Senior Architect - Cloud

JOB SUMMARY

This role is responsible for designing, developing, implementing, supporting, and optimizing complex cloud architecture strategies to align with business needs and capabilities. The Cloud Architect ensures comprehensive architectural solutions that address stakeholder concerns.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and participate in Architecture Review Board processes, providing expert guidance on cloud-based solutions and services (GCP, Azure, AWS).
• Provide strategic consultation to business partners, assisting in the design of business processes and organizational structures leveraging cloud solutions. Research and promote enabling technologies based on client requirements.
• Design and specify complex cloud-based systems, solutions, networks, and infrastructure. Ensure optimal technology selection, resource utilization, and seamless integration.
• Utilize modeling tools to develop complex architectures. Create detailed component requirements and specifications for implementation. Provide technical guidance on system development and integration.
• Analyze the operational environment of cloud-based systems. Identify and implement improvement programs to enhance quality and business benefits.
• Resolve complex architectural and business challenges, serving as a technical lead for critical cloud initiatives.
• Communicate effectively across all organizational levels. Manage expectations of stakeholders, participate in walkthroughs, and contribute to problem resolution and decision-making.
• Collaborate with various departments, interpreting complex requirements for colleagues.
• Provide leadership and mentorship in cloud architecture to peers, developers, management, and business users through expertise, coaching, and training.
• other duties as assigned or requested

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Take a lead role to provide strategic consultation to business customers in defining or designing more complex business processes, functions and organizational structures, as well as in researching, identifying and internally marketing enabling technologies based on customer capability requirements. Facilitate development of more complex enterprise business solutions that combine knowledge of particular business processes and issues, general technological options, and process facilitation techniques. Participate in more complex enterprise strategy development, including environmental analysis, opportunity identification, value cases and business innovation portfolio development.
• Take a lead role to specify and design large or more complex systems, solutions, networks, infrastructure elements, or processes. Select appropriate design standards, methods and tools and ensure that they are applied effectively. Review others’ system design to ensure selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology. Establish policy for selection of more complex architecture components. Evaluate and undertake impact analysis on more complex major design options. Ensure that the system architecture balances functional, service quality and systems management requirements.
• Use appropriate tools, including models of components and interfaces, to contribute to the development of more complex architectures. Take a lead role to produce detailed component requirements, specifications and translates these into detailed solutions/designs for implementation using selected products. Provide advice on technical aspects of system development, integration (including requests for changes, deviations from specifications, etc.) and processes.  Ensure that relevant technical and business strategies, policies, standards and practices are applied correctly.
• Select and use more complex tools and methods to establish, clarify, and communicate the functional and non-functional requirements of system users, their characteristics, and tasks.  Take a lead role to identify the technical, organizational, and physical environment in which more complex products or systems will operate. Identify, propose, initiate, and lead significant improvement programs, taking responsibility for the quality and appropriateness of the work performed and the realization of measurable business benefits. Modify existing process improvement approaches and/or develop new approaches to achieve improvement.
• Take a lead role to ensure the resolution of a variety of more complex architecture and business problems and serve as a technical or business lead for highly complex project initiatives.
• Communicate effectively will all levels of organization.
• Manage expectations of customers, partners  and management.
• Participate in customer walkthroughs and plans; design and technical walkthroughs; and problem resolution and decision making.
• Interact with departments across the organization as necessary, including the development and interpretation of highly complex requirements for peers and other staff.
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of specific technical aspects in area of expertise and provides expert advice regarding their application.  The area of specific expertise may be any aspect of information or communication technology, technique, method, process, product, or application area of a more complex nature.
• Take a lead role in providing leadership and mentoring in the areas of expertise and architecture to their peers, developers, management and business users including technical expertise, coaching, and ad-hoc training by: preparing presentations on more complex issues on the area of expertise and presenting to their peers to ensure consistency to the Organization's strategic direction.
• Other duties as assigned or requested.

EDUCATION

Required

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or closely related discipline

Substitutions

• None

Preferred

• None

EXPERIENCE

Required

• 5 years in an IT discipline
• 5 years in a Business discipline

Preferred

• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing solutions on major cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure).
• 3+ years of experience with cloud-native technologies (Kubernetes, serverless computing).
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager).
• Experience with designing and implementing data lakes, data warehouses and other data storage technologies in the cloud.
• Experience automating cloud infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
• Experience participating in or leading architecture review boards.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience with cloud governance and security best practices.

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS

Required

• None

Preferred

• Certifications on one or more major cloud platforms are a plus (e.g., Google Cloud Architect, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert).

SKILLS (An Architect is not required to have experience in all of these, but is required to have those needed to support applications they are responsible for supporting. Current skill set are reviewed every other year, new skills may be required to meet changing business needs.)

• IMS
• DB2
• Oracle and Teradata Databases
• Data Warehousing
• COBAL
• Visual Basic
• C
• C++
• SAS
• Java/JavaScript Framework
• PEGA
• CSS3
• Mobile
• JSON
• Cognos
• Hadoop
• SQL
• J2EE
• HTML5/XML
• Waterfall
• Agile

Language (other than English)

None

Travel Requirement

0% -25%

PHYSICAL, MENTAL DEMANDS and WORKING CONDITIONS

Position Type

Office-Based

Teaches / trains others regularly

Frequently

Travel regularly from the office to various work sites or from site-to-site

Does Not Apply

Works primarily out-of-the office selling products/services (sales employees)

Never

Physical work site required 

Yes

Lifting: up to 10 pounds

Constantly

Lifting: 10 to 25 pounds

Rarely

Lifting: 25 to 50 pounds

Rarely

Disclaimer: The job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and essential duties and responsibilities of work performed by employees within this job title. It may not contain a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees to do this job.

Compliance Requirement: This position adheres to the ethical and legal standards and behavioral expectations as set forth in the code of business conduct and company policies.

As a component of job responsibilities, employees may have access to covered information, cardholder data, or other confidential customer information that must be protected at all times. In connection with this, all employees must comply with both the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) as described in the Notice of Privacy Practices and Privacy Policies and Procedures as well as all data security guidelines established within the Company’s Handbook of Privacy Policies and Practices and Information Security Policy.

Furthermore, it is every employee’s responsibility to comply with the company’s Code of Business Conduct. This includes but is not limited to adherence to applicable federal and state laws, rules, and regulations as well as company policies and training requirements. 

Pay Range Minimum:

Pay Range Maximum:

Base pay is determined by a variety of factors including a candidate’s qualifications, experience, and expected contributions, as well as internal peer equity, market, and business considerations.  The displayed salary range does not reflect any geographic differential Highmark may apply for certain locations based upon comparative markets.

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