classify workloads using recognised migration strategies (e.g. 6Rs: Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Retire, Retain, Replace).
• Capture non-functional requirements including availability, performance, security, compliance, and cost considerations.

Cloud Architecture & Design

• Design target-state architectures aligned with cloud-native best practices.
• Define architectures leveraging AWS services such as: Compute, Networking, Storage & Data, Security, and Observability.
• Produce clear architecture artefacts including diagrams, ADRs, migration runbooks, and landing zone designs.

Migration Planning & Execution

• Create and maintain migration plans and roadmaps, including sequencing, dependencies, risks, and rollback strategies.
• Support or lead migration activities including environment build, application migration, data migration, and cutover support.
• Ensure cloud environments are secure, resilient, scalable, and cost-optimised.

Technical Stakeholder Collaboration

• Work closely with technical stakeholders, including application owners, infrastructure engineers, DevOps teams, security specialists, and architects, to understand current systems and future requirements.
• Clearly communicate architectural decisions, trade‑offs, risks, and assumptions, ensuring stakeholder buy‑in and alignment.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Strong experience with on-premise infrastructure (VMware, physical servers, networking, storage).
• Proven experience designing and delivering cloud architectures.
• Deep understanding of core cloud services, networking, and security.
• Experience working closely with technical stakeholders across multiple disciplines.
• Strong communication skills, able to explain complex technical concepts clearly.

Desirable

• Experience with containerisation and orchestration platforms (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes, or equivalent technologies).
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using industry‑standard tools (e.g. Terraform, ARM, Bicep, Pulumi, or similar).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps tooling, supporting automated build, test, and deployment workflows.
• Relevant cloud or platform certifications (e.g. cloud architecture, DevOps, or infrastructure certifications from recognised providers).