Cloud Architect (GCP)

Job Description

Job Title: Senior GCP Cloud Operations / Architect – Infrastructure Team Experience: 10 to 12 years of experience in cloud infrastructure architecture, operations, and engineering, with a strong focus on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Job Summary: We are seeking a highly experienced Senior GCP Cloud Operations/Architect to join our infrastructure team. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in designing, implementing, and managing scalable, secure, and highly available cloud infrastructure solutions on GCP. This role combines strategic architectural leadership with hands-on operational excellence to support enterprise cloud adoption, infrastructure modernization, and continuous improvement of cloud operations. Key Responsibilities: Lead the design and implementation of cloud infrastructure architectures on Google Cloud Platform, including IaaS, PaaS, networking, security, and data services. Develop and maintain enterprise cloud landing zones, governance frameworks, and automation standards. Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior architects and engineers within the infrastructure team. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand business requirements and translate them into scalable cloud solutions. Drive cloud infrastructure modernization strategies and present architectural plans to senior management and C-level executives. Automate infrastructure provisioning using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform, and integrate with CI/CD pipelines. Manage cloud operations, including monitoring, incident response, root cause analysis, and continuous service improvement. Implement cloud security best practices including Identity and Access Management (IAM), network segmentation, encryption, and compliance controls. Optimize cloud costs through FinOps strategies and cost management tools. Lead large-scale migrations and cloud adoption initiatives, ensuring high availability, redundancy, failover, and disaster recovery. Serve as a subject matter expert and escalation point for complex production issues. Develop and update technical documentation, runbooks, and knowledge base articles. Ensure adherence to ITIL4 change management and operational best practices. Required Skills and Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience). 10+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure architecture and operations, with at least 7 years focused on Google Cloud Platform. Google Cloud Certified – Professional Cloud Architect or equivalent certification strongly preferred. Expertise in GCP core services: Compute Engine, Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud SQL, Cloud Storage, Networking (VPC, Load Balancing, CDN, Interconnect), Security, and Monitoring (Stackdriver/Cloud Operations Suite). Strong experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), CI/CD pipelines, and automation tools. Proven experience in cloud cost management and FinOps practices. Deep understanding of cloud security principles, IAM, network security, and compliance. Hands-on experience with containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes. Experience with multi-region, highly available, and scalable cloud architectures. Excellent problem-solving skills and experience with root cause analysis and incident management. Strong communication skills with experience presenting to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Ability to lead enterprise-wide cloud initiatives and drive organizational change. Required Skill: Experience with AI/ML data platforms on GCP such as BigQuery. Familiarity with Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban). Experience working in a Cloud Center of Excellence (CoE) or similar cloud governance team. Knowledge of hybrid cloud and multi-cloud architectures. Experience with Azure DevOps or other DevOps toolchains.